| Volume Three Issue Eleven | December 2003 |
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Global Connections Inspiring Stories Featured Themes Teacher Discoveries Student Explorations The Lighter Side |
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Global Interactions Foster Talented Students
Welcome to December!
As a classroom teacher, you know that individual students learn in unique ways. If you are a Vital Knowledge client, you may have had the opportunity to complete the Personal Empowerment through Type (PET) Type Check and you may have had your students complete the same. We are confident that you realize the value of such a powerful tool in identifying your learning and teaching styles and the learning styles of your students. We believe that PET will strengthen your classroom teaching and assist you meeting the needs of individual learners.
So welcome aboard! We have put this newsletter together with a focus on PET in particular and learning styles in general. Join us as we explore the World Wide Web to discover resources relevant to this topic. We hope they are just what you are looking for!
In addition to this newsletter, keep checking Vital Picks. We have been highlighting resources teachers will find useful for the classroom. We have also been highlighting accomplishments of teachers and urge you to nominate teachers for our Vital Award.
Don't forget to visit our resource links! Visitors may now search for resources based on the grade level and subject they teach. We've included the best we can find on the World Wide Web. We will continue to add more and welcome any sites you may wish to submit.
This month we also have a special gift awaiting you and your students in the Activity section of Teacher's Corner. Check it out, and if you have activities that you would like to share with other teachers, please send them along. We'll make sure to post them immediately and to give you credit.
Send your ideas to teachers_corner@vitalknowledge.com.
“I march to a different drummer - whose location, identity and musical training have not yet been established."
- Ashleigh Brilliant
Global Connections
The emphasis on learning styles is becoming more and more prevalent in educational institutions throughout the world. Educators know the key to success for all students lay in identifying individual strengths and weaknesses and tailoring instruction to meet those particular styles. Indeed, educational institutions today are placing more and more responsibility on the classroom teacher to create individual program plans. That is why tools such as the PET Type Check are so valuable to classroom teachers!
Have a look at some of the following schools to see the emphasis they place on learning styles. We think you’ll be impressed with the efforts they are making to insure instruction meets the needs of all students!
Perhaps the best place to start is with School District 16 in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada. Indeed the teachers of District 16 were part of the PET Development team and have piloted the program within their district. It is the goal of the district that all students at the middle school level and higher complete the Type Check. The District also plans to have all professional staff complete the Type Check proving their commitment to individual student achievement and staff professional development!
Check out the great things happening in North Carolina. Many of their teachers use their summer months to further their professional development in the areas of learning styles. Several schools are also currently pursuing the PET Type Check with the goal of using this tool to identify learning and teaching styles of students and teachers.
Westmark School in California has created a database of Learning Style Resources. They also identify other great resources on multiple intelligences and brain development.
As we searched the Web looking for examples of how schools were implementing learning styles programs, we saw a recurrent theme of meeting the needs of various learning styles within the mission statement of several schools. Obviously learning styles have become a priority of districts throughout our educational community.
What success has your school been having with addressing the individual needs of your students? We would love to hear your story! Send anything you are willing to share to learnit@vitalknowledge.com
Inspiring Stories
We first published the following true story in our February, 2002 newsletter. It was written by Rick Hayward who was with Vital Knowledge during a one-year leave of absence from his teaching duties. Rick has since returned to the classroom, but we thought it fitting to share his story with you again! It is further evidence that being aware of the learning styles of our students enables us to implement instruction best tailored to those styles.
Understanding Colin
“Teacher, please come quick! That new kid is hittin’ everyone he can get his hands on!”
Colin had just arrived that morning and already he was making quite an impression upon our school. Five students were in the principal’s office with blood dripping from various parts of their anatomies. Many more were running or hiding, fearing the worst from this new kid who appeared to them to be totally out of control. Their best instincts were correct. He was out of control, and I soon realized that I was going to have to be the one who would control him. After all, he had been assigned to my classroom. Colin was about to become both my most challenging student and my best teacher.
The first lesson that he taught me was: “Don’t be afraid to fail!” Ironically, failure was what he feared the most! He would react to just one mistake in many ways – by cursing aloud himself, his teacher and any of his classmates who would “dare” make a higher rating than he; by clearing his desk of all books, papers, and pencils with one swoop of his arm, perhaps even by flipping his desk upside down so that the contents would be removed. If he suffered a more personal failure he would puncture himself with his compass, cut his hair with his scissors, hit any classmate within reach, or, failing that, threaten to kill himself. Colin demanded perfection of himself. That is something that he taught me not to do of myself.
