About me

Who I Am-My Journey

     I have a master of arts in theatre from Miami University. I teach at a charter public school that
 specializes in theatre and film. One of the classes I teach in the International Baccalaureate program is Theory of Knowledge, which is an introduction to epistomology. While I enjoy most areas of communication studies I have a particular interest in structuralist theory both for theatre and communication.

 My Philosophy of Learning

     I knew inherently as a child that I learned differently than other children. While somethings came easy to me, I struggled mightily with others. From an early age I was aware of trying to figure out how to learn. Some of the learning motivators in my life have been people, one is a setting.  Many of my motivators have been external but there are some deeply internal aspects aspects. Each of these motivators is still in effect and has an impact on my current learning at Marist College and in life.

Daily Learning 
      My mother was always insisting that I learn. When I did not know a word it always meant a trip to the Webster’s College Edition Dictionary. Every single day my mother read the newspaper front to back and it set an example for me that daily reading was something that was was a daily habit. It was a powerful example to me.  “Parental beliefs about literacy influence their own behaviors in how they help their children learn to read and write (Carroll, 2013, p. 45).

Repetitive Learning 
      In fifth grade I could not dribble a basketball. That was a problem because one of my grades depended on it. Daddy bought me a basketball and I practiced every day after school. It was pretty ugly at first, but eventually I could control where the ball went. It was a slow process and the time it took to get where I could dribble taught me a valuable lesson that sometimes progress is slow and not always visually appealing in the process.  “…practice can set in motion neural processes that continue to evolve many hours after practice has ended” (Karni, et al., 1998, p. 867).

Attendance Matters

     I was not a good student in high school. Sugar Bear, my high school history teacher, taught like high school like a college class, making us write papers, honing them till they got better.  Under his quality teaching I discovered I could learn well when concepts were repeated. If I were to repeat high school and my undergraduate work I would give a damn. Mostly I didn’t. I should have done more homework. I should have attended more classes. These were skills that I really only learned later as a graduate student and when I saw their power to affect my grades I was stunned. Because of those lessons borne from experience I do not shirk attending when I am involved in a class or group. I make a point of turning in work, even of poor quality, rather than nothing, because I have learned that any grade is better than a zero.

Context Matters             
      I grew up in a small town and saw the difference in people that went to college and didn’t. There was an ease to life of people who had gone to college. They were relaxed in a way that the factory workers and people who worked with their hands were not.  Beegle states “Today, as in the past education continues to be… the best escape route from a life of poverty “(Beegle, 2003, p. 11).  No one had to teach me the principle that education was important, it was self-evident in my hometown from the homes in which people lived and how people lived their lives.

      As a teacher and a learner I am also aware I am an adult and need to try not to make the same mistakes I see in my students: not reviewing material, complaining instead of trying, not being open to something different.  As an adult learner I am also conscious of being a continual learner.  How do I know what is worth learning? At this stage in life I learn what interests me at the moment.  Learning sets an example that speaks louder than my words with students. The value of saying to my students “I have homework also” is unquantifiable. Suddenly they understand that I “get” what they are going through.
     Part of my philosophy is to learn in small chunks. I need to see what is being done, then I need time for me to do it, then I can build on those concepts.  I am a visual, active, and reflective learner (Felder & Silverman, 1998, p. 675) so at work I can say, “Would you please not just show that to me on the computer? Could I sit here and do it myself and try typing it in as you tell me what to do, and then would you stand there while I do it once on my own?” And if I can touch it, experience it and do it in small chunks, then I own it.
     My best learning experiences are always when I feel I am getting individual attention and practicing what I learn as I go, my early dictionary training from my mother contributes heavily to this learning style. Using what I am being taught is crucial to my retaining information. My worst learning experiences are when the teacher moves quickly and I lose out on important concepts at the start. Even if I manage to catch up I still feel unsettled all the way through. 
      I will manage my learning at Marist carefully and with priority. I have a busy life.  My daughter is on chemo, my dog died Monday, and I teach high school students with varied needs. Stress and I meet on a daily basis. I am dropping the few pleasurable activities out of my life to be able to attend Marist.  I will be systematic.  Much of the writing for this paper was done at 5 in the morning before I leave for school.  I will start assignments on time because I don’t know what the rest of the week holds and I will submit assignments early sometimes rather than risk that they not make it in at all. I will eat dinner as I am working. I will work learning into my life where there are some spaces and I will force it into other places where I need to make room for it.

Conclusion

     Not all of my assignments will be perfect but they will be submitted and sometimes that will have to be good enough. My learning motivators will affect my Master’s degree program at Marist. Just like using a dictionary when I did not know a word, I will figure out my classes as I go along and increase my learning in small bite size portions. Just like when I learned to dribble a basketball, each time I take a class I will make improvement, and slowly I will become the master of multiple concepts. The concrete steps to success for me are doing one assignment at a time and one class at a time and trying not to think ahead to the next class. I need to focus on what needs done that week and the week after. If I focus on the small steps I will make progress.  If I take enough small steps I will succeed.  As I progress learning will make me strong and give me choices over my employment for the next 10 years, just as education did for the people in small, southern town in which I first discovered its power.

References

Beegle, D. M. (2003) Overcoming the silence of generational poverty. Talking Points 15(1)          October/November

Carroll, C. J. (2013). The effects of parental literacy involvement and child reading interest on the      development of emergent literacy skills.  Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin. Theses  and         Dissertations.  Paper 230

Felder, R. M. & Silverman L. K. (1988). Learning styles and teaching styles in engineering education. Engineering Education. 78(7), 674-681.

  

Karni, A. Meyer, G. Rey-Hipolito, C. Jezzard, P. Adams, M.M. Turner, R. &  Ungerleider, L. G. (1998). “The acquisition of skilled motor performance: Fast and slow experience-driven changes in    primary motor cortex” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of America 95(3)                 February, 861-868.