The More Variety the Better Society by Caitlin

The More Variety the Better Society by Caitlin - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

Teaching can be seen as being routine, Teachers teach the same monotonous material each year replacing only the students they teach. I see a differing argument. Each student that walks through the school doors learns differently than their peer sitting one plastic chair away from them. Teachers are accountable for each student to understand the material equally. Since each student’s mind makes different connections and absorbs differently, Teachers should then alter their teaching method to teach a myriad of invented strategies, and a assortment of tools to benefit each pupils understanding of the curriculum.

I stroll around the after school program, supervising students, watching them work on similar homework activities. I see one kid count off his Crayola marker colored hands as he folds some fingers down and then wrote a conclusive answer. Another I catch sneaking a glimpse at his phone calculator. I watch a little girl draw circles and cross them out and add them on again. And I see a kid working with group 10 blocks. All these kids will find the necessary answer but I thought their approach’s was the most interesting aspect.

I am studying to become a teacher, as of now I learn by observing classrooms and videos of children problem solving. The most important and crucial lesson I’ve learned is that each kid will latch onto a particular approach in any subject. It’s important not to teach one strict approach. Every student learns differently and to express the diversity and to allow the students to learn from another’s invented strategy would not only be beneficial to the class but stretch the minds of the future children of America.

I found child-invented strategies to be creative and brilliant, approaches that I myself would not have easily discovered. I believe as I was growing up we were given one or two strategies, most of them were pertinent to following a formula verbatim, without rhyme of reason. But as I expand my curriculum I notice how formulas are confusing, and often completed in the wrong steps. Those students who did follow a strict formula were not able to build on their skills because they didn’t understand thoroughly what they were doing.

By creating lesson plans to be creative and being open to a variety of different explanations and reasoning would be the best tool for a teacher to be successful in his or her classroom. Educators everywhere deem creative subjects such as art, music, and dance to be just as important to a curriculum as math, science and English. Conclusively lesson plans should be just as creative, varied, and understandable to each individual learner in the classroom.