Turning Lessons into Life: Teaching styles that can be applied beyond the classroom

Teachers do more than just dump information into the brains of children. They are the role models for the next generation, and it’s not just what they teach that affects our children, it’s also the way they teach it. As such, it is important to consider how these methods of teaching can affect our children going into the future. Even if they do not become teachers themselves, different styles of teaching contain lessons whose value extends far beyond the classroom. Our children will inevitably learn from these experiences and will hopefully absorb these methods into their own being, so let’s take a look at teaching styles and some lessons we can learn from them. 

Authority

While this lecture method may involve minimal student participation, it is a common form of teaching all students should learn to adapt to, especially in this age of virtual learning where participation is often already minimized. This authority style harnesses the power of words, displaying the importance they have in developing young minds. We know from the creation story in Genesis how powerful words can be as they help shape reality, and as students watch their teachers explain concepts to broaden their understanding they can begin learning the significant role words play. Being able to formulate ideas in your own words is empowering, and if students can grasp the importance of oral communication, it will benefit them in almost every aspect of their life.

Demonstrator

Principal Castro walks his students through an SEL lesson by inviting discussion and feedback during the class.

This teaching method relies on showing students the topics they are learning about, often requiring the teacher to exemplify the lesson. Sometimes people need to see things lived out. The people of Israel were given God’s law back in Moses’ time, but it wasn’t until people were given the example in Jesus that the law was brought to life (Mat. 5:17). Students can learn through this method the importance of being an example to others. It’s not enough to just talk the talk, they have to be able to demonstrate what it is they know. 

Facilitator

In this method there exists more interaction between the teacher and the student, as the teacher comes alongside the student allowing for more dialogue and participation in the lesson. The teacher connects with the students to meet them where they are at and coaches them through the learning process. The students should learn to appreciate the understanding which comes on the other side of doing, especially under the safety and supervision of an experienced instructor. 

Delegator

Teachers who use the delegating style often organize group projects that allow more freedom for the students to speak, this may be in the form of debates or class discussions. It allows the activities the teacher plans to be enacted by the students in order to produce bigger results. This style requires management techniques which enable the teacher’s goal of learning to be accomplished through the participation of the students. The students get to witness the teacher delegate tasks to them allowing more learning to take place as the instructor gets the students to cooperate and fulfill their responsibilities.  

Hybrid

This method is exactly what it sounds like: a mixture of more than one. As students watch their teachers utilize various teaching methods to illuminate their minds, they learn there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to life. We need to holistically develop students in order for them to become the adults who can adapt to the ever-changing world, combining techniques to overcome challenges and meet goals. 

Ms. Voight spends time connecting with one of her upper elementary students during a morning break.

This is why the multi-faceted responsibilities of teachers are so vital, because when it comes to educating our children, it is not just what they teach that matters, but also how they teach. Through these styles of teaching, students can learn the power of words, the importance of setting an example, how to connect and meet people where they are at, management skills, and  how to use these lessons in tandem. Teaching styles hold lessons which go beyond the walls of the school, as they develop skills which will prepare the students for the future by teaching them how to navigate the complexities of life.  

Sources: 

Larson, James. “5 Common Teaching Styles - How Effective Are They?” ATutor.com (visited 18 April 2022).

https://atutor.ca/teaching-styles/ 

“Effective Teaching Styles: 5 Ways To Be A Great Teacher” CueMath.com (visited 18 April 2022)

https://www.cuemath.com/learn/teaching-styles/

5 Ways To Help Students Be Their Best: How parents can help their kids succeed at school

Every parent wants their child to succeed at school, but this isn’t as easy as it may seem. After all, you aren’t in the classroom with your child, so how can you ensure they are going to succeed? Here are some tips to help you think through ways you can mold your child into being the best student they can be from outside the classroom. 

