An Unfettered EAGLE amongst turkeys – embracing your learning style

Morning all!

So nice to see you at my blog today!  I woke up after enjoying a restful sleep, turned over, and heard my vertebrae go "You’re joking, right?" 

Not the most promising of physical moods, let me tell you!

Given that today is my beloved adult sparring class, methinks I’ll be most gentle on myself today.  If my back is still bothersome by this evening, I’ll focus simply on kata – those are always enjoyable to perform.

But I digress.  🙂

Yesterday one of my kids came home with tears in her eyes about her poor grade in her spelling definitions test.  Now, in my family, there are a few rules when it comes to academics – anything requiring simple memorization HAS to score above a 90, else I will implement consequences.  But there is ONE extra compoment to this – I go over the test myself, and if I can understand from where the mistake originated (ie, the kid DID study but her thought process went left while the others took a jolly saunter off to the right), I don’t count that as a bona-fide mistake.

So!  Kid came home and we started reviewing the test.  And flap my earlobes and call me Dumbo, but for 3 out of the 5 questions she got wrong….they would be have considered correct GIVEN the way she approachs life in general.

My gosh, the way she thinks….it’s utterly bizarre and yet, totally believeable at the same time.  This particular child of mine is virtually a carbon copy of me back from when I was that age (okay, true, there are a few differences, the main one being she’s utterly magnificent and possesses self-confidence and style and ….), so I’m generally in sync with how her mind works, but still….wow.

Thus, an opportunity now arises.

I believe in NOT squelching such uniqueness…yet at the same time, she’s going to be hosed later on in rote memory tests if she DOESN’T learn how the rest of the world thinks.

So I need to teach her how to be, well, ordinary….and yet how to embrace her unique patterns of thinking and let them send her into the far realms of creativity.

It will be a challenge, but one that will benefit her in the long run as well.

You see, I firmly believe that while creativity is the fuel on which great achievements run, we DO live in the real world as well…and as such, need to possess the ABILITY to conform.

In other words, we might be eagles at heart, but if our circumstances plops us down among a flock of turkeys, we had better know how to happily peck for seeds with the crowd too.

I’ve always known my child has a very unique learning style – it was because of that that I designed and created my Lingstar Learning Reading Enrichment program when I taught her how to read.  Ever since that time in my life, I educated myself about different learning styles and how what fits one child can leave another one colder than a refrigerator hibernating at the North Pole!

Learning styles are a cause for celebration!  There are several out there, including:

• Visual learners grasp ideas through seeing.These learners like visual enhancements such as slides, pictures, graphs, videos, demonstrations and the like. He or she might have a vivid imagination, and possess the ability to focus visually on the teacher for a long period of time. If you were to ask the first thing thought of when hearing the word "dog", it might be a mental picture of the complete animal. Visual learners can see the information they learn in their mind like a movie picture.
•  Auditory learners grasp ideas by actively listening (and not just hearing!) their teacher. They learn best when they can concentrate on the speaker and process the information.
•  Tactile/Kinesthetic learners grasp ideas through doing. They learn best when physically engaged in a "hands on" activity. He or she involves all their senses (touch, sight, etc.) to understand the lesson. In the classroom, they might thrive in a setting where they can actively use different materials from stations to absorb new information…they learn best when they can be physically active in the learning environment.

Do you see the above in yourself…or any of your children? 

If so, remember….discovering the BEST unique learning style will give wings to your imagination and create a fire burning in your belly.

Everyone has their own best ways of becoming brilliant in their own areas…never ever short-change yourself at all.  Your future successes will thank you for it.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – speaking about learning styles, have you seen: