Today’s four most common learning styles include visual learning, auditory learning, kinesthetic learning, and, finally, reading and writing. Almost all of our students fall into one of these categories and, as you may guess, since it combines hands-on exploring with solving problems, kinesthetic learning is the one that’s most often associated with hands-on STEM education.
Not every student learns in the same way, has the same skills as each one of their peers, or can find the appeal in all that their teachers want them to try. Age doesn’t matter because all kids have different preferences when it comes to how they learn. Some want to read until they master the content while others have to get hands-on or try something entirely different.
Ideally, every classroom lesson plan and all learning experiences would be designed to foster greater equity for every student in every school building. The fact is, however, that each student is unique. Some need personalized guidance and others, in the same class, might do better with independent exploration. All, however, need school officials to keep equity in mind.
Many teachers still hope to recapture normal instructional experiences and many of them have also taken on added responsibilities because of all new vacancies. And, though, in some districts, teachers have some official SEL guidelines to use, there aren’t concrete procedures in play in many others. So, if they choose to commit to SEL, they may be doing it on their own.
If nothing else, members of the education community have (in a large sense) realized how dire the situation has become and educators have become much more comfortable with sharing their own thoughts and displeasures with the sacrifices they’ve made, including many of which (like these) that are brutally honest and sometimes heartbreaking.
According to the broad acceptance of how learning loss is defined, a large percentage of students will be affected. In order to begin truly addressing this gap, however, teachers might be better off starting with SEL to allow students the chance to adjust and process emotions. From there, they can get in better position to address academics.
Throughout the remote learning era, for better or worse, students of all ages have truly relied on many different technologies to connect, communicate, and access educational experiences. That’s left many educators, administrators, and parents wondering about the role technology will and should play as students begin to return to normal.
PBL units can be incorporated into just about any subject. Students can take part in projects, design simulations, and work together to better their school community or actual community. As plans for the 2021-22 school year are developed this summer, PBL could be a top strategy for ensuring access to game-changing learning opportunities.
For educators, there are a lot of different tech tools they can use. Some are geared towards math education, others towards teaching tech skills, and there are plenty of others for different areas of the curriculum. One of those areas is reading assessment. And, one of those tools for gauging an accurate picture of student reading skills is Literably.
It’s been widely documented how difficult it’s been for special education students and teachers in distance learning. Though we’re a year into this new form of education, teachers are still learning about how to best work with special education students from afar. And, this week, that’s our topic for exploration.
