Welcome to my blog! Truth be told, I’ve never blogged before. So, between this, the inquiry projects, and all the new resources we will be using throughout EDCI 336 my plate is looking rather full. This is no problem however, putting yourself outside of your comfort zone is always a good thing. I was reminded of this fact during my visit to Claremont today when the Psychology teacher, whose class I was shadowing, explained her idea of this concept. She drew a donut, and inside of the hole was the comfort zone. Between that and the outside of the donut is the stretch zone. A place where we can leave our secure comfort zone and begin to stretch out, becoming more familiar and continuing to learn outside of where we find comfort.

My beautiful MS paint interpretation of the teacher’s diagram

Now, a quick Google search shows that this idea isn’t something this teacher came up with herself, but it certainly made me reflect on the discomfort I’ve been feeling about this class. EDCI 336 is certainly putting me out of my comfort zone yet I see no reason why I should panic. I’m in a safe learning environment where together my cohort and I are looking toward gaining new experience with integrating technology with teaching,

But I digress, we still have to get to the main event of this introductory post: me! my chosen skill to learn for the free inquiry project. Having jumped right out of high school into university and from a BA right into the PDPP program, I have not had a lot of time outside of summers to pursue hobbies. Sadly, most summers had me working full time if not a little more than that. What all of this means is the guitar I bought as a summer break project to learn how to play still has not happened over three summers later. To be completely honest, I’ve been a little ashamed of my inability to get this project going. But there is no better incentive than a school assignment to get outside of my comfort zone donut hole.

Shortly, this blog will go from introductory rambling to insights on the learning processes we go through in EDCI 336. More than anything, I’m excited to learn some new things and share them with the readers of this blog!