Marcos Echavarria

Doulos Discovery School

Doulos Project
Ms Esau

My Understanding Learner Skills

Over my past years in high school, I have been growing and developing many
positive areas in my life. I truly believe that my past years in Doulos have been
helping me grow in each of the six skills of a scholar, that are Loving Collaborator,
Creative Learner, Seeker of Christ, . One of the skills of a scholar that i have
improved the most on, is the skill “understanding learner”. There are many ways by
which I believe that I have been growing oh this skill.

First of all, I want to say what Doulos means when saying “Understanding
Learner” An understanding learner is someone who is not afraid to make certain
changes, in order to adapt to difficult circumstances. An understanding learner
understands the way by which he/she learns, and takes responsibility for his/her
personal learning. This person also uses books, as well as technology, in order to
better understand something. I truly believe that this is a skill that has been helping
me over the last years, and there are many ways by which I have developed this skill
over the past years in school.

Throughout the past four years, our entire class has been receiving vocabulary
sheets, with about 20 words each. We had to learn each of the words definition and
spelling, by filling in a vocabulary packet. Later on we got to fill in a quiz, where we
had a spelling section, where our teacher pronounced words and we had to write
them down. There was also another section that was multiple choice. In this section,
we selected the words that were synonyms or antonyms of the word we learned,
depending on the case.
 The twist was that often, I wouldn’t really understand what these words meant
just from using the packet that we received, since usually these packets involved a
complex language. What I did, was to use books and technology, (dictionaries and
online examples), in order to better understand the meaning of the words. First, I
started looking for the words meanings on different dictionaries, by using physical
dictionaries, as well as online ones. Later on, I proceeded to seek for examples of
how to use these new words, which really helped me in the sentence parts of the
quizzes, as well as filling in the packets.

Basically what I mean with all of this, is that I truly believe that I have been
growing in the understanding learning skill, for multiple reasons. In first place, I did
not limit myself to only use what I first had in hand,which was the vocabulary packet.
Instead, I decided to use my time wisely, and use dictionaries and technology for me
to better understand this new vocabulary, and to do better on the assignments and
quizzes. I also realized that I got smarter on the long run, since I believe that now I
know more words, that will help me express myself in a better way, as well as
understanding texts and speeches better, and easier.

Another area where I believe that I grew in the skill understanding learner, was
in mathematics class. In our math class, we work with a program called Khan
Academy. In this program, our math teacher Lorraine Low, assigned us multiple
tasks for us to complete under a certain time limit.
Sometimes, I couldn’t understand well what the Khan Academy instructor
wanted me to do exactly. Sometimes I got lost on the steps, or I simply couldn’t
understand each step perfectly.

What I decided to do, was starting to search for different alternatives to find
answers or methods that I personally understood better. I must mention that my
math teacher, Mrs. Low was really kind when she let me do my math problems using
other alternatives which I found easier for me to understand, unlike other math
teachers. This was something that taught me that what really matters is not how you
do it, what matters is completing what you have to do, (with integrity, of course). It
didn’t matter if the process that I decided to do was longer, or shorter, what mattered
was for me to actually learn one way or another.
 During this process, I learned how to use technology in my advantage, by
seeking for other alternatives to complete things. This made me take responsibility
for my own learning, since I couldn’t just skip a section because I didn’t understand
it, or if it was hard to me. I also had to make changes to adapt to difficult situations,
since many times I didn’t really learn how to do things just by watching the videos on
Khan Academy, like my other partners did. Instead, I used all resources available to
me in order for me to understand properly. These are things that prove my growth as
an understanding learner.

In conclusion, there have been many ways by which I have grown in the open
minded communicator skill over the past years. The circumstances that I have talked
about, have made me realize how I’ve grown. I believe that now I am more able to
make changes in order for me to adapt to difficult circumstances. Something very
important, is the fact that now I understand how I learn differently, and therefore
take responsibility for my own learning by using books and technology to learn.

I believe that these skills have made me more responsible. These are skills
that not only will help me finish high school and college, but will also help me in the
rest of my life. For this reason, I am very thankful with Doulos, and all what they do
for their students.