Friday, December 2, 2011
Motivation: What is the key?
How many learning coaches encounter frustration when working with students? The feeling of anxiety and overall anger as to the hopelessness of trying to motivate an unmotivated child. There are different theories and strategies that can help assist in the process of learning which could be the key to understanding the frustration of a child and the emotional stress of learning.
In my opinion as an educator, here are my three suggestions to motivating a child to learn. First, understand the learning styles and multiple intelligences in which a child learns. I believe that understanding their strengthens in learning will assist any teacher or learning coach to differentiate instruction and make their educational journey individualized. Keeping the individual in mind, we can gear instruction toward their strengthens that will have a positive effect on their self-esteem.
Second, learning needs to be an active process so engagement should be a priority for students. Using emerging technologies or just taking content off the page and into a hands on experience will keep the mind of a student thinking and looking for ways to solve problems. Don't give students all the answers as we need them to make steps to be a self-directed thinker! Making sure that students take the steps in their education should also help build that self-esteem. As learning coaches I know you feel a huge amount of pressure during the day to complete lessons; however, a student should be a part of this process. Showing students the benefits of being self-directed will only engage the students even more.
Finally, making sure that the focus of learning is not just academic, but for the whole child. Students go through many changes in their lives and we must make sure there is focus on mental and emotional growth of a child. Their feelings are just as important as learning to read since a child will form connections with the content their are reading. If a student is frustrated, acknowledge that frustration and don't just play it down. When math is difficult, acknowledge that difficulty but also encourage to keep working through frustration. Not completing a content of study because of frustration will only make the stress of that content of study even greater. With ensuring the growth of the whole child, it will again strengthen the self-esteem of a child and want them to try harder in their learning.
As you can see, I have three strategies to help motivate a child but the overall theme to learning is building a child's self-esteem! Once a student has confidence in themselves, there is nothing that will hold them back:) What are your thoughts, feelings, or comments on motivating a child? Sharing your thoughts with our community will build our bank of strategies:)
In my opinion as an educator, here are my three suggestions to motivating a child to learn. First, understand the learning styles and multiple intelligences in which a child learns. I believe that understanding their strengthens in learning will assist any teacher or learning coach to differentiate instruction and make their educational journey individualized. Keeping the individual in mind, we can gear instruction toward their strengthens that will have a positive effect on their self-esteem.
Second, learning needs to be an active process so engagement should be a priority for students. Using emerging technologies or just taking content off the page and into a hands on experience will keep the mind of a student thinking and looking for ways to solve problems. Don't give students all the answers as we need them to make steps to be a self-directed thinker! Making sure that students take the steps in their education should also help build that self-esteem. As learning coaches I know you feel a huge amount of pressure during the day to complete lessons; however, a student should be a part of this process. Showing students the benefits of being self-directed will only engage the students even more.
Finally, making sure that the focus of learning is not just academic, but for the whole child. Students go through many changes in their lives and we must make sure there is focus on mental and emotional growth of a child. Their feelings are just as important as learning to read since a child will form connections with the content their are reading. If a student is frustrated, acknowledge that frustration and don't just play it down. When math is difficult, acknowledge that difficulty but also encourage to keep working through frustration. Not completing a content of study because of frustration will only make the stress of that content of study even greater. With ensuring the growth of the whole child, it will again strengthen the self-esteem of a child and want them to try harder in their learning.
As you can see, I have three strategies to help motivate a child but the overall theme to learning is building a child's self-esteem! Once a student has confidence in themselves, there is nothing that will hold them back:) What are your thoughts, feelings, or comments on motivating a child? Sharing your thoughts with our community will build our bank of strategies:)
Monday, November 7, 2011
Learning Styles
What type of learner are you? Have you ever thought about how well you learn? Well how about our students? All students learn differently! Therefore in order to level the playing field for all students we need to focus on how they learn. There are many schools of thought on learning styles but there are three specific ways to learn.
1. Auditory--will understand by hearing
2. Visual--will understand by seeing
3. Kinesthetic ---will understand by doing
I am a kinesthetic learner and I always need to "touch" in order to capture concepts in my head. I am so kinesthetic in all that I do, I even need to touch the keys to make sure I have the right ones. I walk through stores and grab clothes to feel them so I know the kind of material. If I was a visual, I would read the tag!
