All children learn differently so wouldn’t it be great if teachers could implement and utilize a wider variety of teaching strategies?
I’ve been browsing through the site Mentoring Minds which is absolutely fascinating, well at least to me it’s fascinating. No I’m not a teacher, however I was a Manager at a university where I interacted with the prospective students, incoming students and for a long time international students. As well I have done my master’s degree, I’m a mom who has seen her child thrive with teachers who do utilize a variety of effective teaching strategies and struggles with teacher’s who don’t utilize more teaching strategies.
I really love the tag line of this website “Critical Thinking for Life” yes that’s wonderful and it should apply to students and teachers. In fact in my opinion teachers should be life long learners, they’re teaching our children and as new methodologies come into play teachers should be learning about them. As students all learn different and have their own strengths then it should be important to be able to implement a variety of effective teaching strategies. Easier said than done I know and I’m not putting it all on the teachers, they need to be supported as well and given the opportunities for professional development and more.
Learning strategies are almost a passion of mine as I discovered what mine were during my graduate studies and even wrote a paper on the different ways people learn and how our learning needs can vary. That is partly why I’m so fascinated when I come across sites like Mentoring Minds and the information and services they provide. While a variety of teaching strategies is useful there also has to be standards and consistency in place. This is one of the services that Mentoring Minds also provides as part of the teaching strategies and that is helping teachers to also understand the core curriculum. It of course varies from state to state so they help teachers learn CCSS, or Common Core State Standards which provides a list for students, parents and teachers so that they all understand what is expected from each student with each subject.
Whether or you’re a teacher or a life long learner there’s a lot of useful information on Mentoring Minds website. If you have a chance stop on by and browse around.
Disclaimer
General disclaimer applies.
Rebecca Reinwalt says
This is a great review, and your right about each state having it”s own core curriculum. My fiance’ is a teacher here in our school district and there are so many teachers,both old and new that are leaving the profession because our state has stepped in and started mandating what and how they will teach. Some of these new mandates give my fiance’, who is a special ed teacher at the elementary level, less than 24 hours to change how/what they are teaching and come up with materials as well as lesson plans that fall within these mandates. Our state also has a mandatory test , once called TAKS now called STAR, that students MUST pass or it is the teachers fault and with the “No Child Left Behind” mandates as well, it’s almost impossible to be able to teach anything beyond what is required to pass these tests. It’s nothing more than a bureaucratic roller coaster that leaves the students on the loosing end.
Although his contract states his work hours are from 7:50 am to 3:50 pm , there have been many days (more often than not , nightly) that he has to bring work home and stays up till 11pm or later and with both of us working on it, still has to get up at 5 am the next morning to finish (and we live less than 2 minutes from the school where he teaches). Even his weekends are taken up with school work. Yet, his pay stays the same with all these hours worked at home. Sure, he gets a planning period… 40 minutes in which he must also eat his lunch and make/return calls to parents. And yes, our state requires that teachers receive a certain amount of CEU’s in order to maintain their certificates. And unless they use their personal days off during the school year, these CEU’s must be done in the summertime, fully unpaid.
Once upon a time, my fiance’ loved his job. But with the government sticking their nose into education the way they have, the size of classes almost tripling from what they were when you and I were in school and the molly coddling of students that now has to be done (we never has special teachers to spend part of the day with because we couldn’t sit still, pay attention etc.) no such thing back when I was in school such as ADD, ADHD or many of the other “initial” diseases they are raining down on students now days. And yet, without all this.. most everyone I went to elementary school with went on to graduate (I say most because as with all neighborhoods, families moved and I don’t know what happened with some of the children I went to school with).
kim l says
Great review! I will have to check it out. I have always wondered why educational professionals in our country, seem to teach like all kids learn the same way. I’ve had too many IEP meetings with my kids schools, and have always left them feeling very frustrated that they refuse to change the “carbon copy” teaching style, unless forced to via an IEP. Even then, most of the agreed upon modifications to your child’s Individualized Education Plan are minimal at best, and more likely to not happen at all-from my experience with it. Even if you go in with professional test results done by an outside psychologist, telling them exactly how your child learns best/differently, the teacher is still going to teach the same way to all the students in the classroom. In my opinion, this lack of flexibility in US curriculums does a great disservice to our kids, and our nation. Thanks.
Debbie says
When I was a child I wish my teachers had tried didn’t ways to get me to learn ,because alot of it I just didn’t understand and when I would say I still didn’t understand they would get mad at me,! instead of trying to teach me from a different point of view. So any how I would stop asking, because I didn’t want them mad at me and would finally say yes, I understand even though I didn’t. I still can’t believe not one of them through the years reliazed even after seeing my papers that I didn’t get it. If I had I wouldn’t still be getting F’s! Just saying yes, they should try different strategies!
Dorothy Boucher says
just went and checked there website out, so much information.. i do agree that i think teachers do have an important role to play since our children are with them a good percentage of there young life, but i also feel parents need to step up to the plate and play there part, i think if both can work at it , our children would be more apt to learning more..