1. Help Improve Their Self-Awareness. 

At the Academy, parents are invited onto campus for formal events and teacher meetings throughout the school year. These visits are valuable to the parent’s involvement in the student’s school experience and relationship with their teacher.

If you don’t have a chance to be actively involved in the school’s PTO or other volunteer programs, make sure to talk with your child about the in’s and out’s of their school life. Who’s their favorite teacher? Why do they like the kids they hang out with and what role do they play in their circle of friends? What subjects do they enjoy, and which ones do they struggle with? This will help you help your child, by asking more focused questions that can help them better process their experiences. School can bring out a lot of insecurities in a child, and not every child is gifted with the intrapersonal skills to make sense of it all on their own. Asking personal questions and helping them talk through their thoughts and feelings can hopefully bring them some clarity concerning how they think about certain situations. Elementary aged students may be more prone to being open and vulnerable than middle school or high schoolers, but it’s never too late to start. Share with them ways that you’ve seen them change, and how they are growing. Self-awareness will help make them be their best as they will know how to better approach situations based on how they know themselves.  

2. Give Them Opportunities to Explore

Part of students learning about themselves involves exploring new interests and figuring out what types of things they are good at or enjoy.  Every child is different. What may be the most boring thing in the world to one child, may be seen as wildly interesting to another. Providing strong emotional support will help students be more willing to try new things, as it builds confidence knowing that they will still be loved and supported even if they fail. It will give them the encouragement they need to further explore certain interests which can help build self-confidence as they begin learning more about themselves. This shapes their mindset and can help them develop as a student. 

3. Develop their Strengths

When you see a child has a knack for a skill, provide opportunities for them to develop it. If they are athletic, try to get them on a sports team, or if they are musically inclined, enroll them in a music camp. Encourage them to find ways in which they can enhance the natural skills they have. As they develop these talents, they are also developing their minds as they learn the ins and outs of a skill. This not only boosts their confidence, but will help shape the way they view themselves. They will be more okay with their weaknesses knowing that they have strengths.  

Parent-teacher meetings are welcome and encouraged at the Academy. Our teachers invest into a partnership with the students and parents in order for the student to have a successful learning experience.

4. Overcome their Weaknesses

Everyone has weaknesses and the sooner they are addressed, the sooner they can be caught up to speed with others. While no child is going to want a tutor, if they are falling behind in a certain subject then it may be an appropriate way to help them succeed. However, before hiring a professional tutor, you may want to try other options first. While children may react differently when their parents try to teach them, if you can find the time you may be able to tutor them yourself. If not, see if there are friends who are skilled in that subject who could tutor them. Other options may be hosting some of their classmates for a group study session. By opening your home to allow students to work on group projects or study for upcoming tests, you are encouraging both healthy academic and social practices. Getting students to be comfortable having weaknesses and being willing to face them head on is beneficial both in and out of the classroom. 

5. Challenge Them

Another way to help your student become the best they can be is by making sure they are challenged. This doesn’t just have to be in a purely academic sense, but by getting them out of their comfort zone and participating in activities they would rather avoid, it can stretch their familiarity, expanding their willingness to try things they would otherwise shy away from. When this attitude is applied to their academics, it helps students approach new topics with greater optimism even if it is in a subject they are weak in or unfamiliar with. 

How To Teach Reading To Younger Kids

You may not be a teacher, but something as crucial as literacy should not be left as the sole responsibility of any one person. The more ways we know how to teach reading to younger kids, the more we can aid in their educational development. Whether it is your own kid or someone else’s, everyone benefits from investing into the next generation. So, here are some tips when helping those little ones learn how to read:

Have Patience. 

The first rule is obvious: have patience. If a child is scared of being wrong due to an overly strict teacher, they won’t try, and if they won’t try, they won’t learn how to progress. Don’t forget, English is no simple language. Even learning the word “patience” requires patience, because why in heaven’s name is the letter ‘t’ making a ‘sh’ sound? And why do we need a ‘c’ in the word, when we could just use the letter ‘s’? These young students must learn rules only to find out those rules are often broken. So remember to bear with them as they learn, because it is no easy task. 

