The Power of Continuous Learning, with Gisell Guerrero

In this episode of AVIDly Adulting, AVID alum and future educator Gisell Guerrero discusses the power of continuous learning while establishing a career. Drawing upon her journey as a student, an AVID tutor, and now a student teacher, Gisell shares how staying open to growth has shaped her career path, fueled her resilience, and helped her transform setbacks into stepping stones. She reminds listeners that learning doesn't end with a diploma—it evolves with every challenge, pivot, and passion that we pursue.

From practical routines to mindset shifts, Gisell offers real-world advice for early career professionals striving to stay motivated, adapt with intention, and make steady and meaningful progress. Whether you are just starting out in your career journey or navigating a new chapter, this episode will energize your commitment to learning and help you see it as your greatest professional power. To learn more, visit AVID.org/alumni.

Transcript

Gisell Guerrero 0:00 You can't be better or get better at your job if you don't go into it knowing that you're going to continuously have to better yourself and learn new things. It's always going to be changing and evolving, and you should be able to evolve and change with what is coming.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 0:19 Welcome to Avidly Adulting, the podcast where we tackle the wild ride of transitioning into your first career and all of the life lessons in between and beyond when life and career merge into adulting.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 0:37 Welcome to Avidly Adulting, the podcast for early career professionals figuring it all out one day at a time. It's also for the rest of us, because we know our topics are universal; they may help us, whether we're in our first year, our 10th year, or our 20th year in our careers. You'll also see it'll help in life. Today, we're diving into a topic that's key to both surviving and thriving. So as your host, I'm Dr. Aliber Lozano, and I'm ready to survive and thrive, as we are joined by Giselle Guerrero, who's going to talk to us about the power of continuous learning. Why is it important for us to continue learning in the early parts of our career and so that we are lifelong learners? What's the application and advantages? Giselle is joining us, and she is finishing her internship so that she can become a teacher this coming year. Giselle, tell us a little bit about your AVID story, and what strategies are you still using today as you're finishing your internship to get into your career.

Gisell Guerrero 1:43 Well, thank you so much for having me on. I'm very excited to talk about the topic of continuous learning. My AVID story begins really seventh to 12th grade. I was an AVID student the whole deal, so, you know, I'm very experienced with the program. I know all the ins and outs. I also was an AVID tutor, so, you know, I've been the student, and I've been, you know, the helper or the aide in that. I really do love the AVID program. I think it can add and enrich everybody's learning that's in it.

So for strategies that I still use today, I actually still use my planner. I have it set out right in front of me, right here. It's always with me no matter what. I add on to it: I do the weekly, to the monthly. I do love the planner. I think that's the best thing that really came from the AVID program for me. It's aided me in everything since then.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 2:40 Got it. You know, I still use an AVID planner too, and much like you, I'm moving from analog to digital, and so I use my calendar and plan my tasks, plan my meetings to make sure I'm doing accordingly. It's one of the key skills that we know that there's a study that the top CEOs in the Fortune 500 companies are looking for organization as a durable skill for their employees, and as they become leaders from their own chair and go into management, so you're right in key as you're learning on the job and already in your internship, acting as a teacher, which is what internships do. They allow you to explore your career as you're getting ready to make that next full commitment.

Now let's talk about the power of continuous learning. So what does continuous learning mean to you? When did you realize it really mattered, especially as you're going into your career full time?

Gisell Guerrero 3:42 Continuous learning to me means, you know, never settling somewhere. There is always somewhere or something to get better at. That's what continuous learning really means to me, because, especially in the field that I'm going into, which is education, things are constantly changing, or like they're adding new things, or changing programs are coming in and out, you know, so you really have to adjust and learn things from scratch. So that's what that would say matters in my career, not only for programs such as for instruction, but also, you know, professionally like such as for evaluations, or even to log things on or accommodations for students. I think that's what that means to me in my career.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 4:33 Right? We're all—whether you're going in from a certificated program, a two-year institution, you're coming out of the military, you're coming out of a four-year institution of higher learning—our training doesn't always provide us for real time and what you're needed at the job, as you just talked about, what about evaluations? How do I help students differentiate for their learning preferences? You're having to learn that also on the job, because the job is live, it's happening now. So your continuous learning may happen during the job, as you said, as you're learning in application, but it may also happen in those off times. Tell me about the word we describe for this episode, which says it's the power of professional learning. What comes to mind when you use the word power in professional learning?

