managing learning styles in the classroom?
597605
Given the nature of your question you might also want to check out Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory.  There are lots of materials related to multiple intelligences to help with classroom teaching.
305622
Go to class one day with a big duffel/sports bag. Put anything in the bag - old newspapers, soft toys, you name it. Right at the top of the bag, put something that you think might interest your students - depending on their age and sex it might be a newly released CD, or a favorite sports magazine, or the latest in hand held PS2's. Make sure the bag is zipped closed. As you enter the classroom put the bag somewhere very obvious (but within easy reach of yourself). \nStart your class in the normal way, and somewhere within the first 5 minutes mention to them that you have a bag of goodies you want to use for today's class. But you first have to deal with some grammar/vocab/etc. Handle the class like you normally would. Maybe remind them that you have to finish the work to get to the bag with stuff. Make sure your face gets all excited when you mention the bag - they might start to wonder what is in the bag. Try to ignore the rowdy ones and concentrate on the well behaved ones. If the class gets very rowdy, just touch the bag, or maybe just take a sideways glance at it. Make sure your kids see this. \nNow, if the class didn't behave like you would have wanted them to behave, end the class (when time is up) with a sentence like, "Oh, I'm so sorry we didn't have time to look at what's in the bag. Act like they're not in class with you, open the bag, take out the noce goody at the top (zip up again and don't let them see what's at the bottom of the bag), and start paging through the magazine/take out your diskman and listen to the CD (making sure they see the cover)/ or do whatever you want to  with the goodie. \nDON'T say anything to them after that. Just shrug your shoulders if they have any comments.\nNow, say they were good, you could use that article in your class just before time's up. \nFor the next lesson they have with you, again bring your bag. This time make sure you have something they are really keen about, and that you have a plan on how to incorporate it in your classroom. Follow the same procedure as the first lesson. (If you used a CD the first time, maybe come to class listening to it over your diskman, or play it on the classroom CD player until they start to arrive for class.) Again, if they're not good - no bag. \nKeep this up for at least 4/5 lessons. Sometime during these 4/5 lessons, tell them that they didn't have time to work with the bag's contents, so that means they will have to do extra homework - the reason for this is that the contents of the bag would have helped them to understand something better/practice a grammar concept/practice some vocabs. But because they didn't get to the bag, they have to do extra homework to make up for the lack of practice.\nTry it. I used it on a few classes at different schools, with different age groups, and in all instances, it worked by the 3rd lesson. \nTo keep them on their toes afterwards, why don't you plan for some type of fun activity once every 4/5 lessons. Maybe help them to learn their favorite song's words. Let them bring their own CD's to class and have a listen to the CD day - be sure to have them rate each other's CD's and say why they like it/don't like it (all in good English, of course). \nTry not to involve the director or another teacher, if possible. This will show them that you can't handle them and they will feel totally in control Even if some are punished by the director, they will become martyrs, and you will be able to get less out of them. Always try to handle the problems without losing your cool. They like seeing teachers squirm - it is a natural drug for them! \nGood luck, and if you try it, let me know how it worked.
534766
The Autonomous Learner Model is very good, if you want an adaptable spiral curriculum.\n\nhttp://www.alpspublishing.com/\nhttp://www.kisser.net.au/pdeo/peac/page8.html\n\nChildren with superior or gifted-range skills need compressed and accelerated curriculum, reduction of boredom by replacement of skill drill with independent work focusing on higher-order Bloom's taxonomy skills, and metacognitive strategy instruction.
326047
Sit in the front row, this will help you focus on the teacher and the material and not what is going on around you. This has worked well for me. If you still find yourself getting distracted, try taking notes and NO DOODLING! If all else fails, tape record your lectures for reference later on (you can buy a digital recorder for around $40). If it is a very long class, it will be impossible to pay attention for the entire lecture- talk to your teacher about taking 5 minute breaks when the class seems to be getting restless. Good luck!
46334
Set aside a certain amount of time each day to review the material from class.  Re-read and highlight your own notes for main ideas and major details.  If you don't have notes, but you have a textbook, you can skim each chapter and take brief notes now.  Some people work well in study groups where others can explain concepts that you may not understand, but some people can't focus that way.  Learn what is best for you by trying a variety of strategies--with or without music/people/etc.  It also depends what you're studying, but having someone quiz you out loud can help if you need to learn vocabulary.  Good luck!
889041
If your main concern is trying to control children in a classroom setting - what about in a tutoring environment? Or perhaps you can go into developing curriculum?\n\nNot really an answer - just throwing out new ideas.
