Welcome back to another term.
I hope that you have all had a refreshing break and that you are ready for the next term. For those of you that are new to the profession welcome to the best job in the world, and thank you for being part of the I’m a New Teacher community. For all of you, thank you for your continued support, comments, tweets and feedback. As always, I’m a New Teacher exists to support and champion new teachers.
I thought that I would share a touching video that my wife found over the holidays. This is the story of a nine-year-old boy named Caine Monroy who spent his entire summer holidays building an amazing cardboard arcade in his father’s used car shop. Caine waited the whole of summer and then, on the last day, a customer walked in to buy a door handle from Caine’s father. While the customer was waiting he decided to buy a ‘fun pass’ and became Caine’s first customer.
The customer decided to make a short film about Caine’s Arcade and that changed everything. Please watch to find out what happened.
What would our classrooms and schools look like if they were built solely around the needs and the learning styles of the students?
How do we cater for the unique learning styles of our students within the classroom?
We know that every student excels differently and has a number of ‘intelligences’ (thanks Howard Gardiner), so how do teachers differentiate the curriculum and learning styles accordingly?
This seems like a mammoth task, but there are a few simple ways that we can cater for the needs and learning styles of our class:
- Create opportunity for collaboration and discussion: Organise your tables, or at least have a place where students can go and discuss tasks
- Deliver the subject content in a number of ways; Utilise technologies such as Interactive White Boards (IWBs), iPads, books and images to present information.
- Give students opportunities to reflect on their learning: After each maths lesson my class writes a reflection about what they have leant and how they are going to use that knowledge.
- Think across Key Learning Areas; build links and connections across KLAs. How do the learning outcomes apply to other subjects.
- Have lots of colour and text around the room: Classrooms should be interesting and engaging.
Designing your classrooms and your teaching content around your students’ learning styles can have a huge impact on student learning.