My classroom

I'm now looking at my classroom and I'm seeing information everywhere. Not just the typical, map or globe on the wall, but also bookshelves with Newsweek, Time, and perhaps other periodicals students can draw information from, so they can compare and contrast some of the information their getting from me and the book with that of the world. We may have weekly assignments from these to force this exploration, and I include myself as I think I'll start each week with my own. I think I'll allow them to choose their subject or article for the week and do some in-class summaries. A couple of times we may do these as a group but mostly it will be a individual exercise. It seems to me the present is just as important as history and should be treated so. These after all are kids who are going to inherit the world in just a few years, they should know what is going on. In reality I feel fairly confident in my abilities so far, my only insecurity is in forming a syllabus.
My thoughts on this chapter are perhaps a bit skewed, while I think different learning styles are great, as well as teaching styles, it remains to be seen if they actually have an impact. I think the best teachers don't consciously do it. It just comes from experience and knowledge of how they learned it. I'm not saying it doesn't help certain students, but i think if you look at kids while talking with them and read the ques as to whether they get it or not, you should be able to adjust on the fly without having to determine which is going to help the most, or who learns which way or the other. Really I compare the styles test to the IQ tests as they have a place, but only as a guide, I don't think they'll ever replace experience or ability to read students emotions and actions.
There was alot of information on the boards this week, but it seems nearly everyone came to the same conclusion I did. The learning styles and teaching styles are great guides but unless you can make your class enjoyable and engaging you're just spinning your wheels and making alot of noise. We all know which "styles" we enjoyed as students its just a matter of being capable of duplicating it, and reaching as many as possible.