Unit #1: Myself as a learner

1. What do you know about yourself as a learner? 

    When I took the quiz I found it interesting that I was deemed an auditory learner, I always felt I learned best by "doing," but I also know that I retain a new process or any information really when I am told why it is important, what it does or represents and so on. I am very good at listening, and I am always aware of the conversations around me, I always attributed that to my ADHD and my lack of focus, 5 thoughts all at once, but honestly it makes great sense! My ears are always on alert and I love talking through things I don't understand. 

2. What has impacted your life as a learner?

    I definitely know that my hypersensitivity to my environment and noises around me has made it hard to focus often, many times I find myself reading a passage in a text and realize that I'm actually thinking about that one time I totally embarrassed myself in middle school, what I'm going to make for dinner, what needs to be cleaned at home and what my kids are doing, meanwhile not retaining anything I'm reading. Now that we are doing classes online I am coming to realize that the in person communication, and conversation is pretty vital to me, reading the discussion posts and various online components is much more difficult for me than when we do small group discussions in class. 

    I would say the biggest impact on my past learning though was the fact that I moved pretty constantly, almost every year, and when I was younger I feel that it stunted those opportunities for discussion because I was always the new kid and felt it hard to express myself with people I didn't know. Not to mention the gaps in my education due to border hopping and inconsistency. 

3. How will you overcome the challenges that you face as a learner? 

    I feel as though I have a pretty decent grasp on some great techniques, I do speak up and join conversations, I ask the questions I may have been too shy to ask when I was younger, and I reach out for help when necessary. As for the ADHD I am aware of it now, I just assumed that was how everyone thought, and I am on medication which seems to help quite a bit. I would say the biggest challenges I face now are organization and procrastination, but those are life problems and not just learning ones. As far as those problems go, it's really still a work in progress, but with each quarter here at Eastern, I feel as if I'm improving, and I am just fine with slow and steady!