Re: Teaching Styles

by Deryck Ball – Friday,  20 January 2012, 06:53 PM

Katelyn,

As Kayla mentions, getting out and into the field as much as possible and exposing ourselves to as many different teaching styles would be a great way of expanding our teaching/learning styles.  Simply reading about different teaching styles does not set into process an immediate use.

Natasha also makes a great point that Teachers need to take their own initiative and attend Professional Development seminars on Pro-D days in order to become exposed, but more so, comfortable with implementing different teaching styles as described by this weeks reading.

Something that brings us a little closer to the 21st Century that allows us to connect with many different teaching/learning styles worldwide is TWITTER. I know we all took 336 last semester. Developing a PLN on twitter or with other social media sites such as Diigo allow the free flow of ideas/styles back and forth. My PLN that I have been working on for some time now exposes me to so many different ideas and styles, but best of all I can learn from others mistakes too. A lot of the ideas that are shared on TWITTER regarding teaching/learning provide a link to a Blog for further reading.

Maggie I like that you drew attention to the statement that teaching is a “series of decisions that delegate how effectively a student will learn” as I too was taken back a bit by it.  Something in me wanted to say “NOPE, THATS NOT TRUE”, how can the entire teaching profession be deduced to a simple sentence such as that!  After a bit of thought I agree with what you say when you agree with the statement, that “our dedication, teaching styles, and emotional investment” all play a role in shaping how our students will learn.

If we plan to be a “static” teacher, to simply collect a pay-check and head home, then I think developing and gaining a full command of only ONE style will suffice, however I do believe that this will ultimately lead to a very unhappy career, if you could even call it one at that.  Our classrooms will definitely reflect the “melting pot” thatNorth Americais and our Teaching styles will need to reflect some of the subtle intricacies this presents to us as Teachers.