Learning to Unlearn

I spent a long time picking through "Unlearn" related images, and now the word "learn" looks really weird to me. Anyway, Since I hope to teach a very differentiated classroom one day, unlearning my own personal learning style is going to be a priority for me. It's going to be important that I understand where my students are coming from with their own learning styles, and being able to cater to that in a way that maximizes the effectiveness of my teaching. I best learn a task by watching someone else do it first, and then trying it myself. I'll watch the other person do it until I have memorized what I need to do (monkey see, monkey do?). Not everyone learns like that. Some do best reading instruction from a book, or in groups. I'm going to have to understand different learning perspectives so I can make myself the best teacher I can be.

Another thing I will have to be mindful of is following my role models. I have had some amazing teachers, and I remember some of my favorite assignments from them, or the way they taught that made me immediately understand the concept. I will be tempted to try to apply their methods in my own classroom. While there isn't necessarily anything wrong with doing that while I figure out my own teaching style, I will have to keep in mind that just because they were my favorite teacher, doesn't mean their lesson plan or methods worked as well for my peers. Contrarily, the teachers who I disliked were other student's favorites. Ultimately, I just have to remember that everyone is different, and try to work with that in the best way that I can.