Gisell Guerrero 5:28 Well, I do want to add, first of all, that's a great way to put it. You're learning live on the job, you really are. Because even today, I was doing a lesson, and you know, you have to adjust, like the class might need something different than the first class. I love how you put that. I just wanted to say that first.

But to answer your question about power, I think that in the professional field, it not only gives you that advantage, because you can help others, but it makes you an asset to your team or just general to you that power that continuous learning has, but it just continuously sets you apart. I don't know what other way to put that.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 6:22 I agree. Your learning sets you apart. It's because, as you said, you're working as an individual and at work, whether it's at your school, while you're alone in your classroom, in a middle school, you're part of a team. It's also a cross-functional team. So what do you have to contribute, and what do you learn helps set you apart?

I liked how you came back to about you have to adjust, and this is for our first and second year professionals. But you know that never happens to the rest of us, right? Whether you're 10 or 20 years, something new comes into your projects, and you have to adjust spontaneously and be purposeful, and that purposeful is the key on your learning. The application of what you brought in allows you to have options, allows you to have Plan B, if something new comes into your environment and changes the plan and the structure of your project. In your case, as we're talking to Giselle, your lesson plan.

So as we continue, what does continuing learning mean to you when we're talking about post-graduation or post-preparation? Because there's often a myth and a misconception: "I'm done with my training. That's it. I'm going to go to my job and do my job there, but I'm done. I don't want to, I don't want to advance in my career, so my learning stops from my training". So tell us about that misconception and break down that myth for us.

Gisell Guerrero 7:55 Well, like I said, I am in the field of education. Education, like, like, you've had a lot of learning, um, like in live adjustment. So for that learning, of course, learning does not stop after your training. You can learn so much from your coworkers. That is something that my cooperating teacher really has instilled in me. Well, you know how to say it takes a village. It really takes a village in education. Everybody has a little something that you can learn, like, learn from.

Right now, you know, for example, the students about like recently, they all had to print something out in color and the library printer. Well, first, I think it was not available. The library was out of town for like convention, and my cooperating teacher, my mentor, she knew other people. She had her allies, her village, as one would say, and she would found a way, you know, she learned from other people. Or there's sometimes where she might not know something for technology, and somebody else knows it, and they teach her how to do that.

You know that's where that continuous learning really comes in. And especially, I think you can't be better or get better at your job if you don't go into it knowing that you're going to continuously have to better yourself and learn new things, because, like you said, new things are coming in every single time. It's not going to remain stagnant. It's always going to be changing and evolving, and you should be able to evolve and change with what is coming, right?

Dr. Aliber Lozano 9:34 You know, a mentor of mine has said, you know, we're not changing who you are. You're having to change your behaviors to do the job that you're hired to do, and so it's not changing the value. So that's the power of continuous learning. And I just mentioned one, which you did: you say cooperating teacher, I say mentor. So learning and the continuous professional learning necessarily doesn't have to come from a book or a podcast for us subscribers, but please continue listening. It comes from other people, and we get to learn that.

So Giselle, tell me about something new you've learned recently, a skill, a mindset, or maybe even something from something that you failed, that opened your mind up for other opportunities.

Gisell Guerrero 10:18 I will start off with a fail, because not a lot of people hear about fails. They hear about successes. So a fail of mine was actually I was supposed to student teach in the fall, and we are recording this in the spring semester. That was a fail of mine, because I did not get what my university—you have to get your exams, your certification exams, done, before you are able to student teach. Unfortunately, I did not start studying on time, and I did miss the deadline to begin student teaching in the fall. But you know, you learn from your mistakes, and I spent the fall semester studying and gearing up for that, and now here I am student teaching. A little bit of a fail turned into a success. I really do love it.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 11:15 I love that example, Giselle, because you're giving a teaser for a future episode of Avidly Adulting, which is, how do we turn our fails into successes? There are opportunities for us, and you turned it into a proper opportunity to dig deeper, to hone your skill set in your craft, to make sure you pass the requirements. And any profession has a requirement, whether you're going into those internships, you are required to fill, to jump through some hoops or take some exams, check some boxes that are necessary for you to take. And sometimes we missed a box. And instead of being reflective on, "I missed the opportunity," what does this time allow me to do? And you honed your skill and your craft.

As we continue talking about this, can you share a moment where the power of continuous learning helped you make a decision to change a direction in your career?

Gisell Guerrero 12:12 One moment where the power of continuous learning helped me change a direction in my career was actually when I switched to teaching. I was first studying to be a nurse. Well, I had done in high school—I'd done the clinical program where you go to nursing, where you go to hospitals, and you know, you wear the scrubs, you do everything, right? Something like an internship like I'm doing now. I did that in high school, and I went into college thinking, "Oh, I'm going to be a nurse. I'm going to, I'm going to be a nurse," is what I'm going for.

