My MEL Experiences

• Student/Teacher Relationship : this is perhaps one of the most integral parts of the school experience. Teachers and students need to be able to communicate on many different levels, with many different expected outcomes. There will be times when the students need guidance, times when they need correcting, and times when they need to just vent. I have enjoyed a good relationship with many of the professors that I have taken classes from, not only because I am a driven student, but also due to my age and my experiences. I took a Technology and Society class from a professor that was teaching his last set of classes so we had some discussions about topics ranging from banking, to food, to how to drive through Texas. It made the class that much more enjoyable to have discussions other than school work.


• Helping Students Succeed : I got my first real taste of this during Winter break when I went to S.A.D. #21 and worked as a tutor for the GEAR Up program. In the program students who are receiving a 70 or below in any class are automatically enrolled in the tutoring program. For most students it is more of a hassle than an opportunity to focus on any one particular subject with students that have had many more hours of instruction and have experienced more stress then they, as high school students, have known. Then there are those few who really have a desire to learn and to get out of the tutoring program. I worked with several and after working with them and seeing them slowly taking ownership of their work, and seeing them actually 'get' the information was a great feeling.


• Hands On : I have found that having the ability to put my hands on a task it makes it easier to remember, I like trying to figure out how things work and that is where my difficulty in higher level math comes from. There is very little concrete evidence in that, there is more theory than actual things that you can touch and feel and look at, it is rules and restrictions and not something that can be looked at, like a stack of money. Accounting type math, simple multiplications I can do in my head but Geometry, Trig or Calculus makes my brain hurt. In high school I enjoyed physics, not so much because I could understand the math part of it, but I could see the results of the law, I could see the motion it made more sense.


• Learning Styles : Learning styles are something that, to my knowledge, has not prevalent or a focus of teaching/learning for very long. In my experience in high school what I recall was much of what was discussed in the Type II article where we were placed in front of computers and given the "Now press the 'A' button" and so forth. The main use of a computer was simply that of a word processor; the World Wide Web had yet to expand into all corners of the globe and there was no thought even given to email or any instant messenger programs. I did not have the opportunity to discuss what type of a learner I was or what I found enjoyable. How I learned was always measured by a test or a presentation there was little room for creativity and printing pictures meant everything was in black and white. Looking back, I wonder if I would have had a better experience in high school had I received the benefit of differentiated learning.


• Autonomy : I have found that being in college has given me the opportunity to direct my own education, within the guidelines of the university, but it is not simply a carbon copy plan for each and every student. I have enjoyed have the ability to have the control over which classes I take which semester, all with the ultimate goal of obtaining my degree. Too often during my high school career I was simply handed a schedule with no real opportunity for input from myself to direct where I was headed during school and after graduation.


• Context : In my chosen concentration of history I can use the experiences that I have had, or have seen in the years that I have been around. In my life I have seen events from the Space Shuttle blowing up, war and a terrorist attack on the United States. I have seen a President shot (Reagan), a President impeached (Clinton), gas below $1 a gallon, my grandparents fought in World War II, Vietnam was my parents generation. I believe that I can put many events into perspective and even give a much different point of view. One where my students can ask me about several events that I will be teaching and be able to get a first hand account, much the way I was able to get a first hand account from a teacher that went to Vietnam.


• Connections : As a future history teacher this is an important aspect of how we teach and how we can help students learn. During my tutoring experience I was somewhat amazed at how they could not make the simple connection between who a blockade runner might be and how that would affect the Confederacy's ability to field an army, or how the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack would have impacted blockade runners. These connections are what would make these lessons more enjoyable, more logical and give them a deeper insight into the subject. Hopefully I can make those connections and do my best to give them a better understanding of the whys behind history and how it continues to make it's presence known decades after the fact.