lara mentorship

For this weeks blog post I will be reflecting on a quote. The quote is: “We learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what is discussed with others, 80% of what we experience personally and 95% of what we teach someone else.” -William Glasser (Glasser, as cited in Glenn, 1999) I agree with this quote from William Glasser. I think this quote completely describes how students learn and how teachers teach as well. Through teaching others we learn from our own mistakes. Two brains is always better to work with, depending on the type of learner you are.

Being a mentorship student, I assist students with anything they might need within the classroom. I am in a ‘esl’ class, which stands for english as a second language. While teaching them in the classroom, I have learned an incredible amount myself. My knowledge and my vocabulary grows every single day through teaching them. The students ultimately learn from me, but at the same time, I am also learning from them. Also, the quote shows that students learn in various ways. There is no one specific way which is correct to learn. Every form of learning, in my opinion, is just as effective and justifiable as any other form, as it really all depends on how each individual learns best. An effective teacher will use all of the methods listed in the quote in order to allow students to reach their full potential. By using all of these teaching strategies, teachers are also gaining knowledge and strengthening their abilities when it comes to methods of teaching. There are no limitations to our learning abilities and to the expansion of our knowledge on learning strategies. As a tutor in the classroom, I try to do my best to teach the students in all sorts of different ways in hopes of appealing to as many students’ learning habits as possible. I have found that it helps the students even more when they try to assist each other, as they grow more familiar with the material when they try teaching it to someone else themselves.

I would adjust my learning styles based on each student in the classroom. In my class, I mainly work one on one with the students. Each student, and there are only 8 of them, have different learning capabilities. Some students are visual learners, so I help them by using pictures and posters, while others are more independent learners. In that case, I allow them to work mostly on their own while still keeping up with any questions they may have about the material. Every student is unique, and with every student I come across, I feel the need to adjust the way I teach them in order to meet their studious needs. My goal as a mentorship student is to make sure that all of my students reach their full potential within the classroom. They will not be able to reach this potential if I’m not flexible when it comes to the way I teach. Being a student myself, I completely understand how hard it is to learn from a teaching style that I am not comfortable with. It makes learning in the classroom that much more difficult, especially if it was a subject that I found difficult or more challenging. It can be difficult for a teacher to appeal to every student, but showing some sort of effort to do so is enough for a student to feel more motivated in the classroom. Every student should feel like they are truly learning and advancing in their class, and that their teacher cares to take part in their advancements as well.

I believe that some teachers struggle with finding more than one way to teach. Some teachers are comfortable with adapting to something new and others are not. In my experience in the classroom as a tutor and as a student, I have realized that teachers depend more on having the students adapt to the teacher rather than the teacher trying something new. I think that some teachers don't completely understand the lengths some students go to to try and do well in the classroom and not be able to reach their fullest potential. Students rely on their teacher for guidance to aid them in succeeding as a student and further on in the future. At eacher can leave a life lasting mark on students life. We just need to make sure it's a positive influence rather than negative because what a student sees in a classroom they may bring with them in the workplace later on. I intend to try to teach the students with all the effort I can give and do my absolute best to see each one of them succeed this semester and further on in their lives. If it takes a little sacrifice of time or anything on my side, it's worth it to see that I was able to help someone's else.