Thing #2

First, I must begin by telling how happy I was to start this thing because of the intro about 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. As most of you might agree, Covey is a wonderful man with some great insight into how to be a more effective person. If you have never had the chance to go through the training, you should look into it. I was able to take it for free while in college because I was considered a "student leader." Basically I just got over involved in way too many things and it took me longer than necessary to graduate, but that is beside the point. My real tangent is that my life became a lot less complicated when I stopped worrying about things that I couldn't control or change. I don't remember the exact words, but I know it has something do with a person's "circle of influence." There has been many times that because of my 7 Habits training I was able to take a deep breath and walk away from a situation that I knew I could not do anything about. While I know I have not completely mastered this concept much less the rest of the Habits, thinking about my actual "circle of influence" has definitely helped me.

Now back to the actual assignment... After watching the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners, I have decided a couple of things. First, maybe because of my background in psychology and sociology as well as my personal insecurities watching/reading or participating in cheesy self-help things makes my tummy churn. Second, this is my ultimate weakness because while I know they might be helpful, I basically have to seclude myself in a cave to have the confidence to watch something like this... and laugh out loud at the corny photos and silliness of the self-help propaganda. This goes for the training above as well. It was not a cake-walk to sit through 7 Habits either.

With that being said, I could only narrow down to 2 easy habits for me. The first one would be "Accept responsibility for your own learning." Anyone who knows me knows that while you may want me to learn one thing, if I don't find it interesting, I won't be able to learn it, but may go off on my own learning tangent. While I may not be accepting responsibility for things I should be learning, I definitely accept responsibility for learning things that the average person would never really give a second thought. Among my favorite tangents (in no particular order) are anything involved with people relations, penguins, Christianity and other religions, women and society (work, school, marriage, dating, the suffrage, politics, religion, etc.) dancing, theater and art history, and photography. I also really enjoy finding out how and why things are the way they are... and you may hear me giggle if I were walking through a mall or other public place because I have a funny habit of making up my own stories of how things came to be. The problem with my ability to do this is that if any of the above might be mentioned... I have probably refocused my learning receptors to the new topic.

The second habit is "Teach/Mentor others." Helllllloooooo... I am a teacher and it's not because I like summers off. I want my students to know and understand all the weird things I do because I'm hoping that something I say will pique their interest. I love that my students can talk to me about anything science as well as show off their art talents, invite me to a game or a play, let me in on the latest student news, or just tell me how excited they were to do a new trick on their BMX. They know that my interests are varied and it helps me build a relationship with each one. I love to use humor and let them know that I am a real person with a life just like them and that everyone has struggles and successes. The most exhilarating feeling comes over me when I see a lightbulb turn on so much so that I have been know to jump and cheer in class. Not as flamboyantly as Ron Clark, but perhaps one day...

Now, the one habit that is the hardest for me is "Begin with the end in mind." I noticed this was the easiest one for so many other people but for me it just isn't. I don't like making a goal because I feel it will change every few minutes or days and that I will spend so much time revising the goal that I won't ever accomplish anything. I do have a list of things I would like to do, but you could probably equate it to a "bucket list." Things that would be fun and good for me to learn or do but mostly will not be life altering. I just like to go with the flow. Right now as I work on my certification for teaching, I am of course planning on the end result being a certificate but not everything I am doing is just for that goal. I go to conferences, trainings and talk to my mentors so that I can be a great teacher for years to come, not just while I am trying to obtain my certificate. Where ever this journey chooses to take me, I will go with it. I would like to keep it that way and so while this habit is the hardest, maybe it is that way only because it is the one I don't foresee myself doing anytime soon.