And then I started as an AVID tutor. You know that learning, that, when I say learning, the interactions, or how the interactions differed from being an outsider or being a student, I would say, to actually doing the teaching and being in students, that learning really helped me decide, like, "Oh, maybe this is it". It was pretty fun. Like, I love seeing, you know, the light bulb click on people's heads where you like, help them with that question that they really were having trouble with, or even just them coming out of their shell as the year progressed, you know, like that change as not only academic, but also as a person. I really did love that, and especially also—I know this is not hard learning, but something else—well, it is hard to learn because you learn from people. Some people notice something that you might not notice.

One of the other tutors, she actually told me, she was like, "Oh, you get into like a teacher vibe when you're with the students". She was like, "You look like you really like this". And that, that's what really got the gears turning, or the gears turning, as they say, where I was like, "Oh, like, wait, I really do like that, and I think I'm pretty good at it". I really do love it. I would love to do this.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 14:10 I like that, a teacher vibe. Not that this podcast is recruiting for all of you to become teachers, but sometimes going into nursing, or you're doing your job in order to go to school, as many of you do, you might find that in some of your extracurricular activities, like your night job, your weekend job, to be able to pay through school and your training might change the trajectory of what you do for life, and what better time to change your mind than early on, before you go through the preparation, although we're finding that today we are changing careers as a norm. So just prepare yourself for change. And that's kind of the power of continuous learning: be yourself open to what's the right fit for you, because the right fit for you also provides that right work-life balance.

As we talk about more about this, about the power of professional learning, how do you manage short-term and long-term goals? Like, what does learning, how does learning play into a short-term goal of yours and a long-term goal?

Gisell Guerrero 15:24 For example, for, I guess, a long-term goal where learning really applied, or I'd say, is a pretty obvious example for those listening: when I was studying for my exams. That was obviously a long-term goal of mine, to study. Like I said, I didn't do a very good job the first time around. But then when I really, as the kids say, locked in, I really set that goal for myself. I was like, "By this day, I have to have this done". Because I was studying on, if you're in the teaching field, you're listening, you're probably familiar with 240 Tutoring. I was like, "I have to have this unit done by this day, and this unit done by this day". And I was taking, like, handwritten notes. So, you know, that takes a while, and I was doing the flashcards and everything. I would say, that's an example of a long-term goal of mine.

For I still have another one right now, as I'm student teaching now. I am making goals for myself. At the beginning, when I started, my timing, I'm not going to say it was the best. Oh, I needed some tweaking. I took a little bit too long with some lessons. You know, sometimes a class would fall behind from the others, and I'd have to catch them up, but it was a continuous game of catching up, because I had not had that timing down.

And recently, I did notice that what got better. I actually did pretty good, very proud of myself, pat myself on the back. I was able to have every single class on the same page for some notes that we were taking. I got to finish them, and again, that adjustment on the spot for whatever each [class] completed. Some classes, when I was looking at my watch and I was like, "Oh, okay, we have a bit more time. I'll let them read it out loud," you know, that interaction. In other classes when I was like, "Oh, we have no time for you guys to read," I was like, "I would read it". And on to that. And, you know, it's just that adjustment, that learning, and I'd say I'm getting there. It's always continuous.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 17:32 Got it. You know, I love how you're talking about continuous, your short-term and long-term goals. The other thing about continuous, or the power of continuous learning is also what we just talked about. You said teaching is a vibe, or how the kids say when you've locked it in. It's always important for you to learn the common language of your organization so that you will have and establish those relationships, those networks, whether it's with your clients—in your case, it's your students—or in some people's, it might be adults who they're working for, trying to finish a project. So the power of continuous learning, as you said, is listening for the language, the common language, the jargon, sometimes that's used in your profession, in your field.

For sure, hope to know your audience. There you go. You got to know your audience. As far as the power of professional learning, how does that influence what you choose next? Which leads us into our next question is, you know what? How do you choose? I've only got so much time, so how do you choose what to learn next? Is it based on your passion? Your job demands? Future aspirations? How do you make those choices?

