Meeting the Needs of Your Students

Seasoned educators will tell you from experience that no child learns in exactly the same way. And while some students may be able to adapt to your personal teaching style, others will struggle to make the important connections and stumble their way through the semester. While you too are a person with unique style, philosophy, and teaching preferences, as an educator, you have the power to create and re-create the classroom learning environment to meet the needs of all students.

A great plan for stepping away from the doldrums of lecturing is to attempt teaching basic unit concepts through games. Because games can be customized to fit your needs, they can be incorporated into classroom learning to produce a variety of results. To strengthen social, team building, and problem solving skills, divide students into several teams and compete as a class. To promote individualized learning while removing some of the competitive edge, divide students into pairs for one-on-one play or pass out small white boards to encourage every student's participation in classroom exercises. No matter which method suits your classroom, students will benefit from the change in pace and the strengthening of new skills.