Ed History – Level One

Education is a topic that no college student can come to without an extensive background of experiences and knowledge. If you’re in college, you’ve likely lived through at least 12 – 13 years of schooling. But school isn’t the only place we’re educated. Our parents and guardians — our televisions and movies and books — all of these things contribute to how we understand ourselves and our places in the world, and, in fact, what “the world” means to us.  This Level One badge offers you opportunities to think about who you are as a person, as learner/student, and as teacher, and to explore how your preferences shape your success, frustrations, and failures.

1. Complete your MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) to discover what your “preferences” are for how the world works. You shouldn’t over-think these items, which will force you to choose between two opposites. For each question, just think, “In an ideal situation, this is what I would like or prefer to be true/to happen/to do, etc.” Take a screen shot of your results page and place it in your “Ed History Badge” folder on Google Docs.
2. Write a 250-300 word blog post on our course website in response to your “personality type.”  Do those preferences resonate with you? which do not? why might that be? As part of your response, consider what your personality might mean about who you are as a learner/student. (Don’t be distracted by the labels, like “judging,” but by what it you results say about that label. “Judging” doesn’t mean you’re a judgmental person; it means you like closure and you tend to prefer firm decisions, even if you then like to negotiate those decisions. You find it more comfortable, as a”judging” person, when the rules are clear.)
3. Draw a picture of your ideal classroom. If you could design a classroom to meet your optimal learning needs or values, what would be included? Would you have a Starbucks in the corner, or a place for hot tea? Would you have music? Would you want a water feature, or maybe a stream running through the middle? Would there be a stage? Lots of spaces to sit together and talk or more spaces for quiet and solitude? This need not be a “practical” space; if you could have anything, what would you have? Take a digital picture of your drawing and attach it to your blog post (#2 above) and write a description of what’s in the picture.
4. Claim code: FB5-655B-B2D