Conference - Loving to Learn
Brenna Meaker
30 April 2010
I have a secret love affair that not too many people know about, but I think it is about time to make it public. I love learning. I love it so much that next year I plan to spend the majority of my days back where my love affair first began – Primary School.
While learning to be a teacher I have developed a bit of a theory that fits in with a lot of life, and can be applied to many situations. Learning is not only about storing new ideas, facts and figures in the far corners of your brain. It about reaching into those far corners and pulling out bits and pieces that you have stuck in there days, months, even years earlier and stretching them out and moving them around so that they can fit into your everyday life. I have also developed a few particular symptoms that only show after those cobwebs have been dusted– mind racing, inability to sleep, obsessing over facts, planning to make changes, and best of all the motivation. Luckily none of these symptoms have any potential to cause major harm, or I would have been hospitalised for days after the IOE Conference. The opportunity to learn more about topics that interested me (restrictive interventions, cultural diversity), bounce ideas off people who have a wealth of knowledge (discussion room), and stretch our understandings and values to the limit (sexuality hypothetical) acted like a long handled broom within the brain – dusting down the cobwebs from the far corners, putting up new shelves to store new information on and sorting out the bits and pieces that were in that little box stuck just out of reach of the man hole in the roof. What a great opportunity to discuss where we are going, what we are doing and how we can improve the service we provide.
What a great opportunity to enhance my life long love affair with learning!
