Brandon's Brainwork- Lifelong Learning

Lifelong Learning
I heard this quote recently, "Human beings are not static people, we are constantly moving.  Either you are moving forward or you are moving backward".  I'm not sure where this quote came from, but it really made me think and eventually put something into writing!  Teaching is a craft.  Like any craft, there is always something more to be learned.  Even the best teacher can learn something new and/or get better at their job.

Sometimes this learning is self-directed, driven by choice.  Whereas, other times learning is forced upon us, either by state mandates, school administration, or a number of outside forces.  Either way, with the right mindset (see Brandon's Brainwork - Mindset) something new will be learned.  Even going into a training on something you already know, with the right mindset, will lead to learning something new, even one thing.

We want our students to become life-long learners, and we should do our best to model what it is we expect of our students.  Continue to get better.  Don't be afraid to make mistakes.  Mistakes are a part of the learning process.  You don't expect your students to be perfect 100% of the time when learning new things, why should you expect any more/less from yourself.

A quick search on Google for "Becoming a lifelong learner" yields 217,000 results.  I know it's not fully researched based, but WikiHow has a great quick read on becoming a lifelong learner and offers some very good advice.  Becoming a Lifelong Learner from WikiHow.

You can always start your new lifelong learning journey by attending one of your teachers associations conferences.  A list can be found in the update this week.

Questions to Consider
1. Have you embraced the role of lifelong learner in your craft?
2. Do you reinforce lifelong learning in your classroom?
3. Do you go into all new learning experiences with the right mindset?