At present, as a learner, I can certainly relate to this article "4 Ways Teachers Change Students' Lives" (Materson, 2016). To avoid embarrassing the individual, I will refrain myself from divulging the name of the PIDP instructor who has made a major impact in my learning journey. Having been out of school for almost two decade, there was a lot of anxiety when I made the first step back to the classroom. The issue is further compounded when the field of study is completely foreign to me. At the start, I even doubted myself as to why I enrolled in this program. While I wanted to explore a different career, I wasnt quite sure whether this was my cup of tea given that my experience for the last three decades was focussed in the corporate world.
Even though the online learning environment wasnt new to me, it brought back some bad memories from my MBA program, where a component of the curriculum had an online format. Therefore at the start, it took me awhile to warm up to the online discussion forums and somehow the instructor had a sixth sense about this. Instead of jumping on me about my participation as if I was a kid, the instructor respected my silence initially and gave me time to adjust to this learning environment. Likewise, the anxiety level was equally intense when I first started the reflective and blogging assignments. Oddly enough, it is through these storytelling activities or "narrative therapy" (Nash and Murray, 2010) that I have finally figured out why I have enrolled in this program and what my plans could be for the next chapter of my career. In the words of Brookfield (2015, p. 65-67), I "survived the rhythms of roadrunning" as I realized that I wasnt the only one who was experiencing these "epistemological panic attacks". More importantly, I think the instructor's words of encouragements were what kept me going so much so that I have become addicted to these learning activities.
I dont think any words can express my gratitude toward this instructor. This learning experience has certainly provided me with new skills and knowledge. More importantly, it has given me confidence, taking risks and stepping outside of my comfort zone to explore areas which I never thought I would be capable of doing so. THANK YOU!
References:
Brookfield, S. (2015). In T. S. Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Masterson, K. (2016, May 22). 4 Ways Teachers Change Their Students’ Lives. Retrieved from
TeacherCast: http://www.teachercast.net/2016/05/22/4-ways-teachers-change-students-
lives/
Nash, R., & Murray, M. (2017, March 14). Helping college students find purpose: The campus
guide to meaning-making. Retrieved from NACADA:
https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Journal/Current-Past-Book-Reviews/Helping-
college-students-find-purpose-The-campus-guide-to-meaning-making.aspx