The One With Meaningful Learning

This month, I'm participating in the Slice of Life challenge with Two Writing Teachers. If you want to participate, you can link up at their Slice of Life Story Post or you can head on over there to check out other people's stories and follow along with the fun. For more information on what a Slice of Life is about, you can go here. 

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I'm finishing up my ESL endorsement this semester. I'll be done at the end of April and while I've really loved all the learning I've done, it takes energy to be taking a class and working full time. I just finished up a paper that's due on Wednesday and still have other homework to do. 

Of course, my poor manuscript is waiting for me. Aru Shah and the End of Time is waiting for me. This Slice of Life post is waiting for me. 

But it's okay, the learning I'm doing is good. It's different from my learning on my own time as I explore poetry and spoken word and hip hop this month. I definitely feel the difference between doing work for class that has been assigned versus doing work on my writing or on learning more about spoken word so I can launch our open mic club. 

I'm pretty sure most teachers would say that learning that is meaningful and learning when the learner is in charge and guides his/her/their learning and makes choices about his/her/their learning is more powerful...but I heard myself whining about not wanting to do my homework tonight and I sounded just like my 10-year-old when he begrudgingly drags himself to the kitchen table to unpack his backpack. 

No matter what age you are, I'm pretty sure self-selected learning is more fun and exciting than assigned learning. 

While I don't feel like I spent much time working on learning about spoken word today, I was reminded of the power of true, meaningful learning and that is important. 

I did meet with a friend and we created a flyer for the open mic club and emailed the principal to check in on details as we plan to share and promote the club. Doesn't feel like much but it was definitely a huge step. 

Part of this inspiration to start an open mic club came from Ryan Parker who I follow on Instagram. He has so much energy! It's awesome. I definitely recommend that you follow him and check out this video where he talks about the Open Mic Movement.