Facelift or a complete overhaul????

My kitchen is over 20 years old and has never been touched except for the removal of the goose wallpaper and application of a fresh coat of paint right after we moved in 3 years ago.  I am trying to decide on what I need to do to improve the appearance and functionality of the kitchen.  I do not have enough storage space for everything that should be in a kitchen right now and have to go into my dining room to retrieve a pot or pan when I want to cook something.  We only plan on staying in this house for 7 more years and I am not sure if the expense is worth it for a complete remodel or if I just suffer through it the way it is and ensures the next house has a larger kitchen space.  I have broken down my choices below and outlined how I came about with my decision.  What do you think, or have any better ideas?

Five-step decision-making approach

1.    Define the decision clearly

a.    I need to decide what to do to my outdated kitchen, completely remodel or facelift.

2.    Consider all the possible choices

a.    Leave the kitchen the way it is and not worry about it.

b.    Facelift, replacing countertops, sink, floor and adding a kitchen island.

c.    Completed remodel, discarding everything in kitchen and start over.

3.    Gather all relevant information and evaluate the Pros and Cons of each possible choice

Choice	Pros	Cons
Leave the Kitchen the way it is	·         Will cost nothing to do nothing ·         Is functional the way it is ·         We know where everything is	·         Inconvenient layout ·         Shows age of house and kitchen ·         Not happy with current appearance
Facelift	·         Improves appearance ·         Will cost less ·         Will take less time ·         Increase functionality of kitchen	·         Still same old kitchen with new shine ·         Layout is not improved ·
Gut and restart	·         Improved functionality of kitchen ·         Clean and new ·         Everything fits in kitchen	·         Much higher costs ·         Longer time to complete ·         Will not regain expense in resale

4.    Select the choice that seems to best meet the needs of the situation

a.    I will choose to give the kitchen a face lift and replace the worst areas that need replacing, add a kitchen island for pots and pan storage.  I feel this choice will give me the biggest bang for the buck spent, and would be easily recouped in resale.

5.    Implement a plan of action and then Monitor the results, making necessary adjustments

a.    I will start to buy the needed materials and begin the project this January once I have completed this program.  My wife has already started picking out color samples and flooring choices.  I will start looking into my countertop choices soon as well. I really like granite.

The Personal Development Journal

For this course we will write reflective comments on an assigned basis. The structure of the comments will follow a model created by Dr. Dan Apple, and education consultant and expert on process learning. The Strength Improvement Insight (SII) Model is be applied in the following manner:

Strength – Describe the strongest learning experience(s) you had thus far and why it/they were important to you.

The strongest learning experience I have completed so far in this program is the information I have found on my own son and aide to his learning disabilities.  I have found while researching information for papers to write for class a wonderful website http://www.ldonline.org/ .  That website along with chapter 6 of this book was amazing in helping with ideas for him.  Not that anything else in class was ho-hum; my mind is swimming in all kinds of information, but for this to hit so close to home has been a real eye opener. 

Improvement – Reflect on how you could improve your learning in the future.

I could definitely improve my learning by paying closer attention to the weaker of my learning styles and helping digest more of the information being delivered.  I have a dominant learning style, just barely, I am almost in the middle of the road in all three, but I could gain more out of what is being presented to me if I widen my focus to see all that is there.  The biggest improvement would be to allow myself more time to think about the information presented before responding.

Insight – What new discoveries/understanding did you get in the learning process? How will you apply it to what you are doing in your daily professional or personal life?

I have learned that my son’s learning disability and his learning style work together hand and hand.  If I address his tactile learning style he will overcome his ADHD better.  He has always had a problem staying still in class.  He is always fidgeting in his seat and playing with something in his desk.  These are all signs of a tactile learner.  My wife and I are working on some suggestions presented in the book as well as the website mentioned before and working on a learning plan for him to address next fall with his teacher and counselor at school to see what we can implement and what they believe will help him the best.  I am so excited about this!!!!!

My Soap Box

Learning styles are unique as each individual person.  They vary as much as people do.  Each person’s learning style is different and trying to group them into a few groups is like trying to gather cattle into pens by color.  We have a brown pen, a white pen, a black pen and a red pen.  Where do the black and white cows or the red and white cows go?  How about the cream colored ones?  OOPs this one is all black with a white head; do we chop off the head and put it in one pen and the rest of the carcass in another pen?

            We should not worry as much as to what the learning style is and commence with the actual education of the student.  If you spread your teaching out to an even delivery of the basic three main sensory receivers: Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic, you have placed the information to the student in a manner that they can digest in whichever manner they choose.  You must follow-up with the student and see how they present the training after consumption of the information and processed it in their individual manner.  If the output does not match the desired results, then further investigation needs to be done to see how the desired results can be achieved. 

            Each cow eats hay and produces milk.  The quality and quantity varies from each animal, but the process is the same.  This is true for peoples learning as well.   Everyone consumes the information that is delivered, and they process it.  How they use the information is what we seek.  Some information may need to be more visually tilted while other may require more hands on skills to obtain the desired results, but that is minor adjustments that need to be made.

            Reading all of these learning styles and supporting information is interesting, but each one is trying to support their own theories and none encompass everyone.  I feel like I am a little of each and none of any one in particular, and like stated in the assigned blog reading “Stahl believes that many of the studies supporting learning style theory are not based on reliable study”. Let’s stop worrying about how people learn and start teaching people.