ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

One memorable learning experience from elementary school was related to staying away from drugs. I don't know why this was the first to come to mind 28 years later, but for some reason it did which leads me to believe their teaching was effective. Perhaps it was because the trainer was a DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officer, dressed like a police officer, so my attention was peaked. Perhaps it was the fear he struck in me about the subject through his intense visuals and graphic storytelling. All I can say, again, was that the information stuck with me because I paid attention.

 

HIGH SCHOOL

One memorable learning experience from high school was in my AP Calculus course. The teacher was a brilliant mathematician, gifted at teaching the concepts of Calculus. However, he was terrible at relating to us why the content was relevant and applicable to our daily lives. Why should I care about the rate at which a balloon fills up with air? I learned the content through repetition and problem solving, but my motivation was so lacking that I dropped the class midway even though I was getting an A in the course. I came to realize then that unless I valued what I was learning, and unless the professor made it relevant to my life, my motivation for learning was rock bottom and very little learning stuck.

​

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING SETTING

One memorable learning experience I had from a formal training workshop was related learning a new eLearning software. The trainer was a professional trainer who made the content experiential and relevant. He would explain, then demonstrate, how to do a particular skill, and then have us try and practice. Throughout the two-day training, we were building up our skills sequentially, practicing what we'd learned and building an actual eLearning module. Overall the learning experience was excellent because 1) it directly related to developing new skills that impacted my job, and 2) the content was presented in a way that helped me understand through demonstration and practice.