Week One

During my first week of class I have learned so much about how many ways there are to incorporate technology and education.  I did not know that there were standards for technology.  The NETS standards for teachers and students are so important for a classroom teacher.  Having these standards help keep educators growing and efficient.  I was very interested in the theoretical foundations chapter of our textbook.  It talked about students’ learning styles and different perspectives on learning.

The thing I learned this week that I will use immediately in the classroom is that children do not learn in the same styles.  The Index of Learning Styles (ILS) was developed by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman.  The learning styles are:

·         Active and Reflective Learners

·         Sensing and Intuitive Learners

·         Visual and Verbal Learners

·         Sequential and Global Learners

As I teach my students I must always be aware of the different learning styles they represent.  My lessons should incorporate both ends of the spectrum to create an effective learning environment for everyone involved. 

          In order to incorporate different learning styles into my classroom I must address the students during my direct teaching, their responses, and classroom work.  As I teach I can explain new concepts through dialogue and then reinforce the message with visual aids.  If I were teaching a Math lesson in an elementary school classroom I could have students come up to the Smart Board to fill in answers to the problems.  This would give visual and verbal learners the instruction they both need.  I could address sensing and intuitive learners through their assigned work.  Sensing learners would enjoy memorizing multiplication tables for an assessment.  Intuitive learners would enjoy work that involved word problems or open response questions where they can express different possibilities involving the multiplication of an object. 

          The challenges to incorporating different learning styles of learning into my classroom will be that students may become frustrated with the different styles I use.  To address this it is important that I be firm on the expectations of students.  They may not enjoy the work they are doing at every moment of the day, but they are still able to learn and reinforce new information through all the activities assigned.  I must keep the classroom engaged in learning.  Another challenge will be in my planning time.  As I plan lessons and work I will need to very diligent about addressing the different students’ learning styles.  It will be a balancing act to address everyone‘s needs.  To address these challenges I could create a unit checklist.  The checklist could be used to make sure I am addressing each learning style during a unit.  I would be able to check off the activities that are beneficial to a specific learning style.  This would be a good reminder for me of who I need to address as I make my weekly lesson plans. 

The different learning styles of students were a subject I knew very little about at the beginning of this week.  After reading from my textbook and online articles I now I feel like I can incorporate different styles into my teaching and I will be able to overcome the challenges I will face in doing so.