My Ideal Classroom

If you could create the ideal classroom, what would it be like?

If I could have the ideal classroom, I would have no more than 15 high school students and a full time assistant to help me. There would be a computer with internet access for every student. I would also have Adobe Photoshop on each computer so students could learn to do digital scrapbooking. Of course it would have Microsoft Office on them also for word processing and PowerPoint presentations. I would also have the WYNN program and Test Talker program on computers for students with severe reading problems. My classroom would have a Promethean Board installed (like a smart board) which would be an interactive board for my lessons. I would also have a large TV for showing movies that go with my lessons (United Streaming has a great selection). I would also have a large kitchen unit with sink, stove, oven, microwave, washer, dryer and dishwasher to teach life skills. There would also be an attached bathroom so students didn’t have to wander the halls in order to use the bathroom. My classroom would also have a phone in it to use to call parents if there are any behavior problems. I would have individualized lessons for each student according to their needs. This hopefully would keep them engaged in order to prevent behavior problems.

Of course, this is an ideal classroom and would never happen but it is nice to dream. What would your ideal classroom be like?

Networking is Important for All Teachers

I recently attended my reunion at Furman University and was thrilled to speak to the Career Services Director, John Barker. I mentioned how this department was very important to me as a student and after speaking to another person in his department, how surprised I was to find out that most education majors were not taking advantage of this resource. He mentioned that there is a national trend that most students in all fields are not taking advantage of the career services department at colleges and universities. He sent me a chart and brief article that he found on a “professional association website (NACE) that speaks to the way that students today prefer to conduct their job search. This came from a survey of graduating seniors nationwide. As you will see, their preferred mode of job searching is via the Internet. The percentage of students that use Career Services Office-sponsored placement programs (Career Fair, On-Campus Interviewing, etc) is only about 28-35%.” What a shame to waste such a valuable resource as the Career Services Office and the services they have to offer!

Earlier in the year, this department sponsored a wonderful networking event that involved business people and educators meeting students majoring in different fields. I was a little disappointed to find out that none of the education majors showed up but I did talk to some people majoring in psychology. This was a wonderful opportunity for students to get first hand information about the career they are interested in. I know we can get a lot of information off the internet but nothing beats a face to face meeting with someone already in that career.

When you network, there are so many opportunities that could help your career that it is a shame to waste this chance. You never know what contacts you will make and what connections that will occur. You might also get information that you could use for future lessons or find offers for speakers. By developing relationships with people already in the field, you might even develop a support system when things are not going well in your career. You might meet someone who would be willing to be your mentor who is not at the school you teach at. This would be invaluable because they don’t have a biased opinion of the school or students you teach. You could get an objective opinion that could help you be more successful. I once met someone who offered to sponsor my class for a field trip and another offered to speak to my class. I attend conferences and seminars if I can afford it but if there is a free event like this being offered, I don’t see how anyone could afford not to attend.

I am hoping to co-present at a state convention on survival tips for new teachers but the conversation I had about this issue really had me thinking. There is also a national trend of teacher shortages in all subject areas. Many teachers don’t stay in the field for more than 5 years and many say it is because the career was much different than they imagined. I wonder how many of these people passed up networking opportunities to talk to other teachers. Maybe if future teachers would take advantage of networking opportunities, then they might feel encouraged to stay in the field longer. We all had to do student teaching but what about an event that lets you talk to teachers at other schools and other grades. I never thought I would teach high school when I graduated but I ended up teaching 23 years in high school and loved every minute of it. I wish I had the opportunity before I graduated to talk to someone about the different levels and what to expect when I got out in the real world. Short classroom observations and talking to your supervising teacher during student teaching just doesn’t give you enough information and support you need to survive as a teacher.

I encourage everyone, even if you are already a teacher, to look for networking opportunities that are available. I know Furman is planning a couple in the future and I hope they will ask me to attend. You could also contact the Career Services office at your alma mater or a local college or university to see if they have any events coming up. Please don’t let this opportunity pass you by!

