January 24th, 2015 How does the knowledge of the way people learn relate to the experience of being a teacher?
Hi! I am Kasey Hammer and this is my blog about my experiences in the classroom. I am observing in a 2nd grade class and I love it! Some of the things that I have done in the last couple of weeks have been, grading papers, leading group discussions with the kids, playing organized games, walking around and helping students during project time and observing the teacher. It has been so much fun actually being in a classroom. When I am able to work with the groups, I get so excited to have my own classroom someday. It makes me want to get through school as fast as I can just so I can start teaching! But I know that I have a lot to learn before I get to that point.
This last module that we had really opened my eyes to the learning theories. I actually did not know that there were so many different ways that people can learn. It was really cool to learn that and to have that knowledge for when I am a teacher will be really helpful. I have noticed that my teacher I observe is really good at changing her ways of teaching. But I have started to notice that she is a very visual teacher. She gives her kids lots of examples of things that they are supposed to be doing. For example: this last week when I was there they were starting to work on an ocean animal report and she had LOTS of examples of how the project was supposed to look at the beginning, middle and end. I thought it was great because I myself am a very visual learner and I would enjoy having that from my teacher. But for the kids who aren't very visual it could be a problem. I noticed that she was really good at explaining what she wanted them to do as well.
It has been fun to be in the classroom and have the chance to observe a teacher. It helps me see good things and not so good things. It also helped me realize that a lot of the kids have different ways of learning, and they all can't have visual examples and get what they are supposed to do really fast. You, as the teacher, have to change the ways you teach so that all the students can get used to the different learning ways and have a fair chance. And if the teacher doesn't change the ways they teach, the children who have a different way of learning will get behind and the teacher can become stressed. It is important to keep changing how you teach so everyone has a good experience in your class. :)
