Teachable Moments
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Matching the Goods with your Clintele
On a recent business trip, I took the airport shuttle to my hotel. There were about 25 other people on the shuttle that I had never met.
Each passenger relinquished their luggage to the driver and sat down for
the ride.
Once we arrived at the hotel, the driver asked all the passengers to exit
the shuttle bus and wait outside for their luggage.
What was incredibly amazing to me was that this driver went back and forth
into the bus and handed everyone their luggage by memory! Even folks who
had 3-5 bags (that didn't match). He knew exactly whose bag was to be
given to which passenger!
It made me think of all of us as educators...
We need to be knowledgeable about each of our students and match
our instructional practices, strategies and styles to meet their
needs.
It should not be "one size fits all", but rather that we are so in-tuned
with the unique qualities of each of our students that we make learning
come alive to meet their emotional, intellectual, and affective needs!
How can this be accomplished...you ask?
Learn their names quickly, stand at the door and greet your students everyday, send a newsletter or create a classroom blog for your parents, select assignments that can be completed with the involvement of the family, celebrate learning with a print-rich room environment, visit students' homes, learn the language (or enough to communicate) of your students, create surveys, lessons, group activities that tap the students' interests, intelligences, hobbies, dispositions. You can also create a culture in your classroom where all of your students feel themselves to be a part of a learning community.
Match the "Goods" with your Clientele!
Each passenger relinquished their luggage to the driver and sat down for
the ride.
Once we arrived at the hotel, the driver asked all the passengers to exit
the shuttle bus and wait outside for their luggage.
What was incredibly amazing to me was that this driver went back and forth
into the bus and handed everyone their luggage by memory! Even folks who
had 3-5 bags (that didn't match). He knew exactly whose bag was to be
given to which passenger!
It made me think of all of us as educators...
We need to be knowledgeable about each of our students and match
our instructional practices, strategies and styles to meet their
needs.
It should not be "one size fits all", but rather that we are so in-tuned
with the unique qualities of each of our students that we make learning
come alive to meet their emotional, intellectual, and affective needs!
How can this be accomplished...you ask?
Learn their names quickly, stand at the door and greet your students everyday, send a newsletter or create a classroom blog for your parents, select assignments that can be completed with the involvement of the family, celebrate learning with a print-rich room environment, visit students' homes, learn the language (or enough to communicate) of your students, create surveys, lessons, group activities that tap the students' interests, intelligences, hobbies, dispositions. You can also create a culture in your classroom where all of your students feel themselves to be a part of a learning community.
Match the "Goods" with your Clientele!