Week One

Wow! Week one already? Where did that come from? I’m exactly halfway through my degree now….. and what a great feeling that is.

In our week one tutorial we discussed the use and integration of some fantastic online software that was available to teachers for FREE!!! We focused on one particular software called Padlet (I've attached a link below to the website and a picture of my own attempt at using it). I felt that it was a really valuable tool for classroom use. It allows students to have an opinion on a topic anonymously through the use of a virtual wall. This kind of technology gives students that would normally be self-conscious or embarrassed of their spelling the option to respond to teacher questioning without the worry of peer ridicule.

(http://padlet.com/)

The course materials focused on two topics this week… learning theories and learning styles. While I have looked at both of these topics briefly in other subjects it was great to see them pop up again in this course. Sometimes I find that theory doesn't really ‘click’ with me until I've had enough practical experience to see how it all slots into place. Now that I've been on prac, I can really see the value in choosing what theories you want to incorporate into your own pedagogy and understanding the impact of knowing your students learning styles.

After reading through the different learning theories, it was interesting to see which theories really resounded with my beliefs about teaching. While behaviourism, cognitivism and social constructivism were all familiar theories to me, I hadn't really had anything to do with connectivism. I really related to George Siemens idea that the content of a pipeline isn't nearly as important as the pipeline and connections themselves. In other words, what’s in our brains at this very minute is not nearly as important as our capacity to make connections and learn new content. Without the ability to learn, the brain is simply just an empty pipeline.

While quite a few of my other courses have covered learning styles, I had never completed Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence's test. All of my previous VAK style tests have always showed me to be a mostly visual learner with kinaesthetic tendencies as well. The Gardner test however showed something quite different.  Out of the 8 different intelligence sectors, my two most prominent areas were Linguistic and Intrapersonal. When I really think about it these sectors reflect my learning in a much more accurate way. I really liked Gardner’s theory and would definitely use it in the future. I've included a picture of my results below.

(http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/index.htm)

Understanding the needs of our students is absolutely vital with the education expectations of today. A teacher cannot adequately cater for every student in their class without first spending some time analysing their learning needs, strengths and weaknesses. I also believe that knowing yourself is just as important, if not more so than knowing your students. Through understanding your own learning style, strengths and weaknesses you can ensure that you can diversify your teaching to suit the needs of all students, whether their learning style matches yours or not. 

At the end of the day the onus is on us as teachers to provide our students with the very best version of ourselves. Here's a little quote you might like :) Happy Blogging!

(http://pinterest.com)

Tarina Scoleri