Teaching VS. Learning

Teaching and learning are very different. Teaching is the act of giving lessons on a subject to a class or to students and it aims at showing students how to do something. Teaching can be both formal and informal. The main purpose of teaching is to provide information and knowledge for a student in particular fields and topics for them to learn. Teaching focuses on academic subjects and concepts but also on behavior and discipline in settings. The person teaching guides the students and facilitates learning. Learning however, is knowledge that is gained from studying and from being taught. Learning pertains to acquiring information, skills, behaviors, concepts, and values. Learning is continuous from the day you are born. Whether it is in a classroom or at home, or anywhere, you can always be learning something. Technology can be used in a classroom to teach students and also to help student learn. In two of my methods classes I learned about various types of technology that can be used in a classroom. When using PowerPoints, I incorporated animated clipart in order to catch the student’s attention. In addition we used technology for formative and summative assessments through websites.

For example, Kahoot is a great game that can be used to see how much the students understood. It is questions-answer game in which students compete to figure out the answers. It was very fun for the students and they were all intrigued to answer the questions because they wanted to win. I can also use technology to assist students who might need extra help. Some students have a hard time sitting and focusing on a worksheet, so technology can be used to help some students learn in a different way. Different students have different learning styles and technology helps them to learn in thw way that they prefer. Using technological devices in education is a great way to engage students because it is something they usually find interest in and it also provides them with a fun learning environment. Rote memorization is a learning technique based on repetition. Worksheets I feel can sometimes be boring for students but are helpful in practice. It can help a student to continuously practice their math facts. Worksheets in my classroom will be primarily to practice but not for primarily learning. I feel that learning should not be based on a worksheet. However worksheets can be a form of assessment every day to see how much each student is improving. Rote memorization is important and should be used every day in a classroom. Students do not learn from hearing something one time. Children, especially at a young

age learn by constant repetition. The more repetition used the more the student will most likely remember. There are ways to encourage rote memorization. For example, my teachers used songs sometimes for rote memorization. This is a great idea at a younger age level because students love singing and songs and they will continuously sing them over and over and without realizing it they are continuously repeating and before they know it they have the information memorized. Mad minutes can be used in repetition of addition, subtraction and multiplication. The students continuously repeat the questions over and over again each day until they can quickly answer the questions and then move onto the next level.