Practice, Practice, Practice

Repetition is the key to retention. If a child only practices reading once a week, it may take them even longer than seven times the amount of time a kid who practices everyday may need. This is because the once a week practice will spend a good portion of time simply reviewing what they learned previously, whereas daily practice makes it easier for a child to remember and quickly build off of what they learned.

Assessments

Be aware of where a child is at in their reading journey. This will help you to know the next step they need to be taking, or if they need to pause and spend more time focusing on what they’ve already learned. Can they identify all the letters and their sounds? Can they pronounce C-V and C-V-C combinations? Do they know vowel combination rules? Do they understand the words they read? How many words can they read in a minute? The smaller and more specific each step is, the more you know exactly where your child is at, and exactly what you need to teach them next. So make sure to assess them as this will allow you to better organize their reading journey allowing them to progress faster. 

Make it Fun

If a child does not enjoy reading, there will be no desire to learn. They likely won’t understand how important it is for their future, so you may have to persuade them by having them read about a topic they enjoy. This may mean letting them choose the book or you could write a quick story utilizing some of their favorite cartoon characters. 

Don’t Stress

While it is important your child learns to read, don’t forget every student has different strengths. Some children learn faster than others, so don’t be anxious if your child is learning a bit slow. Although some kids could benefit from some extra attention or tutoring in this area, once a child learns to read, they should be able to catch up with their peers.  

Exercises and Activities

If your child is at the stage where they are learning to read, try out some of these activities to help them develop their sense of words and language. 

• Have them circle, box, or underline specific site words in a newspaper article

• Read to a child and occasionally pause to let them read the words they know how to read. 

• Have them follow along in a book while everyone takes turns reading aloud

• Have them try to write a simple story

• “Bring me something that starts with the letter _” Game

• Give them a picture or comic they must write a caption for

• Spelling quizzes with scrabble letters or spelling words out of playdough 

• Charades or pictionary where they must write down what others are acting out or drawing

• Have them make sticky note labels for as many things in their room as they can

• Teach them words on common signs or brand logos they are familiar with

• Re-read the same stories multiple times, to help them better remember certain words

• Play word game apps on a mobile device or computer. 

• Watch shows like Alphablocks  or Between the Lions

• Download reading apps on your mobile device

• “What’s the Missing Letter?” Word Game 

• Write letters in chalk in the driveway, and time how fast the kids can run to each letter to spell the words they are told. 

Sources: 

Crowe, Ashley. “27 Fun Reading Activities To Try At Home or In The Classroom.” Prodigy. December 16, 2021 (visited 10 April 2022). 

https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/reading-activities/ 

https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/reading-apps/ 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qs3c0ehDvZkbiEbOj6Drg 

Exploring the Visual, Auditory and Physical Styles of Learning: The Benefits of Various Teaching Styles

Simply put, learning styles are the different ways in which a person intakes information. While there are multiple ways to analyze this, one of the easiest ways to break this down is through our senses. Students learn through seeing, hearing, and handling the subject matters taught to them. Some children are more prone to retaining information when presented in a certain way, and thus one student may learn more quickly through hearing a teacher’s lesson while another may better grasp the concept if that same information is formulated into a graph. With that said, here is a quick breakdown of some of the learning styles and how they can be used.

Visual: Here are some ways in to use visualization to your advantage: Use multiple colored pens when taking notes to color-coordinate certain ideas, create graphs, charts, webs, and illustrations to depict the information you were taught, make a mind-map to see how various ideas connect to each other, or put facts on images and make a review collage. 

Auditorial: Some people prefer learning through hearing the information, so here are some study ideas: Listen to energizing but not distracting music while studying, memorize facts by putting them to the tune of a popular song, download lectures and re-listen to them in the car on the way to soccer practice, read through your notes out loud, or take turns with a study partner re-teaching each other the information by putting it in your own words. 