955434
As I don't know that subject you teach or how far you've got on your course with them, I can only tell you what I do with my students, using my 1st lesson with them as an example.\n\n1. I started with an initial assessment-in my case, a health questionnaire, learning styles questionaire (VAK) and an individual learning plan (this plan contains the course outcomes/aims, room for teacher and student feedback and career/course progression advice and a questionnaire-what they know about Psychology, what they want to get out of the course etc). By the way, this is an individual, student centred activity.\n\n2. We then had a class discussion about the results of the questionnaire and I talked them through the structure and content of the course. These are whole class, teacher centred activities. At the end of the lesson, I also speak privately to students who have identified particular issues. E.g. One of my students is visually impaired, so I photocopy my worksheets etc onto yellow paper for her, so that she can read them more easily.\n\n3. We then had an icebreaker task-my favourite one is a variation on the child's game, I went to the shop and bought some....? I.e. Each student has to give his/her name and something that they want to do (it doesn't have to be real), the person next to them then has to say who the person is, what they want to do and then give their name & what they want to do, this carries on until I have to remember everyone's names and ambitions (the students are allowed to write the info down). This is a whole class teacher centred activity.\n\n4. To introduce a new topic (e.g. definition of Psychology), I ask  students to get into pairs and spend a couple of minutes coming up with ideas which they will feed back to the whole class. This is a student centred learning Activity (pair discussion). While this is happening, I draw a spidergram on the whiteboard.\n\n5. I ask each pair to give me their ideas which I then write on the board and the rest of the class writes all this down. This is a teacher centred whole class activity (class discussion).\n\n6. I then spend 15/20 minutes explaing what the students need to know about the topic (e.g. areas and applications of Psychology). This is a teacher-cented activity (teacher talk).\n\n7. I then give students a worksheet (e.g. gap fill) and ask them to complete it in groups. While the students complete this activity, I go round the class and offer individual student support, if necessary or offer an extension task (e.g. strengths and weaknesses of different areas of Psychology). This is a student centred learning activity (group discussion).\n\n8. We discuss the answers to the activities as a class. After that, the lesson is finished. This is a teacher centred, whole class activity.\n\nThis is only a rough outline of how I structure my lesson plans (in table format also including my aims, objectives, students' current knowledge, resources I will need and how I will meet each student's needs as previously described, as well as I how I will assess the students, e.g. through written homework), but I hope that it answers your question. By the way, you can also make sure that you've catered for evryone by putting everything the students need to know on a handout. Also, wherever possible get the more able students to explain things to the rest of the class and if possible get them to work with less able/less confident students. I've found that these approaches can work wonders. Finally, always structure your handouts etc at all levels. i.e. start simply (e.g. what does...mean?) and finish with an extension task, even if you don't discuss it as a group. This allows the keener or more able students to take things a bit further without putting pressure on the other students to keep up with them.\n\nFor further ideas, you could also read the following textbook:\n\nTeaching Today-Geoff Petty\n\nGood luck!
747158
Here are a few tips:\nAlways keep the class lively by asking them questions related to the lesson and giving them related puzzles to solve.\nTry to interact more often rather than just explain every sentence in the textbook.\nImprove speech. Your voice and the way you talk could go a long way in your teaching carreer.\nIt's evident from the way you asked the question that your grammar could do with some improvement too. It'll help you explain any doubts the students might have about word problems.\nImprove patience level. Math is a subject which torments students and very often many students come to you with the same doubts. Don't snap at them. Patiently clear each and everyone's doubt.\n\nI hope these helped you. Have a successful teaching life!
533709
Decide what you want to teach.\nDecide how you are going to evaluate the learning. (Assessment drives planning)\nDecide how you are going to present the concept.\nDecide what kind of guided practice you are going to use to see if your students get the concept.\nDecide what independent practice you are going to use.\nMake sure you are:\nmeeting state and local curriculur standards\nmeeting the developmental needs of your learning group\nmeeting the learning styles of your learning group\nproviding differentiated instruction for your group\nmeeting the IEP of all the special needs students in your class\nincluding your districts character values\ntaking into account Gardner's seven intelligences\nmake sure you reach higher level thinking skills on Bloom's taxonomy\nNow you can start to plan period two...
40557
It probably depends on what you want or need.  If you need to sit closer to the front of the room or have a printed copy for notes maybe he/she will provide them.  If there are modifications that you need, you could ask for them.  Do you want him or her to do something differently?  If so, what?  If you have ideas, share them with your teacher to come up with a plan to help you learn best.
5614
It depends on what you are trying to learn, but I'd say listen to it, write it down; have someone show it to you, and do it yourself.  If you continue to do all of those you will figure out what your learning style is, and that will make it easier to learn things.
987077
Have a good attitude. Most teachers have great ideas that cannot fly without students being willing to go on the journey.  Nobody can have fun if they are constantly being corrected or yelled at nor can a teacher be fun if they are always weary of behavior.
264856
some type of break in the presenation is always helpful.  for example giving an hands-on example (i.e. pulling someone from the audience or class, or having them involved with answering or asking questions) when ever i take the time to move away from the presentaion in my classroom, and get one of the student involved they seem to retain the information more.
878338
Classroom Management is just how it sounds...it's how you manage your classroom.  Are the students behaved? Are you proactive when dealing with their behaviour or do you react to behaviour?  Fred Jones has a number of books on classroom management.  He give strategies for keeping the students calm and having them follow classroom rules.  He also travels the country talking to teachers about how to smoothly run the classroom.
66341
Try different methods to see what works for you. For me, writing something over and over makes it stick in my mind. Yours could be something like reading aloud then putting things in your own words to retain memory.\n\nTry to figure out if you learn better visually or verbally. In class, does it help you more to write down notes or just listen to your teacher and class discussion? It could be both.\n \nIt takes some experimenting to see what works for you. But some common rules are: don't wait until just before exams to study- review early!, study in short bursts, and try explaining concepts you want to learn to other people. Teaching is often the best way to learn.\n\nGood luck, and don't give up! You'll find what works for you.
584315
As a new teacher myself, I have been able to see a variety of teaching techniques used in the classroom.  Lectures, rote/memorization, text-books and theory, oral presentations, group work, independent work, hands on activities etc.  All of these methods or techniques are important because they address the needs of all the different learning styles of the students.  Every child learns a different way and there can not be one method of instruction.
1139688
Well, it depends on what you mean.  If you are teaching some sort of English class, you could encourage students by giving them choices of genres to write in (let them write any kind of thing  ex: I have seen English teachers do a "Picture Response" project.  You have each child choose their own picture, then they write a short story or poem based on the picture.  This way, they can write the way they like, as it can be any genre).  Also, if your students dislike using computers, you could always lower grades for not using them, or take off points for spelling; then inform them of spell-checks in word processors.  Now, if you are a computers teacher, you could try the new game-like typing programs.  In my experience, they help the students have fum while typing, which I believe helps them learn quicker, and enjoy typing.  I hope that helps you...