This realization led to the second lesson: “Seek help wherever you can find it!” The first person I went to was, of course, my principal. I had with him an immediate ally because he also had to teach Colin for at least one hour a day.
I also sought help from my students. They taught me Lesson #3: “Communication involves both speaking and listening.” Communication had been basically a “one-way medium" up to that point. I taught and the students were expected to listen. That changed the day that Colin was absent with a cold. I took advantage of his absence to sit down with my students to hear how they felt about Colin’s presence in our classroom. After all, I wasn’t the only one who was being jolted out of his complacency. They had had a very secure environment within which to learn until the day that Colin had arrived. It was the first time that I really sat down and listened to what my students were saying, to the concerns they were expressing, and to the suggestions they were making. It’s something I do a lot now.
It was my wife who revealed to me the most important lesson. Lesson #4: “We should adapt our teaching styles to the learning styles of the students in our classrooms.” She had just returned from an intense professional development session that had dealt with the different learning styles of students. She had picked up a “Learning Analysis Assessment” which I used to help determine how Colin would best learn material that was taught. The results were most interesting because they indicated that Colin would benefit from having some control of his own learning. He and I sat down and discussed the results. We agreed to establish a unique class structure – Colin could choose to do whatever he wanted for one third of each class; we would mutually agree with what would occur for another third, and for the final third he had to do whatever I wanted. He would follow the same procedure whenever my principal came in to teach him.
The results were quite amazing. All problems certainly were not solved. But they were quickly minimized! Colin settled in to do the essential elements of each lesson that I wanted him to cover. We had little difficulty agreeing on what should be done for the second third of the class. I learned much about him by observing him work during the third of the class that was given over totally to his control:
• He was a talented artist. He did some fascinating wall murals for the classroom and for the bulletin boards in the school.
• He loved to read. Many times he would go to the library to read a book that he would then share with his classmates. The number of students who would sign out a book that had been highly recommended by Colin amazed me.
• He loved to write. He began to write many interesting, insightful stories.
• He was fascinated by scientific experiments. Colin would study books about scientific experiments. Then he would bring materials from home, or better yet, take his own learning time to “scrounge” them up in school, bring them to the classroom, and then perform them for the class. He loved to be able to explain complex theories related to nuclear power and solar energy.
• He was very bright and he loved to teach! Inappropriate behavior had clouded one very important fact – Colin was bright. In fact, some of his misbehavior could also be attributed to the fact that he was bored. Learning could be very boring for Colin. Teaching, however, could be lots of fun. Many times Colin would use his personal learning time to help other students who might need extra assistance.
Colin had made his mark upon his new school (and many of his new classmates) the first day of his arrival. He has left his mark forever imprinted upon me. He taught me many important lessons – the most important of which was that the learning style of each of our students can have a significant impact upon our classrooms. It is something to which we should (indeed, must) pay closer attention!
Featured Themes
The PET Learning Styles solution is based on the work on several well-known names in the fields of personality and learning styles. In the following section of this newsletter we will focus on these people.
It is fitting that we start by looking at the creators of the Type Check. Patricia Cranton is widely recognized as a leader in adult education. She has written several books and has been the recipient of several awards for her contributions to teaching and learning in higher education. Click here for more information on the several books Patricia has written.
Robert Knoop is the second member PET Type Check team. He is the president of Psychological type Press and has published a large number of articles on personality and learning styles.
Patricia and Robert have based the PET Type Check on the work of Carl Jung. Jung was a psychiatrist who spent much of his life studying personality. He is best known for the publication Psychological Types. Indeed, Carl Jung is acknowledged as a leader in the area of personality and although he has long since passed on, his work is still widely used today. The World Wide Web has a multitude of sites worth visiting to further explore the work and teachings of Jung. Start by visiting the CG Jung Page. It was founded in 1995 to encourage new psychological ideas and conversations about what it means to be human in our time and place. It contains a wide variety of resources relevant to the work of Jung. Other sites worth visiting include Personality Theories, TCG’s Jung Page, and Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961).
