Day 1: How does knowledge of the way people learn related to the experience of being a teacher?

This is Rachel Harmon's blog.  I am helping a 5th grade class at Orem Elementary.  During my visit I was able to observe the students take turns reading out loud as a class.  There was an assembly while I was there so I was able to go with the class.  It was the book "Evertaster" written by Adam Glendon Sidwell.  It was interesting to observe how he was able to keep the children's attention.  For example the author had some of the students help out by reading part of his book or him being silly and not too serious.

How does knowledge of the way people learn related to the experience of being a teacher?

While I was there I helped out one of the students do their weekly spelling packet.  One of the papers he was suppose to fill out, it had clues and you had to think of which word fit by adding letters. For example, the clue was "These are what musicians read to play music." The answer was notes.  I had to help the student using the constructivism learning theory to find the answer.  That theory states that knowledge is constructed based on personal experience.  I had to use what the 5th grader knew to help him acquire the answer.  Since he had a hard time thinking of the solution, I had to give him hints.  It was rewarding to see the student get the correct answer.  Since being in this class I have been able to acquire the knowledge of how people learn.  This knowledge relates to the experience of being a teacher by the way to help/teach the student information.  The student that I helped on a one on one basics I feel he learns differently than other students.  Just like other students learn differently than each other.  I was trying to help him with the auditory (learning by hearing) modality.  It was working to an extent but I feel if I was using another modality he would of understood easier.

Relating the question back to my experiences at the assembly, I feel the author did a great job at teaching students how to write a book.  He used the different learning modalities, which are: Auditory, Kinesthetic/Tactile, and Visual.  He showed a video (Visual) on how to make graphics in movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Tron.  The students listened to him talk about the steps on writing a book (auditory).  He was able to keep everything on a basic level so they could understand.   The only thing he did to use kinesthetic modality was have some of the students act out part of his story.  Overall I feel my experience at this elementary school was beneficial because I was able to connect what I learned doing the bookwork with hands on classroom experience.