My Learning Style

       Based on the online quiz I took about learning styles, my learning style is best defined as a medley.  Being quite balanced with nearly all my numbers being "3's" or "5's", there is evidence that I do have my preferences, but that I am easily able to learn in more than one style.  For example, I love maps, charts, graphs and the like.  My eyes gravitate to those first when given a choice between them and written text.  Nevertheless, I can read.  And I learn tons by doing so.  The same can be said for the auditory vs. visual styles.  Whereas I love to listen and will often choose this format for knowledge intake, I have tested higher as a visual learner.

     What this shows me about teaching (or SPEAKS to me about teaching for those of you auditory types out there), is that different students have different ways of preferred learning.    That is the broadly accepted consensus in today's educationaly circles.  Differentiated Instruction methods are popular dishes for administrators to serve to their already satiated teachers.   However, there is another thing that these quiz results show and speak to me about learning styles.  That the preferred way is not the only way a student learns.

     That last observation is something that certain modern administrators need to get a handle on.  Whereas mixing up the teaching methods in a lesson is all well and good, it sometimes isn't feasible.  If we work under the assumption that certain students have to learn a certain way, we may miss the fact that they can and should get used to learning a different way.  If they simply cannot learn in a specific way, then we as their teachers should teach them how to learn in said way.  Isn't one of our goals as eductors to incite our charges to be lifelong learners?  Indeed it is!  Thus one of the nicest things we could do for our "visual learner" is teach them how to also be an auditory learner.  And one of the best things we could do for our "slow student" is teach them how to be fast.

     Coddling students by catering to only their desires and learning preferences doesn't help them in the long run.  As educators we have the ability to pull pupils out of their comfort zones and bring them to new places they have yet to explore and enjoy!

Why I Want to Be a Teacher

Actually, I already am a teacher.  I have taught for the past 13 years.  What initially prompted my interest was a minor speedbump in my schooling called graduation.  Upon receiving my ornately embossed Masters degree diploma, I realized I should probably do something about it.  But the thing I had planned on doing with said degree fell through.  So I did what any sane person who had never taken a single course in education and had never earned a teaching certificate would do: I applied to be a teacher.  Naturally, with credential like that, I got the job.
Just prior to that first teaching position I answered phones for a living.   Now, taking phone orders for personal hygiene products was every bit as life-fulfilling as you imagine it would be.  But one can only say, "Order processing this is Brian how may I help you?" 179, 062 times before it gets boring.  So I felt it was time for a change.  Furthermore, I took a spiritual gifts inventory survey - which is sort of like a Myers-Briggs personality test - to learn what my areas of gifting were.  And what do you suppose my #1 gift would be?  Alas, it was teaching!  Having nudged out lion-taming and spandex modeling as close seconds, I decided to work in the area where I was most richly endowed.  So I began teaching.

It was a good move.  My first school had no principal, no curriculum, very little organization, and even less money.  It was perfect!  Why you ask?  Because for the first time ever, I was doing what the good Lord had hard-wired me to do.  It was as fulfilling as anything I had ever done.  When it fits, it fits.  You just know it.  I loved it then and thirteen years later I love it still.

Over those years I have taught Logic, Speech, American History, World Geography, Earth Science, Honors Spanish, Old Testament, New Testament, and REL2300 Comparative Religions.  The age range has extended from 5th grade through college and the fun never ends.  I am glad I'm a teacher and am quite sure I have not missed my calling.  Although....late at night, every once in a while, I do wonder what that spandex modeling would have been like.