Week 9. Reflections.

This week seems to me the most difficult one because we had not only to check our peers' rough versions of the projects, but complete checking, correcting, or maybe redoing ours. Finally our projects are ready, so the main part of this course has ben done.

This week we have been researching learning styles. There are seven ones:



 

I teach at school for special education, so when we accept new students, we create a learning profile for each one, which includes:

 

- the student's age

 

- gender

 

- cultural background and native language

 

- emotional and social maturity

 

- IQ

 

- which LD he/she has

 

- learning style.

 

How can one teacher adress all of these needs of each student?

 

- by variety of methods

- by flexibility

- by providing multiple options and have another plan of the lesson in store

- by recognizing that NOT all students need to do the same things at the same time and in the same way.

 

In accordance with this data we make an individual educational plan (IED). That means which ways of teaching all the teachers are supposed to use and compound the lesson plans using differentiate instructions. Fortunately we have only 8 kids in each class, so it is not very difficult to work in acordance with the IED. Besides, our school has a team of teacher's assistants who sometimes sit in the classrooms during the lessons and help us. Some kids prefer only solitary learning style, so we try to provide him individual consultations during the school day. Mainly teacher's assistants do that outside the classroom.

 

To sum up, everything that LD teachers do at school is acceptable, even if it has beed considered strange or senseless. Even sitting with a hyperactive kid outside during the lesson and watch the view of the Mediterranean Sea and trying to make him study at least only few words in English or playing a game with him thal looks like a card game. There is only one motto of a LD teacher: "Don't give up!"