YouTube Learner

Pivot tables, motion charts, canned responses, oh my...

I've been working on becoming a Google Certified Educator for a couple of months now.  After breezing through Level 1, I became stuck in Level 2, and thinking I could just plow ahead, I took the Level 2 test and failed.  When there's any kind of fee involved in learning, which each level test has, I hate to pay and fail.  So, of course like anyone else, my first question after getting my results is, "Why?"  I want feedback.  And the dreaded pivot tables, motion charts, and canned responses are sinking me.  But when I click on the links in the training units to learn more, it's a help sheet of text.  Not that I'm opposed to learning this way, but it's not learning that sticks with me in this way.  

I know my dominant learning style, being visual and kinesthetic, so I'm a YouTube Learner.  I need to see it, do some, then see some more, then do some more.  Initially, I didn't take the time to look for solid videos to learn these concepts thinking they wouldn't be so important, but alas, I found otherwise.  

So now, I watch, do, study, then test again in a bit.  But at the end of the day, the lesson I try to impart to my own children, is to never give up.  Just because you hit a bump in the road or don't understand something, don't give up.  It may be the 2nd or 100th time that doing something will result in success, but don't give up.  Just try to learn the lesson a different way, which is what I'm doing.

In this experience though, it reminds me to meet our students where they are and in the learning styles they need to succeed.  We need to adapt, revise, and continue on, but never give up.