Module 4 - Theoretical Foundations - Leo Cross

My view of how students learn and how best to communicate with them:

As a substitute teacher, I’ve learned a great deal about what does and doesn’t work, and it differs with gender, grade level, and even the day of the week.   For the most part, a small number of students completely blow off a video.  The lights get turned out in order to see the TV screen.  Students are tired and lay down their heads, while others find it to be an opportunity to goof off and attempt to text message because it’s less noticeable.  I think the best learning environment is one in which the lights are on and there’s constant interaction.  I find that when I’m reviewing a chapter lesson, the students perk up when I provide them an example of my own real life.  For instance, if the class is talking about flights before and after 9-11, I’m able to relate with some funny stories tied to (now) more serious stories.  When they realize that the chapter can come to life through me, it somehow makes them more attentive, making it more real or believable to the student.  So not only will I provide lecture, but I’ll incorporate real life into it and ask for volunteer contributions from the students.

            As a future Language Arts teacher, I plan to have book talks.  Assigning certain books to certain groups will be the key to the book talks.  Each week, I’ll supervise discussions about these books, volunteering some food for thought, which may or may not give them a different perspective.  They may even have a new take on a novel that I hadn’t considered.  That will make me so proud, knowing my student was brave enough to speak on behalf of his/her own analysis.

            I truly believe that recognition/validation is key to a successful student.  I’ve seen it work many times and personally know of its benefits.  I pride myself on being a good listener.  I’m only a sub, but students are always coming to me with conflicts because they value my listening ability.  Honestly, though, I never give them a rock solid answer.  What I do is give them some options to think about, allowing them to choose their own fork in the road.  This, too, is my pre-teacher way of getting students to think for themselves, resolving conflict, and learning from their decision.  They seem to appreciate this.  Hopefully they make the right decision and feel good about themselves.

What I believe is the best way to assess the learning characteristics of my students:

Allowing students to do work in all of the different learning styles – listening, watching, and hands-on – might take too long.  I will want to get a grip, pretty quickly, so that I don’t waste a moment of students’ learning.  Being an English class, my students will be required to read, analyze readings, present analysis of readings, and do research.  I feel it best to leave the first few assignments up to the student, as far as the presentation choice and their sensory preference.  If someone wants to present an analysis in the form of a video or musical creation, then I’ll immediately know of their preferred style and talent.  If someone prefers a show-and-tell/hands-on type of presentation, that will also be great.  If a typed report is what works best for a student, because he/she may be a private-type of person, that’s perfectly fine.  With the different presentations of reading analysis, I will have a quick awareness of what works best for my students.  I’ll always leave that door open for them.  Forcing them to present in a way that is not comfortable is only a means to deter a student from a willingness to learn.  I can’t know if this will work or if it is even logical, but it’s what I believe I want to consider.

I’ve not yet determined how I’ll work at coaxing some of the students slightly out of their realm of learning in order to give them a taste of the other styles.  I think that’s important, as well, because they will certainly be forced to do so in college. 

My personal teaching style and how I will adapt it to my students’ needs:

My personal learning style is intrapersonal, so I will have a great understanding of those who wish to not work in groups.  Working in groups has failed me on a number of occasions.  There’s always one bad egg in the group that causes a loss of points, reflecting on everyone.  I’ll leave group work up to a vote by the class, because there are likely several students for whom this technique works.  With every assignment, I wish to offer all varieties and possibilities of completing the work.  I even want to get the students’ opinions as to what works and doesn’t work, letting them debate the logistics of their conclusions.  Making students think and validating their efforts is what I plan to accomplish, that which is my style.  Keeping them involved in their own education might just encourage them to do well.  Just as chapter two describes perspective as different people looking at the same thing, yet seeing it differently, I’ll understand that my students’ perspectives on how best to complete assignments will differ.

How educational technology fits into my teaching style and my future students’ learning styles:

Again, as an English teacher, there will be a lot of reading and writing and/or presentations.  Depending on what the school has to offer, technologically, everything will be fair game as far as I’m concerned.  However the student feels most comfortable presenting his/her analysis of a reading is what I want the student to do.  With report writing, many of us dread the works cited page.  Even with a technology-used analysis, works cited will have to be presented.  The information for their creation had to come from somewhere.  So I won’t be encouraging them to do just “stuff”, rather I’ll be encouraging the same research as anyone else without it feeling like a dreadful research paper.  It’s only the means of presentation that will differ.

My multiple intelligence strengths and weaknesses:

I tested highest under Intrapersonal (myself smart), then comes Kinaesthetic (body smart).  My lowest scores, from lowest to highest, were Musical (musical smart), Interpersonal (people smart), and Logical (number smart).  I believe it.  I work very hard to line my ducks into a perfect row.  I’m very hard on myself – always trying to perfect, yet it’s never perfect enough!  My mind thinks all of the time, and it gets quite tiring. 

As a nurse, I’ve had to be able to look at a person and evaluate a situation in only seconds.  Often-times, there’s little time to react, so one has to process all of the audio and visual issues at hand.  You might say that when this is happening, my face looks like the screen on War Games as Joshua (the computer) is running through all of the possible ways to win the war (game).  That is my strength:  evaluating and acting quickly in emergency situations.

My weakness in the area of music and numbers doesn’t bother me.  As far as socializing, I just don’t have it in me.  I’ve always been what I call a loner.  It isn’t lonely.  To me, it’s safe and relaxing.  In my busy world, I need a retreat.  I suppose this is considered a weakness, but I love “me” time.  I just wish I had time to actually have some!  Does this need to be distant from people affect my work as a nurse or a substitute teacher?  No way.  I love helping people.  When the clock strikes “work time”, I’m on.  I do what I need to do to be able to hear and help people.  When the clock strikes “closing time”, I’m done – at least with work.  There’s always more to do as a wife and mother.