Teaching and Learning

In class Tuesday we started out by defining facilitation. The book defined it as meaning to make something happen or to make it easier. To add to that, we all came up with organizing/structuring, teaching, giving a head start to a topic or activity, and leading. Next we made our own definitions of the meanings of Realness, Acceptance, and Understanding. I think these three components are essential in the classroom so that we are real with our students, don't show favoritism toward any one, and so we can utilize what we know of different learning styles to best suit our students and make the biggest impact.

We all know that most Freshmen don't perform to their full potential their first semester for a whole list of reasons as we came up with in class. Some of these include time management, accountability and responsibility, diversity of staff and students, class size and different teaching styles. I know I had a little trouble with all these and then some. But I think if we can relate to them our experiences, it makes the transition easier. They can now have someone, an upperclassman, to relate to and it will turn out fine. It's just a matter of knowing the best way to relate and share our experiences with our students so that they will hear them and maybe even learn from what we've gone through. Another thing with these challenges is that when our students are faced with them, we need to know how to help them overcome them. But once again, it all goes back to communication.

Everyone has different learning styles and understanding this and using it to our advantage will really help with how our classes turn out. If we can incorporate more than one teaching style we will be able to reach more students and cater to more learning styles. We need to be able to read our students to see what works versus what doesn't so that we are able to get the message of what we are teaching across to them most effectively. It takes time to get the hang of and we'll never be perfect or be able to make everyone completely happy, but by mixing it up and using different styles we can make it more enjoyable for everyone.