Learning Styles

I finally got around to giving my students a real learning styles inventory (as opposed to the very brief one I gave the first week). The data that came from this one inventory was obviously far more detailed and thus more useful to me. Also the fact it came in October actually made it more useful to me as opposed to something given in August which would have been ignored by the overwhelmed first-year teacher.

That explanation aside, I found the data to be interesting. Overall the classes broke down fairly similarly in terms their learning styles. The vast majority of my students are auditory or visual learners with a few tactile learners in each class.

I have been making some effort to accomodate different learning types. I now always play the audio version of a story so that auditory learners can follow along more easily. I try to keep interesting visuals (i.e. Powerpoints, word walls, and posters) to encourage learning. My biggest trouble has come with making my classroom more hospitable to tactile learners.

I want integrate more kinestic activities into my classroom. As soon as I feel more comfortable with more than one student out of their seat at a time, I want to have more activities involving movement, acting, et cetera. I am also thinking about having an in-class project.

Overall I feel like my ability to meet the needs of all my students will improve throughout the year as I find my bearings, get ideas from other teachers, and settle down a bit. I feel OK with where I am now but know there is a lot of room for growth.