Personal Learning Experiences

Elementary School

A learning experience I recall from elementary school was when I entered the school science fair with one of my classmates. We had recently been learning about the weather so we decided to make our display about tornados. We combined what we had already learned in class with hours of online research and then we designed models of the tornadoes utilizing empty soda bottles, water and small items such as glitter and the occasional toy. The experiment itself was fairly standard but through it I learned the value of research, experimentation, collaboration and presentation.

University

My second memory comes from my university writing class. The class was taught by a professor with the assistance of a few teaching assistants. We learned about effective writing formulae for various academic papers by reading the course materials in addition to other supplemental materials recommended by the professor. We gave other classmates constructive feedback on their work and practiced writing and then subsequently revising our work, and through these exercises we learned how to critically assess our own writing and how to improve the accuracy and efficacy of our academic papers. I took the class partly because it was a pre-requisite for several other courses in addition to the benefit of improving my writing abilities.

Professional

Lastly, a learning experience from work. I used to work for a company that organized language learning immersion programs for children and adults. Oftentimes I was responsible for running engaging activities for groups between 8-45 people. The management at the company provided some ideas or materials but they didn't provide any explicit training for how they expected those group meetings to be run. This taught me how to think on my feet and how to communicate effectively so ensure that the group meetings ran smoothly and all the participants finished with a positive experience.