The work of Dunn and Dunn are is also influential in the PET Type check created by Cranton and Knoop. Dr. Rita and Dr. Kenneth Dunn have created a learning style model based on cognitive style theories and brain lateralization theories. The work of Dunn and Dunn is certainly worth exploring further and online resources can be found at Learning Styles, Erudium, and the Learning Styles Network.
Those people interested in Learning Styles cannot overlook the work and writings of Howard Gardner. Gardner has gained followers throughout the world for his theories on multiple intelligences. Again, the World Wide Web has several resources worth pursuing. Start by visiting the Homepage of Howard Gardner. Follow up with a visit to Multiple Intelligences, Infed, Eric Digests, or the Penn State College of Education.
Take some time to learn about other leaders in the field of learning styles. Check out the work of David Keirsey, David Kolb, Jean Piaget, and Dr. Bernice McCarthy.
Teacher Discoveries
With the move toward the individualization of educational programs in order to best meet the diverse needs of today's students, the importance of Learning Styles cannot be overlooked. If you are a teacher who has completed the PET Type Check, or you have used it with your students, you already know of its value and potential in assisting you in meeting the unique needs of your students. Indeed, Cranton and Knoop considered the writings and teachings of all major personality and learning style theorists (including those mentioned above) when developing the PET Type Check!
For those of you not familiar with the program, or for those who need a refresher, we offer the following:
P.E.T. Learning Styles Solution is an easy to use Web-based teaching and learning style assessment and management tool based on the work of Carl Jung and the research of Dr. Patricia Cranton and Dr. Robert Knoop. The P.E.T. Learning Styles Solution correlates personality preferences with learning styles, teaching styles, conflict resolution, leadership, management, problem solving, stress and teamwork.
The P.E.T. Learning Styles Solutions program has been validated by over ten years of research and implementation throughout the world. It consists of the following three checks:
• The Type Check allows teachers to assess their own personality preferences and access a wide variety of resources for professional development.
• The Student Self Check allows for the assessment of individual student's personality preferences and then offers classroom activities and teaching strategies to meet the needs of these preferences.
• The Student Observation Check allows the teacher to complete a Type Check for a students based on their knowledge of and experiences with that student. It also offers classroom activities and teaching strategies to meet the needs of that student.
You can become a more effective teacher! You can better understand your own personality preferences and how those preferences influence your personal and professional life! Best of all, you can gain a deeper appreciation of the needs and preferences of your students and adapt your teaching to meet those individual needs! Try PET today! For more information contact us at sales@vitalknowledge.com.
Student Explorations
Are you wondering just how effective an awareness of learning styles can be in meeting the needs of individual students? Perhaps the greatest testimonials come from students and teachers themselves. We searched the web looking for stories from teachers and students about their experiences with learning styles and found the following we thought were worth sharing. We hope both you and your students draw inspiration from them.
Our first stories come from our February, 2001 newsletter. Start by reading the story from teacher Maxine Giberson who shares her success with her learning styles program. Then scroll down to read a story submitted by her student, Jeanetta.
An awareness of learning styles is especially beneficial to learning disabled students. Check out these great inspirational stories from the official Web site of Stephanie Kane. Similar stories can be found at LD Online.
Check out this success story from Jan Johnson. Her writing lab program accommodated the various learning styles of her students.
Throughout this month’s newsletter we have frequently referred to the PET Type Check. This learning styles solution is being used extensively throughout North America. We thought we would conclude this section of the newsletter by sharing comments we have received from students who have complete their Type Check. We think you will agree it has been a positive learning experience for these students!
“I found this interpretation to be quite accurate. I think that this is a valuable tool that will help people with many aspects of their lives. Very interesting!”
“Wow! Right on!”
“This was the best inventory I have taken!”
“Very close with what I feel I am like”
“It's scary how accurate this interpretation is.”
“A little off on a few things but overall, pretty darn close.”
“Well now I know who I am! CONTROLLING!!! I've got some strengths and some things I need to work on. Thank-you it was fun.”
“I generally agree with everything that was mentioned, with the exception of a few. I really enjoyed this.”
“90% of the interpretation I would say was right on.”
The Lighter Side
"I've just had the most awful time," said a boy to his friends. "First I got angina pectoris, then arteriosclerosis. Just as I was recovering, I got psoriasis. They gave me hypodermics, and to top it all, tonsillitis was followed by appendectomy."
"Wow! How did you pull through?" sympathized his friends.
"I don't know," the boy replied. "Toughest spelling test I ever had."
From: Teach.Net