In this chapter one of the things that struck me most interestingly was that teachers really made such a significant effort to determine what learning styles best fit them. This definitely was an eye opener because the teachers main focus wasn't on how much content they completed over the year, but rather helping students gain personal growth. I think it was really refreshing because it brought me back to the heart of teaching and took me away from the stereotypes placed on teachers these days that all they care about is assessments and scores rather than the individual students. Having the student understand what type of learner they are seems even more important then it ever had before. Before reading this I didn't necessarily completely connect a students progress or "failures" with their learning style, but rather that they were unwilling to try. However, now I see that is not always the case, that not every student who does poorly is not willing to put in the effort, but rather that the material being taught to them is not being taught in a way that they can understand it.
I learned though that routine isn't the most essential aspect of a classroom. In fact, students may even gain something from change and it may really help them develop into successful adults because they know what techniques work best for them. This will really impact my classroom in the future because it will remind me to "mix it u" a little bit. Without reading this I may have been the teacher who stuck to the same few ways of assessing students progress, but now it seems that understanding how much students benefit from knowing more about how they learn will allow me to give them choices and hopefully this will also keep them more interested in the topics.
No comments:
Post a Comment