When I was in school, I never studied. School just came pretty easy to me. This was a blessing, but it was really more of a curse. Once I started college, I was shocked to learn that I had to actually read the books, listen in class, AND study! This was all so foreign to me. I now know that I was an auditory and kinesthetic learner. I learned by listening, touching, feeling, experiencing, and doing.
I have no idea how many nights I spent staying up all night, cramming for tests, making flashcards, and typing up my notes. I made practice tests for myself and tried studying with friends. Unfortunately, those all nighters turned out to be the most productive for me.
I became a teacher and changed my approach to testing. I made it a goal to teach my students how to correctly take notes on the material I presented. I taught them strategies for studying which included making old-fashioned flashcards and using online resources such as online flashcards.
With the advent of the internet came a huge collection of online learning materials . I quickly embraced technology in my classroom. My students loved my classes because they knew they would be doing all kinds of great hands-on experiments and would spend tons of time using technology in and out my classroom. I took advantage of my students love computers and created my own teaching website. I knew they were going to play games online, so why not provide them with games that would help them learn while they played? They didn’t care, they just had fun!
During my last year of teaching, I received a subscription to use Gizmos with my students. This is a FABULOUS site for science and math. It allowed my students to get more practice with the concepts we learned in the classroom, but applied the concepts in new settings. It also allowed them to get that hands-on experience even without having all of the equipment and addressed the many learning styles of my students.
Even though so much has changed in our world, learning is still something we must do to succeed. Hopefully, you’ll take advantage of a few of these resources to help your kids learn in their own way.
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