Gisell Guerrero 18:45 Passion is the drive for everything. You should be passionate about everything that you do, even if you're, you know, not very happy with something, there has to be something in it that sparks that passion for you, because that will want you to continuously learn and adapt and grow, like we said, not only professionally, but as a person. Because professional learning is not the only type of learning. Your job might be able to demand things from you, and I feel like maybe that might be an incentive to learn. But I feel like passion, for sure, is the one that really has and creates the biggest drive for continuous learning.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 19:29 I like that answer, because as we unpack passion, it's what's going to bring you also joy. So when you're looking at your career, what brings you joy, and what does that joy look like, as we talked earlier in the long term? So are there different courses you're going to have to take online? Are there going to be different trainings that you get, different certifications that you get?

And also learning happens outside, because you cannot be good at work if you're not happy in your personal life? Or have joy, and you can't be joyous in your personal life, if you're not happy with what's going on in your work? Part of my continuous learning is we just got a new puppy, and it's been 17 years since we trained a new puppy. So I had to get a book and read about how to train a new puppy and watch videos and watch podcasts. There's multiple media to deal with my learning preferences.

Those are some of the things as you look at these things. But Giselle, are there any recommendations you have? Because I only have so much time and I only have so much money. So for those of us that are on a budget, both for time and for money, what are your recommendations? How do we go about continuing to learn so that we have that power to get better to what we do?

Gisell Guerrero 20:50 I think you made great suggestions, you know, books and podcasts. I love personally. I love to watch video essays on things. I love to say, pop culture is my niche. I love pop culture. I watch video essays on anything pop culture, like history documentaries, you know, everything. I love any type of video essay on any subject. I will probably like watch it. Yeah, I would watch any video essay on any subject, as long as it's a video essay. I just love watching them, you know, the visuals of it all.

I think obviously, like we said, find the media, the type of media that grabs your attention. You know that you're like, "This is my best fit". Um, you know, YouTube has some great things always for free, because, you know, we're all on a budget. We're all a little a little broke, again, as the kids say. And you know, YouTube, there's free podcasts, free documentaries, free video essays, maybe not by experts, but people who have studied on the theme that you're looking for, as well as podcasts. You know, the library is obviously a great resource. I'd say that I want to go. I'm actually trying to see when I can go to the library, because I'm itching to get a new book. Um, actually, TikTok. I know a lot of people are addicted to TikTok right now, and, you know, it's very entertaining, but there are also educational things on TikTok that you continuously learn about. So I would say, even TikTok, like anywhere you go, there is always something that you can learn from.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 22:36 You've given us so many options, and you mentioned library, brick-and-mortar library, and now you can also access many libraries through the internet and check out books and get digital books as well. But it's always good. One of the things of continuous professional learning and knowing the power is also knowing your environment. State changes are needed too. So the way that you like to learn in a busy, crowded space, or you're going to want to go into the library to have a state change that puts your mind in order to absorb that information as you're reading or watching it or listening, or all of the three.

So you and I talked when we're also trying to find time. You can listen books, right, digital books on audio when you're walking and you're doing your exercising, you can listen to it if you're a passenger while you're in a car. So finding time, using those spaces to enjoy and fill your cup—sometimes that is going to be with pop culture or pop music, because that, too, feeds you and nurtures you for you to be able to do your next step in your professional career.

So Giselle, so we're looking at the end of this podcast, are there any tools or platforms or learning routines that have helped you stay consistent with your growth?

Gisell Guerrero 24:05 Well, yes, obviously I've said my planner. My planner. I have to write things down, or I will forget. My memory, although I'm not very old, is not what it used to be. I can't just remember things on the top of my head.

I also for as per routine, I think having a clean space, that's my first step of my routine. Pick up anything on my desk that I feel will, you know, hinder my learning or just distract me whilst I'm working. My desk has to be clean. There's no ifs ands or buts. Only thing I will allow is my water bottle and my phone. You know, on the stand or something just to the side, but it all has to be cleaned up.

The first step. Step two, if I want to, you know, get in the zone, I'll probably pop on some music. I know music, like you said, might not be for everybody. I just love music in the background. I personally, although my family is quite quiet right now, they're always constantly talking, and if it's silent, I feel like something's wrong. I'm like, "Oh, I don't know. I need to hear a little chat here and there, because it's too quiet," you know, gets a little eerie.

So I love the music in the background, you know. And then make sure it's not something that really gets you distracted, though, because sometimes you just, you do start singing along, and it just like, when you don't even know it, you're just singing, and you're like, you're like, "Oh, wait, I was supposed to be reading this". Like, you get distracted. So maybe even put something that you've been meaning to listen to on the background, just, you know, you don't know the lyrics yet, or have something there if you can't work with music. That's something that I've found works for me. I've made, like, a playlist of things that I need to listen to, and I put it on when I don't want to be distracted, but I need that music in the background.

