Personality Types and Learning Styles

Students’ personality types definitely affect how they learn. Some students learn by listening or reading the material for themselves, and others learn more by working with others or doing something with their hands. As a teacher, I will need to recognize the different learning styles of my students and use different methods of teaching so that all of them can learn the material.

Doing the personality test helped me see all the different possibilities of personalities. I think I will be able to recognize the different traits that other people have, and that will help me understand those people better. I think that understanding the personality of someone will help me to figure out that person’s learning style and to adapt my teaching so that they understand what they need to learn. It will also help me to see that person’s point of view when they talk to me about problems or struggles.

Excel Spreadsheets

I think Excel spreadsheets can be useful for teachers. I probably would not use it to make worksheets very often, because I could use other programs for that. But I might use it to make a worksheet that uses a table, maybe something like a verb conjugation chart. I would also use it for a grade book because I can easily type in a formula to calculate averages and grades. A spreadsheet is definitely easier to use for grade books than a calculator because I only need to type in the formula once, then the program can do the math for all the other grades. I also like the organization of a spreadsheet. Since I’m a pretty organized person anyway, I like to use Excel to make lists and schedules. I don’t think I’ll need to use spreadsheets much for presenting information with graphs or charts, but I could if I needed to. Overall, I think Excel spreadsheets are great for making grade books and charts.

Inspiration and Writing Assignments

I had never heard of Inspiration before now, but it seems like a neat way to make presentations. I think I would like the diagram and map features. I already like to organize information into outlines or maps, and I like how with Inspiration I could create those easily and even add images to them. I also thought it was cool to be able to switch between the diagram and outline views, because I could put all the information into an outline and the program makes that into a diagram. Also, the presentation manager looks a lot like PowerPoint, but it seems like it might be even easier to use. I would probably use Inspiration to make more interesting presentations for my lessons, maybe for a history or cultural lesson. My students could also use the program to create presentation projects. Overall, I think Inspiration looks like an easy way to make creative presentations.

For writing activities, I think using a program like Inspiration would allow students to make concept maps and organize their ideas before they write an actual paper. Students could even use their maps as presentations, after which they would get feedback from both the teacher and the rest of the class. This would combine two assignments, a paper and a presentation. I like this idea because rather than writing a paper and simply reading it out loud to the class, students could make a more interesting-looking concept map, then after the presentation and feedback, put the information into an organized paper. I also think blogs could be a good way to use technology in writing. I would like to have a class blog (like I described in my previous post) where students could post their writing assignments. Students could make comments on each other’s posts and offer feedback or ideas for revision. This way, we would not need to use up class time peer-reviewing, but students could display their work, see others’ work, and help each other make changes in their writing.

I know that any time I have to make a presentation teaching a certain topic, or even when I’m teaching someone how to do something in everyday life, I learn more about that topic than what I already knew. For a class presentation, there is usually research involved and a lot of time spent focusing on the topic. I learn as much as I can about it so that I can present all that I know to the class, and so I can answer any questions people may ask. Teaching other people definitely helps me learn more about the subject I’m teaching.