How do we learn?

For my principles and practices of learning class, we had to read an article about two metaphors that are applied to the process of learning. One is the acquisition metaphor where it is believed that people acquire knowledge and that knowledge is something that can be obtained. The other metaphor is the participation metaphor which explains that learning is more of a constructive process and that the learner has more of a role in building what they learn. The article makes the point that we cannot view learning in just one of these ways and that it truly is a combination of both. I feel like for most of my life, I experienced learning as an acquisition of knowledge, but I think this left me without understanding the true significance and value of what I learned and I also forgot a lot of what I learned throughout my schooling. Now that I am in a position where I go to class and learn about things that are pertinent to the job I do everyday, I think I am getting a little bit better at bringing myself into the learning and making it more about my own personal journey of learning. It's not just about collecting little bits of knowledge in order to have them, rather it's about incorporating those bits and changing yourself as a result of possessing them.

I have spent quite a bit of time doing homework this weekend and I am starting to get back in the groove of having school on top of work. I don't think I have ever felt this challenged before, but being in a doctoral program kind of takes it to a whole new level of rigor. I have met some great people in my new cohort and reconnected with some wonderful people that I "know" from last year.

Again, I feel like my posts here have been different lately...more of just a report on what I have been up to instead of really focused on teaching and what I am doing in the classroom. I have seen that not as many people are reading and commenting, so if you have something in mind that you would like to see more of, please let me know! I would love to connect you all to my classroom blog, yet I hesitate because I need to protect the privacy of my students. I would like to start including more posts about what we are doing in the classroom and possibly some examples of student work so stay tuned and bear with me as I usually don't feel this busy! I have something going on everyday after school this week and that makes me feel stressed. I am starting to crave pilates and yoga in the afternoons/evenings as a way to relax!

What do you do to relieve stress?