Teaching the Individual (WW#6)

"If there is one truism about learning, it is that each individual is different and should be taken from where he or she is to where he or she is capable of being." - Newcomb

And this would be why I aspire to be a teacher. I loved reading through our book this week and finding this gem of  a line. As teachers we need to be observant of our students' individual needs and interests. We need to understand the learning abilities of each of our students and then we need to challenge them to reach heights they never thought possible. We need to help students realize their full potential. This is how I come to understand this statement in the world of teaching. It's about taking students from where they are to where they are capable of going. What an awesome job we have as teachers!

If we plan to achieve this goal as educators then we must implement variety into our teaching. In this way we can reach all of our learners with different skills, interests, and needs. I captured this other gem of a line in my notes from class which reads: the more ways we teach, the more ways we reach!This week our reading focused on individualized teaching techniques. These techniques add variety to our classrooms. One of my favorite techniques is notebooks.

Allowing students to be responsible of their own notebooks allows them to develop good note taking skills and work at a pace that is appropriate for each individual. When writing my first unit plan this year, my end of the unit assessment was to have students hand in a portfolio including a notebook. I really liked this idea because I know it aids individuals in developing necessary skills to be successful in all avenues of life; however, I was unaware that it was considered one of the individual teaching techniques highlighted in this book.

I always make sure that my activities, lessons and instructions are created with a purpose and meaning; however, as a beginning teacher I am still learning all of the technical terms and methods to teaching. It's exciting to me to design lesson plans and activities that I find later align with techniques and methods of teaching we learn about in class. I am continually learning new things through readings and my classes. As the year progresses I am constantly piecing together the pieces of this teaching puzzle. At the beginning of the semester I was concerned about doing projects when I didn't know how to implement these activities and strategies. Although only about half way through the semester, I already feel more confident about designing effective lesson plans and constructing an overall Ag program.

Here is a link to another blog that has an excellent resource for an interactive notebook. It looks as though it is designed for the elementary level; however, I was thinking of ways I could alter it for my own classroom! I think it could be very useful!

 Link: http://www.ateacherstreasure.com/2012/04/interactive-student-notebook.html