How to Match Your Teaching Style with the Student’s Learning Style

In earlier posts, I gave suggestions for teaching to different students’ learning styles. I feel it is very important for the teacher to try to teach according to the student’s learning style as much as possible. It will not be possible at all times but I tried to as often as I could. Since I am such a visual learner, I taught in a very visual style and realized that I was not reaching all of my students. When I realized this, I had to change my teaching technique which was very hard for me. First, I wrote out my lesson as a list of separate steps or procedures. I even listed what I would say or do. Beside each step, I wrote V if it would work for the visual learner, A for the auditory learner, and T for the tactile-kinesthetic learner. I realized that most of my steps had a V beside them. In fact I was shocked because I had thought I was meeting everyone’s needs and apparently I wasn’t. This might explain why some of my student continually had low test grades or didn’t retain the concepts that I was teaching them. Then I consciously had to think about what I needed to do to meet the A and T learners. At first this was time consuming but the results really paid off. The more I did this, the more I started to do things naturally and eventually I didn’t even need to write out the steps any more. My students were performing better on tests and understanding the concepts better. If I referred to a previous lesson, I had more students offering to refresh the class’s memory about the concepts learned. By changing the way I taught I had more students engaged in active learning which in turn had me more excited and willing to try new things. It gave me such a thrill when I saw the students learn something new, remember it later, and actually used this information. I guess this is another reason I love teaching!

How to teach the Tactile-Kinesthetic Learner

Tactile – Kinesthetic learners learn better by touching and moving. As a visual learner and teacher, this is one of the hardest learner styles I have had to teach.

Here are some strategies that might work with tactile-kinesthetic learners:

• Response mode – student writes answers down. The instructor could write the response down and let the student copy it. By writing, the actual movements will help this learner remember the information

• Students use post it notes. By physically moving information around on a page, it will be easier for this learner to learn new information.

• Student is active and in motion – Learning games that involve movement will help this type of learner. If I asked true or false questions, all the people who think it is true, I would have them stand up. Then we would discuss the correct answer. Sometimes I would put choices on the board and have students come up to physically touch the answer. Sometimes I would write answers down on index cards and the questions on different index cards. After passing out the cards with the answers on them, I would post the question on the board. The student with the answer would come up and tape the answer card to the question. Later the students could use these cards to study for tests. (I would put matching numbers on the backs so the students could self check when studying,)

• Chew gum while studying: many students need to have some kind of movement to help them concentrate. I tell my students they can chew the gum as long as I don’t find it under the desks, on the floors, or anywhere else besides their mouths.

• Take frequent breaks – sometimes they may need to go get a drink of water, use the bathroom, or just get up and stretch

• Flat cake pans filled with rice or sand – by writing information in this medium with their fingers helps the student remember or learn new information

These are just some suggestions that might help. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know because I love to add more to my list!

How to Teach the Auditory Learner

Auditory learners learn better by hearing information. As a visual learner, I was most comfortable teaching to the visual learner and had to make sure that I also reached learners with other learning styles. I was lucky because my husband is an auditory learner so I was able to try lessons on him to see if it worked for auditory learners.

Here are some techniques that worked well with my auditory learners.
• When presenting reading material to the class, have the material read aloud whenever possible.
• Use of tape recorder to prerecord material so the student can use headphones and hear it while the rest of the class is reading it silently.
– Use service learning students at local high school
– Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts
• Books on tape/CD: if students are reading books independently, offer this option whenever possible.
• Block out extraneous stimuli: have headphones available to block out background noises. The headphones were not plugged into anything but helped muffle noises from the class.
• Highlight essential information: use highlighters to highlight essential information and then read what is highlighted out loud.
• Present a small amount of work: give assignments in small chunks so it is not so overwhelming to the student.
• Glue 2 elbow pieces of PVC pipe. Have students hold one end to their ear and one end to their mouth. They can read aloud whatever they have written to hear if it sounds like what they wanted to say. This helps their reading and writing skills also.
• Read aloud any written directions.
• Have a student repeat or explain the directions.
• Mnemonic Devices – teach students mnemonic devices to help them learn new material (ex. ROYGBIV = the colors of the rainbows; HOMES= names of the Great Lakes; Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally = order of operations) or have students come up with their own.
• Musical jingles – let students make up a song to help remember information and allow them to perform it in class.
• Story telling – have them retell a story in their own words.
• Response modes can be done orally – instead of writing answers down, allow them to answer test questions aloud in a tape recorder.

These are just some suggestions that might help. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know because I love to add more to my list!