Self Reflective Essay: Eye Opening Experience

This was a really eye opening experience. The inventory got me thinking about many different aspects and how I learn and approach different problems and situations. The implication is that the different selfs (physical, emotional, social, critical, creative, and passionate) affect how you learn. In some situations you might be more confident in yourself than others. However, after you complete the self profile it is not really well defined about what the term survival, maintenance, and enhancement means. I can deduce that the survival means that I am just getting by, the maintence means I am trying but have to work at it, and enhancement means that I have mostly mastered that portion of myself. This would open up a discussion with the support team as to what your strengths and weaknesses are. I know for myself by thinking about the questions, it made more aware and as I go into a situation, I might think differently about how I approach the
scenario. Ovearll, the self-profile does represent who I am because I am able to work effectively within a group because many people turn to me since I listen and can communicate well from different perspectives. However, on the flip side, I am learning as I get older to question people more (critical thinking). I was not raised in a society that you question something, rather you just trusted what people said. In addition, it was not until graduate school that I began to analyze things and evaluate everything before I went forward. This is a skill that I am working on and is continually changing depending upon the scenario.
I think from a student perspective this might be an interesting inventory to do at the beginning of the school year to see how they perceive themselves.
This would help you do lessons with differentiation because some students might work better together than others based on their self-profile. Another way of using this inventory is to see what skills need to be strengthened within a classroom setting. Through this inventory a person can work on these “self” parts throughout the year since a teacher can be considered part of the support team. A goal could be established with each student and reevaluated with the understanding that family/friends are also going to help reach the goal. This differentiation and enhancement of the developments is part of the flexible ALM programing approach principles (Betts & Kercher, 2009, p.
53).
One big concern that I have as part of the orientation is that the students have to create a website with a lot of information(name, e-mail, family members, interests, etc.). This would be a major concern from a security standpoint and it might be something that would have to be done internally within a school in order to make sure that the information is not wrongly used. I understand having the tech support aspect but I believe that could be incorporated within another person from the support team (like the teacher or a family member).
Overall, the website has a lot of getting to know you information that can be used at the beginning of the school year.
I like the open ended statements that were part of the orientation with the “I am” poem and the journey into self. I really thought that the way that they presented the journey into self activity enabled a person to think about the present, the future, and how they can get there. Within the Dimension 2, Activity 3 the open ended statements made an individual critically think about themselves and their learning process by using the statements... “I now understand that I . . . My strengths for my participations are . . . An autonomous learner is . . . For my own development, I will . . . Overall, I see myself as . . .” (Betts,
n.d.)
Today in many activities the students are not given open ended questions and they do not know how to answer them when they do. These activities enable a person to answer them without having a right/wrong answer rather one that they need to be able to rationalize. It also makes them think about a process and reflect on it. To many times, reflection is not part of the lesson and needs to be incorporated to make it more meaningful.
There is not a lot of information on the website, rather the book goes into more depth. However, I view the website as being a resource where you can get various activities, rubrics, and ideas of how to implement and evaluate the ALS model.