Hands-On: I believe I have always been a better hands-on learner than any of the other learning styles. The one time that sticks out more than any other time for hands-on learning was my sophomore year in high school where I took a small engine class. Our entire grade was based on being able to completely disassemble and reassemble a lawnmower engine throughout the semester. Our quizzes were being able to, on the spot, answer what we were doing at any given time. I never thought I would learn as much as I did about such a small thing as a lawnmower engine but through extensive hands-on time I am confident I could repeat the task again today.
Avoid Rewards: When I was in fourth grade, my teacher used to reward us with candy or other sweets for each book that we read. My friends and I being evil little fourth graders realized that she did not specify any length or difficulty in the book, all we had to do was answer some simple questions. Needless to say we received a far greater number of candy than the other students because of finding loopholes in the system. We probably did not learn as much as the other students but, we easily had more airheads.
Helping Students Succeed: In seventh grade for a science experiment, Mr. Chadbourne paired us all up and gave us a certain amount of toothpicks and wood glue to build as strong a bridge as possible. My partner and I had done a similar project during the summer and had actually shown our work to the teacher earlier. When I went to my partners house to help build the bridge, we ended up getting sidetracked by his Nintendo and spent hardly any time on the bridge itself. When we handed it in the next day Mr. Chadbourne refused to accept it because he knew we could produce a much better project. He gave us 24 hours to build the bridge we should have. This helped both of us realize just how much potential we really had if we put 110% effort into something.
Student/Teacher Relationship: This one made me actually stop and think as to why I preferred certain teachers over other ones. Sadly, the reason I like some teachers over others was not the fact that they were better educators but that we had more in common and we just fun to be around. I have to resist using the word; "friend" but that's more what I liked in my teachers. Someone who could help me out in certain situations, chill out with after school waiting for a ride, or just someone to go to the golf course with. I almost feel bad that the best educators I have had in life I would not have considered my favorite teachers while I was in school.
Context: In my first year at college, at the New England School of Communications, I enrolled in a theater class just because I thought it would really help with my public speaking skills. The professor, Kenneth Stack, was a theater owner and had been on stage since he was eight years old. For our final we had to do a professional audition where we entered the room, introduced ourselves, introduced what we going to perform, and then actually do it. After all was said and done he said with no lie that we had done better than 90% of his recent auditions for a show. To prove his point he showed us videos of numerous people auditioning for a spot on one of his shows. It was very helpful to get advice from someone in the "real world" and be able to give you all of the pointers that potential employers are looking for in you.
