I often see life long learners and notice that they have very specific characteristics that I admire and strive to immolate. I love to surround myself with successful people and successful people are usually life long learners.
These are some of the attributes of a life long learner that I discovered through personal observations and research:
1. Being independent, not dependent on others to achieve your dreams. Your dreams are your dreams and without you, your dreams cannot be achieved. Live your life, not the life someone else created.
2. Being proactive. Proactive people make the best out of every situation. They do not let nay-sayers and doubters slow them down. They do not let others control their destiny or their mood. They use difficult situations to build their character and learn how to handle future situations.
3. Having a goal. LLL's know what the plan is. They know their personal goal and strive to achieve it.
4. LLL's see the good in all situations. They do not try to beat others but actually want the best for everyone around them. Is it good for me, is it good for you, is it good for us? With this kind of thinking, everyone can be happy and feel successful learning.
Here are some things that I do to help me be more like an Life Long Learner:
1. At the start of the year, I take steps to learn about the prior knowledge and skills of my students in the classroom.
2. I determine the competencies that my kids need for each activity.
3. I reflect on myself and seek to gain new knowledge, especially in technology.
Being a life long learner, I have created a learning contract for myself so that I can remain on target and check on myself to make sure I am accomplishing the things that I want to do in life.
