Every week there is so much to learn and talk about, and this week is no different. I thrill to each topic and our collective goal of being more nuanced each day.
Like most of you, I am and have always been a general educator. That means that I was a high school math teacher and a middle school science and math teacher. That’s what I was trained to be.
Learning styles and learning style inventories have been around for a long time, but they have recently been viewed as fairly useless. Read Moran’s “Why you shouldn’t waste your time with learning styles.” It even cites our textbook for this class! The conversation really should be about differentiation - the varied approaches to teaching the same piece of content so that we assure that all learners can access and master it.
Like I said, I am a general educator. My child, though, is not a “general” learner. She has multiple learning disabilities, an IEP, and needs specific accommodations and help to be successful. For a general educator like myself, being immersed into the world of special education has been a complete joy. Certainly I can say that I have gained a LOT more nuance because I shepherd this wonderful child through life, through schooling. So, I always knew that differentiation was important, but now more than ever I see it benefit my child moment-by-moment.
Well, I think it is time you meet our daughter, Helena. She has just turned 14-years-old and will be entering the high school this Fall. In this video, you will hear her address what she has learned in regards to Disability Justice. Brace yourself. This is some of her best work so far as a child activist!
We must teach kids the way they learn.
We must dig deeply and constantly be teaching to the child.
This week we’ll dig a bit deeper into differentiation, ways students approach content, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, Disability Justice, and cooperative learning. Gosh! I find that there is so much joy and intrigue in all of the things we have to learn to become nuanced educators!