Can you puzzle? As I was watching and listening to the Voicethread on 7 1/2 Habits of Effective Lifelong Learners there were a few of the habits that truly resonated with me to the point that I found myself nodding in agreement. It was a nice self-affirmation as well to see a few habits that I could readily identify with. However, the one that brought a smile to my face was Habit 7 1/2 : Play.

In my field, this is the most favorite part of my job, but the one I have the least amount of time to do. I love playing with new technologies and figuring out how they work. That element of discovery makes me feel like a kid with a new toy. When my co-workers find me hunched over my keyboard with my eyes glued to the screen, they know I’ve become engrossed in a new tool that they’ll likely hear about soon.

Another that resonated with me was Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox. Every day, in my field, seems to be a learning experience and I constantly find myself digging into my toolbox to find answers to issues that I encounter or to questions a teacher might email to me. My toolbox is comprised of a variety of sources from my social bookmarking community to my colleagues that I lean on in my other social networks.

Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner. This particular habit will be my “challenge”. I struggle with having confidence in myself at times when it comes to redelivering or sharing the knowledge that I have acquired. I tend to second guess myself and wonder if I truly have a solid grasp on a concept or tool when it comes time to teaching it. This is an aspect of myself as learner that I will need to work on so that I can have more confidence in myself as a presenter.

Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind, will be the most important for me as I work through this course because it is my plan to redeliver this in my district. For me, I not only look at this course as a learner, but I will also be wearing my professional development “hat” to analyze the course, how I can implement it in my district, what do I need to add, change, edit, embellish? It will be important for me to think of my teachers and how they might approach this course so I can ensure it is manageable and meaningful for our school system. Luckily, I have found that a couple of the teacher in my district are already taking this course, so I plan on getting feedback from them as we go along.

Image Credit: I’m Your Pusher on Flickr