Step two, my routine. Step three, like I said, obviously, like I had my water bottle. Have that water bottle completely full, because, you know, you don't want to have to go break and break, break. I feel like water was really important for that. That's part of my routine.

A tool. Another tool that I would say, besides my planner, is I have this notebook. It is a Korean style one, I believe, study notebook, and you list everything that you have to do, and it has like a time table on the side, and you fill in the grid as you go for the times that you've studied. I love that. And then, you know, you could mark out whatever you're done with. You know, the feeling of marking something off a to-do list, I will say, is like the best feeling ever. So that those are some of the tools that I use for when I really need to, again, lock in and learn.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 27:03 Well, you've got us locked in for sure. Routines. You know, I'll share something with listeners. I work from home, so in order for me to feel like I'm leaving work, to come to work, I go for a morning walk. And it's in those morning walks when I'm listening to my favorite podcasts, whether they're to help my personal life or my professional life, but every morning, I wake up knowing that I may have an opportunity to learn something new from an expert or someone who's not yet an expert, but is sharing something that I can relate to, much like you've been doing with us.

Clean space. Sometimes you have to start fresh, whether it is the literal, a desk, or just start fresh and take a breath. That's one of the life hacks that I've heard, is just take a long, deep breath in and let it out. And that really has your clears your mind. The chefs who are listening to this as I watch cooking shows, to learn how to cook better, talking about the power of continuous learning, like a clean space. So they like that you give that advice.

I also like that you talked about family, learning from family, to learn the history of our family, their culture of our family, the why of who we are, and also the why of who we can be, so that we don't have any limitations, and we can amplify and leave a legacy beyond that of what has been given to us by our family, our friends and those that have given us advice throughout. So I really like some of those concepts that you have, and of course, setting this up for success. Brain Food, make sure you have the right food and snacks when you're learning, including, like, as you said, hydrating yourself. Those are some of the things that I think we all can learn from as we continue to learn and have that power in order for us to advance and be better as what we do.

Giselle, as we close this podcast, what advice do you have for our listeners who know and understand the potential of continuous learning, even the power of it, but they struggle to find time or motivation to get started and sometimes sustain that learning?

Gisell Guerrero 29:19 As for time, I will say, nobody can make time. But you. You know, even might just be super tired. I, for example, sometimes I sometimes stay up a little bit later to like, either read or I'll be guilty, I scroll on TikTok sometimes, because you need that time for you, you know, and sometimes for my book, it'll just be, "I need to learn something" and I, you know, watch, or even I'll watch like a documentary sometimes before I go to bed. You just need that "you time". And I say, make that time for you, even if you're super tired. Making that time will, honestly, on the long run, help you, because you feel like you're really investing into yourself, like I said, like I keep saying it, but not only professionally, but as a person. You just feel good about doing that.

And then for motivation, just start somewhere. I know it's so hard to start. There is a book that I've been reading so, so slowly. I've been reading it since last year. I'm not going to lie, but I get I get there, even if I read one to two pages every night. Slowly but surely, I'm getting there, you know, and I'll finish it soon enough. I'll finish it. Again, as if there's a reason. There's a lot of something. It's just that motivation starts small and it grows into something bigger. It really just has to be a little push that you give yourself.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 30:58 That's right, slow and steady sometimes wins the race. So as slowly as you're reading the book, the learning is still coming in at a steady pace everything else that you're doing and juggling, and that's how you're going to be able to sustain. Giselle, thank you for sharing your advice and staying curious and always finding ways to grow. You brought up a mix of real-world experience, practical advice and passion for helping others unlock their potential, really their power through continuous learning. Satya Nadella, the CEO for Microsoft, once said, "if you're not learning, you're falling behind". That line really has stuck with me, because it reminds us that learning is not a luxury. It's there, it's at our fingertips, it's within our eyes and our ears that we can continue to learn. It's a necessity, and today we talked about how continuous learning can shape your career in ways you might not even expect, including your personal life. So remember, stay curious, because that's your edge.

Subscribers, that's our time for today, and as always, be good today, because that's enough, and together, let's strive to be great tomorrow. Avidly Adulting is powered by our AVID alumni and is brought to you by AVID. To learn more about AVID, visit our website at avid.org. If you are an AVID alumni, join our network at avid.org/alumni. Thanks for listening to Avidly Adulting. Join us the first and third Mondays of every month as we feature guests and topics to help you navigate your first career with laughter, insights and life lessons, because adulting isn't just a job, it's an adventure.