Thing 3

Lifelong learner

Easiest: Accept Responsibility for your own learning
I'm at the stage in my life when I really know this to be true. I worked in Quality Control out of college for 12 years. Fortunately, my first job taught me about all aspects of QC as it was for a pharmaceutical company which was building a new facility. After the year I worked there I was sure that I could do anything, so upon moving to GR I set up a QC department for a food processing plant (egg products). Of course I knew nothing about the laws regulating the food industry or eggs, etc. so I did a lot of self learning. The last QC job was with a medical device company. Just kept learning......

I spent the next segment of my life raising two sons. I believe that there is a lot to learn about parenting and during these years I took classes, read books and became involved in substance abuse prevention work.

After my sons were both in high school, I began substitute teaching and then working full time when my youngest was a Jr. I had to relearn a lot of science to teach it!

I share how I became an "eggs"pert with my students to both show them the variety of careers there are and also to encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning.

Hardest: Problems are Challenges
I know this is true, but in the classroom I have a real desire for things to go right. When I'm faced with a tech problem or even a problem in my science laboratory I know I should look at it as a learning opportunity. I just feel so pressed for time that problems can become frustrations for me instead of the challenges and learning opportunity they should be.