I think teachers pride themselves on being life-long learners, and we truly are! We learn new things all the time. You know the saying, the more you know, the more you don’t know. Well, I’m figuring that out on my own easily right now.
I know I’m not along in learning to learn again. Where we are daily as teachers, even though summer is here, is in the daily learning environment that I haven’t seen since college. I find myself studying, making notebooks of information I’m learning and reviewing content to try and apply what I’ve learned to help in my new teaching world.
So, as an example, I’m attempting to learn JavaScript or HTML5 to create a game in Adobe Animate. I know how to create games in Adobe Acrobat, and know this platform pretty well. I’ve been navigating and learning on this platform for about eight years. It came easily as time edged by and I was self-paced.
Now, I feel the crunch and find myself frustrated as I researched how to create code on how to move a player piece across the screen on my computer for users to play a board game. Twelve hours yesterday and hours the days before trying to learn. I also just recently taught myself Adobe Premiere, and Adobe After Effects. I’m still learning these platforms to learn animation and video animating.
I think this must be what children feel like, the exhausting feeling of intentionally trying to learn and just not getting it — yet! I’m finding myself still pursuing the acquisition of knowledge, knowing that if I keep at it, I’ll learn it or at least something from the process, eventually. My brain hurts. Is that possible? My brain hurts. I have so much in my head, I sometimes wonder about the phrase, teaching an old dog new tricks. I know it’s possible, but it’s taking me longer than it seemed to only just a few years ago.
I guess I’m writing this post, because I know that many of you out there, are in the same boat. Your brains might hurt, you might feel like you’re not making progress, and for me, the feeling of accomplishment comes from a finished product, that I can see and is tangible. Well, there’s not always something we can see immediately, so I’m asking God give me grace as I continue to learn and grow.
There’s so much to learn, and we are all learning new things and building on our previous learning. You might not be learning adobe animate or premiere, but learning how to navigate being a parent during Distance Learning or how to use Zoom and Microsoft Teams can feel equally as frustrating.
I’m promising God, that although I do not know what I want to know, I know that with His help and grace, I will continue to learn and grow. I will get there, and I don’t know what I want to know yet. The power of YET, gives me hope.
Here starts day 2 of trying to figure out how to move a player piece in Adobe Animate using JavaScript. Let’s see how I do…
How are you doing? What is your firehose of learning? Where are you at in your learning? What would you like to learn or see a tutorial on?