Day 2, Immersion Reflections

Today was primarily about learning styles. I gotta say I love this kinda stuff too! I found out I am an Accomodater (the names don't really match the styles). The characteristics of an accomodater are:
getting things done (I just read a book with this title...that was the first give away)
Leading
Taking Risks
Initiating
being adaptable
being practical

What's more important than your own style (in this context anyway) is that you are familiar with the other styles and begin thinking about teaching to those other styles. It's natural that we teach to our own styles, but we need to keep in mind that others may not learn the way we do. So, the next natural step is to teach to all the styles, right? Harder than it sounds my friends! We did do a few exercises where we tried to stretch our activities to fit other styles, but it's challenging to fit all 4 into one activity. The important part to me here is awareness. I think it's half the battle. When your aware that other styles are out there and what works for them, you'll find ways to accommodate them, one by one.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the broken method. This was an exercise where we were in small groups and were given an instructional technique of some kind and had to identify how to fix it. Everyone reported out on their technique and as a group we resoundingly confirmed that "It sucks!". Next we went back to the group and outlined ways to make that tool better. My group had orientations so the Open House got some shout outs (from me). Lastly we regrouped and discussed how we knew our assigned method was broken. Basically coming back to outcomes, feedback, assessment, and personal experiences.

My day concluded with dinner with an old college friend I hadn't seen in 10 years. It was a great mini-reunion and totally made my day!