Web 2.0 Educator

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Learning Style Inventory Results

Here is the graph that shows my results:




My Style Scores:

Visual -18
Social - 14
Physical- 12
Aural- 13
Verbal -17
Solitary-12
Logical-11

These results fit my personal beliefs on my learning style well. I am very visual in how I learn, yet I still have high scores in my other styles. There are little things about each style that apply to me. For instance, my lowest score was logical, yet I use logic a lot when solving puzzles, putting things together, and thinking deeply about a story I have read. All styles are pretty high and I hope this helps me relate to all my students, not just the students that are visual learners like me.

My MEL experiences

• Student /Teacher relationships:
  Last semester in college I had geology class. My professor fit this category so well. He was firm and made sure we knew what we needed to accomplish, yet everyday was filled with loads of humor and funny remarks injected into his lecture. He said them as they popped into his head and they were just so funny. His humor really helped me focus on the difficult content we were learning and made me want to go to class everyday.

• Hands on: activities:
  One of my favorite high school teachers was my French/ English teacher. She is older and therefore has a very traditional way of teaching: by speaking to us, talking and reading about a certain topic, then filling out worksheets she provides to learn more about the topic. Yet Mrs. Litchfield also had plenty of years of experience behind her and knew that you had to throw in some hands on activities to help the class pass by. One of my most favorite activities she did with us was when we created a Jeopardy board on the back of a pull down map. We wrote down the vocabulary we had been learning, English on one side, French on the other. Then we played! We had to ask for the amount of money in French, we had to say the phrase “what is…and the answer” in French, besides just thinking of the word we needed to say. There were some words I couldn’t think of and I wanted to remember and say them so badly that I wanted to go home right then and study all my vocabulary words and know them by heart. That activity was very successful in getting me motivated, and I plan on using it in my classroom.

• Learning styles:
  My high school was very good about testing each student and making sure they knew what learning style they were. I knew from early on that I was visual. One day in my Biology class my teacher Ms. Herbert asked us all to write down our learning style and place it on a piece of paper so she could see it, like a name tag. Ms. Herbert was a visual learner just like me. She then told all her visual learners to imagine in their minds that we were in a large field with tall grass. If we walked through the grass once and looked behind us we would see that the grass was a little bent, but had popped right back up. But if we kept walking on that same path over and over again and again, each time the grass would lay down more and more, and the path we were making would be more and more visible. Then she told us that this path in the field was the way we learn things. The first time we hear something it doesn’t stay in our minds long. We must go over the new information time and time again, until it was pact down in our brains. I loved this visual analogy, and the lesson has still stuck with my today!

• Helping students succeed:
  In the third grade class I tutor in there is a young girl who moved here late this past fall. She was far behind all the other students in her reading and writing skills. I tried to work hard with her on her spelling words each week. She could hardly get one word spelt correctly. I was so hard because I wanted her to succeed so badly. I never once doubted that Kayla could get her spelling words correct. Even when she constantly mixed up and spelt the words When and went wrong time and time again, I made sure to stay positive and make sure she knew that we could get them down. I was confident that she could get them down if she kept trying. I can’t remember if she got those specific words correct on her test that week, but I do know that since then she has still been trying hard at home and she has started to learn more words. It is hard, but it makes me happy to see that she is not getting discouraged.

• Connections:
  Another example from the third grade classroom was the activities the students do when reflecting on the chapters they just read in their reading. One activity is they try to find connections between the events in the chapter and events from their own life, or other books. This activity really gets them thinking outside the box and helps them relate the story to their personal lives. It helps practice logical thinks and figuring out how to find small bits of information that connects to other places, events, or themselves.
  

Type I and Type II Technology

Type I technology uses forms of technology to aid traditional teaching methods.
* taking notes on a Smart Board and saving them
* a cassette recording of journal entries
* typing tutor programs in elementary school- it spits letters at you and you type them.

Type II technology uses new and more efficient types of computer technology; allowing students to interact with each other and the technology while learning.
* online (blogging) debate
* typing contests
* recording on itunes of class performing Romeo and Juliet


Citation: Internet Applications of Type II uses of Technology in Education (2005) by Cleborne D. Maddux and D. Lamont Johnson, editors. NY: Haworth Press.

What is a WebQuest

~ January 21,2010 at 8:12.

My Guess: I believe WebQuest is a place online where we can go and look at "reliable" resources for projects.

~January 21, 2010 at 8:52.

Partial understanding: After going to the WebQuest site and receiving instructions for the "quest" that I have been sent on, I understand more of what it is about. WebQuest is where I will learn about the MEL model. will create a presentation in either one of three programs and I will use one of the learning styles to present it. So if I am visual, then I ill make my presentation visually.

~ January 25, 2010 at 12:56.

Better comprehension: I know understand more of what MEL is all about. MEL is ways in which teachers can fully engage their students into their class work, while using type I and type II ways of learning. MEL is broken up into four categories which highlight big topics or areas that teachers should focus on improving. By making improvements to the teachers’ way of teaching, way of presenting the content, and the teachers’ attitude about learning, the students can feel more relaxed and eager to learn.

~January 28 at 9:05

Final evaluation: After creating and judging MEL presentations, I now have a clear understanding for what WebQuest is. WebQuest is a model of teaching that bring 9 important elements into consideration for effecitve classroom learning. By foucusing on and perfecting these 9 compontents, a classroom can become more efficient and produce greater learning results. Classrooms not following this model may experience unengage students, a lack or teacher/ student relationships, and lack a variety of teahcing styles, learning models, and creatvity. MEL helps teachers develop and use a variety of learn resoucres and materials, create positive and fun relationships, and encourage studnets to do the best they can. The MEL learning model demonstrates and explains these goals.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

Some teachers can be very easy going and many students like them. Other teachers can be very strict and authoritative and are “hated” by most students, but respected.

This part of the chapter jumped out at me the most because I already think ahead to what my personality will be like. I know that I will not tolerate any cell phone texting in class or any gossiping/ whispering in the classroom corners during class. I will be stricter than some teachers I have had, yet I always want to have a smile on my face. I want and hope to find that balance that this chapter speaks of. I try to think about how I can say the right commands and responses the right way each day, so that I will not be viewed as a mean teacher, but a fair one that uses class time wisely and engages all the students in the room.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

Questionnaires are great resources for teachers in the beginning of the year to help them get to know their students. Questionnaires give lots of information about the new students to the teacher and can help the teacher determine what info that class already knows or doesn’t know yet.

This part of the chapter reminded me of my own high school experiences and the effective way that my teachers got to know me in many ways. Surveys were one of those ways. I remember taking a few questionnaires and I found them quite fun. I hope to not only use questionnaires at the beginning of the school year to get to know my new students, but I also intend to have the students take “pop quizzes” over some core materials I plan to cover that year. By doing this quiz, which wouldn’t be graded, I can see if my students are above or behind my expectations and adjust my course work accordingly.