During a lesson exploring the digestive system, students participate in hands-on experiments to guide their understanding of the course material.

Physical: Get moving! This style of learning requires you to use your body: Act out what you are trying to learn as if rehearsing for a play, read your notes while walking or chewing gum to keep your subconscious busy with movement to help your mind focus on what you need to memorize, put choreography or dance moves to the information you are trying to memorize, or place index cards of facts around the room and connect them with string. Anything that gets your body moving in sync with your brain as you digest the information can be beneficial for a kinesthetic style of learning.

For rather obvious reasons, the smelling and tasting methods are rarely used. While delicious, writing your notes in icing on a cake and then eating it is neither practical nor efficient, even if you do technically digest the information. 

What’s a way to wrap all of this into one useful study tip: draw your notes. Edutopia explains how drawing while notetaking can increase retention rates by utilizing multiple learning styles at once. The student is intaking the information audibly by listening to the lecture; by depicting the information in charts, symbols, or pictures, they are constructing visuals; and by using their hands to draw, they are keeping their body physically active. 

While certain learning styles may come easier to some than others, we should avoid pigeonholing anyone to a specific style. If not understood correctly, a student may lay blame on the way a topic was conveyed rather than trying to take responsibility for trying extra hard to understand the concept. Rather than looking to strengthen a weakness, they may turn it into a handicap. This may be why the developer of the multiple intelligence theory, Howard Gardner believes it best to leave behind the term “learning styles,” even though he does highly encourage educators to “pluralize” their teaching methods. 

SOURCES: 

Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (2020). Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. In Instructional guide for university faculty and teaching assistants. Retrieved from https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide  

“Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences.” Northern Illinois University. (visited 24 March 2022)

https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide/gardners-theory-of-multiple-intelligences.shtml  

Cherry, Kendra. “Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences.” VeryWellMind.com. July 28, 2021 (visite 24 March 2022) 

https://www.verywellmind.com/gardners-theory-of-multiple-intelligences-2795161  

Terada, Youki. “The Science of Drawing and Memory.” Edutopia. 14 March 2019. (visited 4 April 2022)

https://www.edutopia.org/article/science-drawing-and-memory

New Year, New Logo: Here’s what it represents.

Our logo just got a wonderful makeover for our 10th year, and we couldn’t be more excited about it. This emblem shows off some core values of our school. The new logo is a silhouette of a phoenix head in front of five blue flames, all above an open book. It looks amazing, but what does it mean? Well, let us explain…

The Flames:

The five blue flames are representative of the five goals set in our mission statement, the first of which is providing holistic education. There are also five categories which make up holistic education: academic, emotional, social, moral, and spiritual. The next is implementing this holistic education to teach children how to be responsible, kind, and ethical neighbors. The last three also deal with how we strive to shape students into being ones who are competent persons, who are globally conscious, and who are historically relevant.   

The Phoenix:

The Phoenix serves as the school’s mascot, but was chosen so due to what phoenix’s are known best for: resurrection. We believe resurrection is a core element of our faith in God. The resurrection of Jesus reveals that God is the final judge and that life in him can triumph even over death. It is the epitome of hope, and is essential to our walk of faith. Our desire is to instill this undying flame of perseverance in the students,  teaching them to stand firm in the fact that their hope in God does not disappoint (Rom. 5).

The Book: 

The open book in front of the Phoenix is from where all our values derive: the Bible. It is not a closed book left on a shelf only to serve as a reminder of ancient traditions, but it is one we constantly open to study, so we know how to maneuver an ever changing world. Through meditation and study, we derive principles and lessons that can be applied in a relevant way to a watching world, allowing us to be a light in a world too often characterized by darkness.

A special THANK YOU to Genovations Media for the fresh design. Your team is always a pleasure to work with!