EDUC 303 Reflective Journal 1

1.  What do you know about yourself as a learner?
2.  What has  impacted your life as a learner?
3.  What score category did you get on your mindset quiz?
4.  What is the connection between your mindset and your experience as a learner?
5.  What steps are you taking to grow your mindset and become the learner that you hope your students will one day be?
                                                      Myself as a Learner
When it comes to my ability to learn I've found that I learn very well in topics that interest me. However, when I'm coerced into learning topics I don't have personal investment in I tend to have a harder time getting into it. I love learning about literature, and how I can become an effective teacher, and other things. Above all, I can't stand math. Thank goodness this is an education course then eh? 
My life as a learner has been greatly impacted by my mentors. I have had some super amazing mentors throughout the years who encouraged me to push myself further, and complimented my efforts. I've had teachers who were the opposite as well, but few tend to lean this direction. I've also read a few things over the years that changed the way I see the world. Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, and John Milton are a few writers who've impacted me a lot and I consider them to be mentors in a way. 
The mindset quiz gave me a 20 out of 30, which means I'm primarily in a good position for the growth mindset but there are a few methods I'm firmly set in. Of course, this is a pretty realistic assessment and I believe everybody has some things they rely on until proven unworthy of that trust. I'm always willing to re-analyze my foundations but I still need foundations. If anything, it's for the sake of efficiency. I can't question everything I know every second of the day or I'll never get anything done. 
The connection between my mindset and my experience as a learner is pretty straight forward. I'm firmly set in things I find reliable based on experience, and I'm open to new ideas because I've come to realize that most things are rarely what they seem to be. Hence, there's always room for new factors to change the outcome of any ultimate analytical equation. It's just how I see the world. None of us are capable of seeing the entire picture so we all must remain open to outside influence. 
In order to grow my mindset as a learner I simply try to never stop learning. There's tons of stuff out there to learn. A seemingly never-ending amount actually. So as long as I'm always learning I'm therefor progressing. Attending school is the primary catalyst for this progression, but I also listen to audio books in my free time and keep my eyes open for new interesting things. You never know when you'll learn something cool. Keeping positive and optimistic really helps as well. 

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