If I use a motor shield and an uno together, and I plug power into the motor shield, will the uno draw its power from the motor shield?...or do I also need to provide power directly to the uno?
I haven't actually worked with a motor shield before, so I'm just trying to get this figured out so I don't misread something and break everything.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated 
The motor shield usually requires it's own external DC voltage supply.
When you plug the motor shield into the arduino..... the 5 Volts from the '5V' arduino pin links to the same '5V' pin of the motor shield (and the same thing happens for a lot of other pins). This just means that the arduino's voltages at particular arduino pins don't get hidden away when you plug in the 'shield'. At least they can be tapped on the shield side.
The arduino still needs to be powered by a DC supply. You can apply power directly to the UNO - in the usual way.... like via DC power jack, or USB power. But another way to supply DC voltage to the UNO is via the 'Vin' pin (relative to 0V pin of course). So it is possible to have motor shields that have its own power supply, and that can also transfer power to the UNO via the 'Vin' pin.
The motor shield just allows some other external heavier duty voltage supply to be used to drive the motors.... because the arduino itself usually can't output enough power to drive motors.
Is there a jumper on the shield ?
Post a link for the shield.
spd1989:
If I use a motor shield and an uno together, and I plug power into the motor shield, will the uno draw its power from the motor shield?...or do I also need to provide power directly to the uno?I haven't actually worked with a motor shield before, so I'm just trying to get this figured out so I don't misread something and break everything.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated
This depends on the shield and any jumper options it has. You should tell us full details of your shield if you
want more than a guess!