Thing #1

I guess I never really thought about it, but I would have to say that I am a lifelong learner. I am a very curious person and enjoy learning about new things. After listening to the 7 1/2 habits I picked habits 6 and 7 as strengths, and habits 1 and 4 as weaknesses.

I feel that I am good at teaching and mentoring others. Even though I am a first year teacher, I still enjoy being able to help others when I can. As a teacher it is my job to teach children, but I also enjoy teaching colleagues. Before I was a teacher I was in a position where I had to teach and mentor people daily. I really enjoyed it and I still do. I think this has always been one of my strengths. I also feel I am good at habit 6, using technology to my advantage. I am constantly on the internet trying to find better ways to teach something. I am also good at incorporating technology into my lessons. I also use the internet to research things in my personal life. Technology is a wonderful tool and I love using it.

I feel that habit 1, begin with the end in mind is a weakness of mine. A lot of times I do not think of the big picture and what I want the outcome to be. I do not think about a specific goal and create things specifically to carry out that goal. However, I hope to eventually be able to do it. I also think that habit 4, having confidence in myself is a weakness. I am very hard on myself and tend to over think things. A lot of times I do not trust my decisions and instincts. I need to remember what they said on the presentation "don't say it or think it unless you want it to be true." I will try my best to live by that.

I would like to learn about the many different web 2.0 tools that are out there and how they apply to teaching. I feel a lot of the time sites are too hard for lower elementary. Therefore, I am hoping to find some web 2.0 tools that are designed with the younger grades in mind. I found it very easy to create a blog and post on it. So far I have mixed feelings. I am a little overwhelmed. Hopefully, that will change as I continue to work on this.