From the fact that I went in for the first full day of professional development (PD), I’d say it looks like summer is over. Most public schools went back to school a couple of weeks ago, but since I work at a private school, I have a different schedule that starts and ends later. During the next week and a half, I will be going through some PD training along with the rest of the faculty at my school. This is the first time I’ll be going through this process as a teacher in the United States, so I am a little bit nervous and don’t know what to expect. But, today’s topics were informative and the teachers at my school are both inviting and collaborative. So, I am excited about what the rest of the PD days hold.
Among the topics we discussed today, we focused mostly on Learning Styles Strategies for teaching. This is in which students are sometimes visual learners, auditory learners, or tactile/kinesthetic learners. My principal encouraged us to consider that we may learn differently than we teach. I learned that although I am a visual and tactile/kinesthetic learner, most of my lessons are based strongly on auditory and visual learning styles with minimal emphasis on tactile/kinesthetic learning styles. As an English teacher, I have focused on learning skills using highlighters and color systems, creating graphic organizers and outlines, accessing knowledge and communicating knowledge through images as well as discussion, writing, and oral presentations. I’ve used some acting and role playing activities, but maybe partly because I have some personal tactile/kinesthetic learner “guilt” and partly because my previous employer frowned on any types of games, I’ve been concerned about these activities being seen as pure “play.” Is it just too much fun?
Playing games, acting and role playing, and incorporating movement of different kinds can make learning fun, but these experiences can also make learning more meaningful to students, especially learners who need to move around or manipulate materials in order to really relate to the material. This year, I am going to try and think outside the box about how to incorporate auditory/kinesthetic learning activities into my classroom.
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