Another idea of learning are Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. He believes there are 8 different ways to learn. We are not limited to just one type of intelligence as there are different levels of learning.
Gardner is a teacher at Harvard and has been studying this topic for a long time!
Please come to our Parent Learning Sessions to get more information about learning styles and how to connect the styles to each child to maximize learning!
1. Auditory--will understand by hearing
2. Visual--will understand by seeing
3. Kinesthetic ---will understand by doing
I am a kinesthetic learner and I always need to "touch" in order to capture concepts in my head. I am so kinesthetic in all that I do, I even need to touch the keys to make sure I have the right ones. I walk through stores and grab clothes to feel them so I know the kind of material. If I was a visual, I would read the tag!
Another idea of learning are Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. He believes there are 8 different ways to learn. We are not limited to just one type of intelligence as there are different levels of learning.
Gardner is a teacher at Harvard and has been studying this topic for a long time!
Please come to our Parent Learning Sessions to get more information about learning styles and how to connect the styles to each child to maximize learning!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Utilizing the OLS x Multiple Children= Organized Chaos!
In 1996, Michael Keaton and Andie MacDowell started in a movie called Multiplicity. It is about a man that learns how to multiple himself to do chores and such for his wife so he could do whatever he wanted. It turned out to be a problem and the husband learns that he needs to give all he can with the one person he knows best: himself.
Now wouldn't that be wonderful to multiply yourself to help get everything done that needs to get completed in one day. I don't know about you, but I am OK with the basics such as dishes, made beds, dinner made, some playtime, reading at night, and off to bed. Now that September is over, which I can't believe, we can focus our energy on moving forward and utilizing the tools we have for instruction. I hope you took September to understand the curriculum, create a small routine, and set goals for the school year. In October we will begin to understand how to utilize the online school (OLS) and how to work with multiple children. Time management and organization is key so we will discuss and turn to our learning coaches for their best practices during our session.
So what are your best practices? How can you make it work? What tools do you utilize during the day? What frustrations do you still have at the end of your day? Please share your responses with our community as we will only get stronger with skills from each other! I hope to see you at the sessions and please know I can be reached at anytime!!
Now wouldn't that be wonderful to multiply yourself to help get everything done that needs to get completed in one day. I don't know about you, but I am OK with the basics such as dishes, made beds, dinner made, some playtime, reading at night, and off to bed. Now that September is over, which I can't believe, we can focus our energy on moving forward and utilizing the tools we have for instruction. I hope you took September to understand the curriculum, create a small routine, and set goals for the school year. In October we will begin to understand how to utilize the online school (OLS) and how to work with multiple children. Time management and organization is key so we will discuss and turn to our learning coaches for their best practices during our session.
So what are your best practices? How can you make it work? What tools do you utilize during the day? What frustrations do you still have at the end of your day? Please share your responses with our community as we will only get stronger with skills from each other! I hope to see you at the sessions and please know I can be reached at anytime!!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Mid Way Through September
Congratulations for making it to this point in September! I am sure you have enjoyed your weekends as they have given you time to relax and refocus your goals for each week. During an Enrollment Experience last Friday I over heard Beth Santangelo, Director of the Parent Ambassador Program, tell a family to write down three goals as to why you have chosen to enroll at PA Virtual. She said then on those days that are challenging you go back to those goals to remember the reason for this adventure. Personally, I think this advise Beth gave to the families was perfect as we can always loss site of what is important to us while in the thick of our daily activities.
I challenge you to try this activity tonight in two different ways. First as a family discuss what the goals are for your family and write them down. Hang them in a place where it can be seen by all. Secondly write down the goals of why you have decided to enroll you children at PA Virtual. We all know why we want them to receive a solid education, but why does this environment seem to work for you.
We will continue to venture down this road each month, week, or even day together and remember to keep those lines of communication open so teachers, FSCs, guidance counselors, and more can build a foundation each child's education!
I challenge you to try this activity tonight in two different ways. First as a family discuss what the goals are for your family and write them down. Hang them in a place where it can be seen by all. Secondly write down the goals of why you have decided to enroll you children at PA Virtual. We all know why we want them to receive a solid education, but why does this environment seem to work for you.
We will continue to venture down this road each month, week, or even day together and remember to keep those lines of communication open so teachers, FSCs, guidance counselors, and more can build a foundation each child's education!
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