The results of my VARK are as follows:

Visual 4
Aural 4
Read/Write 5
Kinesthetic 8

No huge surprises for me here. I am a very hands on learner. I like to see examples and get real life stories that relate the information. Mrs. Miller was always good at telling us stories of things she had experienced in our Anatomy class. That always helped me to remember the lecture for that day. I usually always convert my lecture notes and reduce them down to main points when studying for a test. I would like to do this before it is actually test time but I am a big procrastinator so that never happens. Also the VARK said I should write down practice answers to tests. I always write down my answer for Dr. Gardner’s probes over and over until I can repeat it back to myself without looking. It also always helps me to go over my notes with someone else and discuss things. Carrie and I always study by ourselves at home and then meet up later to study together. We are both really good at using pneumonic devices to trigger answers in our heads. This was an interesting assignment and sort of broke up the assignments by adding a little fun.

Think about your experience and history as a learner? What story can you tell? Write about your disconnections with learning. Then write about the tensions and excitements associate with learning. Use specific examples when possible to illustrate your meaning

In my history as a learner I would have to say that the more I liked my teachers the harder I would work for them. I am still the same way. If a teacher is respectful to me, I will return that respect. If a teacher shows enthusiasm for a subject, I will return their enthusiasm. If a teacher is knowledgeable in a subject area, I too want to be knowledgeable in that subject. If a teacher is standing there spitting out information, unconcerned with if I get it or not, I usually won’t get it. One teacher in particular drives me up the wall but we won’t discuss that, as I would like to continue my education. I have had several great teachers in my school career. In high school there was a married couple Mr. & Mrs. Thompson. He taught biology and anatomy. She taught English. I learned more from those two individuals than the entire teaching staff combined at my high school. They loved teaching and I loved learning from them. They were soooooo hard. Everyone dreaded their classes, but in the end I think the majority of us were pleased with our outcome after it was over. I think Mr. Thompson is the reason that I am so intrigued by the anatomy of speech (he sparked something inside me).
I often times get frustrated with assignments that seem to be meaningless tasks. I try to see what the purpose behind an assignment is and if I can’t find one I get irritated. Sometimes though I can’t see it until later so I have been trying to be more patient. The biggest discouragement to me is if I have a teacher who is not interested if I learn anything. I find it so frustrating to be lectured and lectured and lectured and have to depend solely on the text to teach me something. Another a big issue I have had in the past and presently is teachers who cannot tell you what your grade status might be. (They have there own grading process that only they are smarter enough to figure up.) I find it hard to put in an effort on assignments when I feel that it doesn’t matter because at the end of the semester I will be given a grade that the teacher wants to give me. Granted I couldn’t get a failing grade but if I get a B when I feel I deserved an A and see someone else receive and A when I know they deserved less…that gets my goat.
On the positive side though, I love to “get it”. Now that is something that really boosts my excitement for learning. I have never been great at math. I have had a couple of teachers who were really smart but just could not teach me what they knew (all men). At ACC though I had two great Math teachers. I done really well in their class and it was because I “got it”. They were both women and I wonder if maybe it was just because women think more alike or something and they just knew how to explain things better to me. Also, my dad always told me, ”You can’t learn anything if you don’t ask questions!” I always ask questions. (Probably to the chagrin of my classmates.) If I am not getting it I will always ask questions to try and grasp the topic better. Asking questions is very important, I think…and so does my dad. Hee hee!

What are the areas of professional practice that capture my interest? With respect to the general topic, what would an essential question for me be? What do I already know about this topic? What don’t I know about this topic?

I have come to realize that it is the physical part of speech that most interests me. I am more interested in the anatomy of speech than the language portion of speech. My full attention is given in my Voice Disorder class this semester…the same as it was given in my Speech Anatomy class last semester. I want to know how everything works, what makes it work, and what is it that happened that causes it not to work perfectly. I find myself being bored with Language Disorders. As in week 2’s assignment I am still intrigued by cleft palate.
My essential question has changed from last week. It was a little too broad and also I feel as if I need to know more about cleft palate before I begin trying to deal with the whole insurance and medical card issue.

Last weeks: What are the requirements for surgery on a cleft palate/lip patient and will a government medical card cover the expense of surgery and therapy?

This week: What causes cleft palate and what can be done to “cure” it?

I have been drudging up information on the subject and although I still do not know a lot, I feel as if I learn something new everyday. I have recently discovered that cleft palate is the fourth most common birth defect. Also, it occurs in 1 of every 700 children. More often than I had realized. I know it is a birth defect usually developed in the 1st trimester of pregnancy. I have also learned that if you have had one baby with a cleft palate the chances it will happen again get more likely with every cleft palate birth or if it is in your family history.
I still do not know what exactly is done to fix a cleft palate only that it has to be done in a series of surgeries and has the best results if done early in life. I also want to dig deeper into the role of the SLP as I have seen on many sites that they are a key part of the collaborative team.