By Kourtnie Hunter, DMS ELA & Collaborative Teacher I recently learned something about myself that completely explained part of my personality. I have always struggled with listening, no matter who or what was being talked about, no matter how important the conversation, I’ve been someone who cannot listen.
As I went through school, I was complimented often on my ability to achieve academically, but behind the mask, I was always the student who heard directions and then went, "uh, what?!" when it was time to work. I couldn’t recall what had just been told to me. As I got older, the problem seemed to escalate, and I found myself struggling to listen to anyone or anything at all-- I began to lose my ability to interact with others in meaningful ways, and I found I couldn’t even listen to my favorite TV shows anymore. My frustration with myself grew to the point that I felt I was broken somehow. What was wrong with me? During meetings, I struggled to follow along and work with others, and I found myself often leaving a place thinking what just happened? What did I miss? One day I was on Tik Tok, and I noticed several videos with closed captions on, and for the first time, I HEARD what the silly videos were telling me. My ears had suddenly turned on! They were hearing and listening for the first time in years, which was weird because captions are read, not heard, but that’s what made the entire difference for me. Closed captions. I had another ah-ha moment at a meeting at the beginning of the school year where we had to read off example situations from classrooms to complete an activity. I led my group through reading the situations out loud (typically I am passive about reading aloud to others), and again, I could HEAR what they were saying even though the words were silently printed on a piece of paper. I found the activity enjoyable and easy to comprehend. So, how does this all connect to me in my classroom? I am a visual learner, and I realized I could increase my auditory learning skills by pairing them with my visual learning strengths. Once I had two senses working together, my world opened up! I realized I could do the same for students in my classroom, so I wanted to offer some tips on bringing together auditory and visual learning skills:
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AuthorsDCSD Teachers, Instructional Coaches, Learner Advocate, and Collaborative Teachers Archives
April 2024
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