Teaching and Learning Styles

Hello! My name is Lauren and I am currently obtaining my teaching credential and master’s in education/best practice through National University. This course is my fifth course at National and second course in my master’s program (a tad intimidating). 

I am a mother to a beautiful 19-month old daughter named, Parker Genevieve, wife, avid reader and hiker. One of my most favorite places to hike is in Mammoth Mountain, CA, as seen below.

Although I am not currently teaching, I am looking forward to the opportunity of reaching out to children and helping them achieve their dreams. I understand more than anything, in order to do so, I must help them believe in themselves. I believe that my passion for learning and recently revisiting the concept of being a student myself, will help me relate to my future class on a more even playing field. Learning, I believe, should be engaging, fun, and creative. In order for learning to be all of these things, to all of our students, we must contribute the method of Differentiated Instruction. Differentiated Instruction allows diverse learners to actively engage in their process of learning and demonstrating their knowledge. I am a firm believer in allowing students to choose their method of demonstrating their knowledge; whether they prefer to write a paper, create a power point presentation, blog, or poster board; there are many ways a child can show you what they have learned, and do it in a way that suits, excites and provokes their individualized passion and interests. After all, that is what learning is all about. 

Based on the learning and teaching style survey's provided in Week One's board; I scored "High" on being collaborative, dependent, competitive and a participant learner, and "Moderate" in being avoidant and independent. As a result, I feel as though my personality connects to almost all of the different learners I would have in my classroom, I would just need to focus a little bit more on students who prefer independent learning and shying away. Again, allowing students to choose how they wish to demonstrate their work, as well as creating an equal balance between group work and independent work, I believe I can successfully engage every student and help them meet their educational needs. 


Below are some examples of a method and softwares I intend on using, once I am teaching 3rd grade:

Teaching Matters: Scaffolding
Creating small group workshops for different area subjects such as: literature, music and math etc., will allow me to detect each student's strong and weak points. Having students on the same playing field working together, will provide them the support they need. For example, in a reading group; we would read through the context, stop and then discuss key vocabulary words to ensure each student has comprehended the material appropriately. Once this has been established, we would move on. ELL students, and/or students with special needs will be given extra practice, increased time and elaborate learning strategies. Advanced students can work together together to on advanced material (they should not be given more work, only more advanced work), or help their peers who may need some extra practice. 

With technology being widely incorporated in the classroom these days, it's getting easier, and easier to provide students with special needs, opportunities to learn, engage and demonstrate their knowledge, equally with their peers. Software's such as: BrainPOPJr. (web based learning tool), CLick Speak (a text to speech function designed for sighted users who want to hear text heard a loud) (www.clickspeak.com), and Click-N-Type (a virtual computer providing an alternative to a traditional keyboard to which some students with physical disabilities may not have access.) (www.clickntype.com), can help all students on various levels keep up and remain engaged.