Teaching Strategies

The most crucial, exciting and life changing thing that happens in the classroom is teaching. Every teacher wants to be able to reach every child and will strive to do so. In order to do that they use a variety of teaching strategies to improve student learning and create a more engaging learning environment. While there are so many teaching strategies to start naming them all I will point out a few that I will most definitely focus on in my future classroom.

Active learning I find is so important in the classroom. Young children are all about getting up and doing something and using their hands. I think this strategies benefits the classroom because children are far more likely to retain information if they took part in the gathering of the information. One way I implemented this in the classroom in my first block was giving all the children measuring tapes and had them measuring things around the room to find the difference. This lesson then extended into who is taller than who and the kids had lots of fun while they learned about finding the difference.

Another great strategy is experiential learning. Students learn through experimenting and coming to conclusion about what they did and saw. This is a great way for students to learn because they are teaching themselves and therefore are far more likely to understand. I implemented this in the classroom by cutting out cardboard gears and giving each group of students three different sized gears. The students experimented with different combinations of gears and found that the gears turn different ways. As well as that the small one turns around more than the larger ones. While some students may find out things faster than others teachers can use prompting. This teaching strategy allows the teacher to use the question "why?" giving the students the chance to explore and create their own knowledge.

One of my favourite strategies is problem-based learning. This is a great real- life learning experience that hooks students in every time. Problem solving is a great tool to teach students for not only their educational life but also the rest of their life. It gives students a chance to take on a problem head on and find a solution, a great life skill. I implemented this in the classroom when I gave students the problem of needing to furnish my new house that I just bought. I needed a couch, TV, washer, dryer etc. Students were to use advertisements or online shopping to furnish my house. Although I only had so much money to spend on each room. Students furnished my house, but behind the curtain they were adding and subtracting four digit numbers.

Overall there are so many teaching strategies and it is important to use a variety to attract each type of learner in your classroom. Engaging your students in the learning is an important step in the learning process.

Solving Boy. Manikandan V. June 23, 2010.

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