Your Instructor’s Own Struggle with Learning

 

Some of you may want to know something about your instructor and learning. Humans don’t get all gifts, and I really had to work harder than other students even in elementary school. Anyone taking my on-campus classes knows that I can’t spell and that I transpose letters a lot. I could go on listing other problems, but my solution was great persistence and collecting any good solution for my problems that I was lucky enough to see. I used them and use them still.

 

One that helped me greatly came from my World History teacher in a community college. Her tips helped me with reading well in less time and they helped me begin to appreciate United States History more because I could read it better. I focused on being a teacher in a community college because community college teachers made a great difference in my life and I’m willing to pass on that gift. My graduate program and doctorate included not only history, but studies of how people learn. I collected more solutions and I use them still.

 

To finish my doctorate, I had to take a job in industry. The fields I worked in were about learning rapidly, the people on my teams were learners with different approaches (especially a team of cartographers with geographic information software), and the companies I worked for paid for me to attend quite amazing programs on learning. I learned from the teams I worked with and the problems we solved, I collected more solutions, and I and my teams used those solutions very successfully.

 

So, if you already have mastered these basic but essential Good Habits for Evidence, I’m happy for you--and that also makes my work easier.
If you have not and you too could say you feel like you had to work harder than other students, then I can understand. I know that having to work very hard happens to people who are smart.

 

Being smart is, however, never enough to learn all we have to learn to survive. Instead, it is how we work—our habits—with our smarts that determines our success.

 

Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2014

 

 

WCJC Department:

History – Dr. Bibus

Contact Information:

281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu

Last Updated:

2014

WCJC Home:

http://www.wcjc.edu/