The Way They Learn · 8:46pm Dec 9th, 2014
(Authors note, This takes place somewhere during part two of Lilly's story. While she is a Tutor at her school. This is BEFORE she gets her cutie mark, but during the last year of her own student life.)
*Thump, Thump, Thump* My ears perk forward, "Come in!" I call. I hear the door open, and two sets of hooves enter. One I recognize as being the principal's, Mr. Firewing The other, one of the students.
"Give me a second." My eyes continue to read over the page I am grading as my left wing holds up one feather. "Oh, no!" I exclaim, "So close! Poor Snow Flake! You missed ONE! ONE!"I sigh as I scoop up the quill in my right wing and mark the problem wrong.
After placing the page on the stack to my left I glance up. "So, How can I help you."
Mr. Firewing chuckles, "Well Miss Feathers, This is-"
I glance at the white colt with the back mane and tail and whistle cutie mark. "Whistle Spark." I finished.
He shakes his head. "How?"
I shrug, "Is he having trouble with his lessons?"
Mr Firewing shook his head. "Actually he is here for a different reason."
I raise both eyebrows. "Really? Alright, Shoot."
Mr. Firewing pushes Whistle forward. My eyes lock on the colt, "Can I help you?"
Whistle reaches for his saddle bag and pulls out a pen and paper. I raise an eyebrow at Mr. Firewing.
He nods.
"Alright," Says Whistle, "Miss. Feathers... could I ask you a few questions?"
I chuckle. "Sure."
"I'll leave you two to it, I have work to do." Mr. Firewing says slipping out.
My attention then fully turned to the young colt. "So, How can I help you."
"Miss Feathers-"
"Please, Lilly."
"Miss Lilly, um... Yesterday I was... um... Permoted to... Tutor..."
I smiled. "Oh! This talk!" I shook my head giggling, "I will never understand why all the teachers in this school send you guys to me! The blank flank!"
Whistle watches me with a hint of fear in his eyes.
I chuckle, "Don't worry, I don't bite, Alright you want to know how to teach."
He nodded. I shook my head, "Really Whistle, It isn't that hard. To teach you must first know how they learn." I watched as he started scribbling notes in his notebook. Chuckling I continued. "Very simply there are three basic learning styles, Visual, Which is what you are."
He glanced up. "How do you know that?"
I laughed. "Only visual learners take notes like that. You have to see it, to understand it. To tell you the truth, most schools are geared towards the visual learners forgetting about the other two groups." I walked over to my chalk board behind my desk, and picked up some chalk.
"Very basically there are three main learning styles. Visual, Auditory, and Textile. Or in other words, eyes, ears, and movement." I quickly sketched as I talked to make it easier for him to follow.
"I have actually designed this room to compensate all three learning styles. I designed a high table so that I can take chairs away from students that require movement of body to stimulate movement of their mind. If you listen you will hear soft music playing from my boom box in the corner, and I have a chalkboard at the front of the room for my visual learners."
I pause and wait for him to catch up. the notebook is just tilted enough for me to make out what he was writing. I giggle to myself. "I am an auditory learner. I learn with my ears, listening for cues to help me remember different concepts and ideas. To every piece of information that is in my head I have a song to go with it."
He glanced up. "I thought you had a scar!"
I giggled. "Those too. Teach me to pay attention to where I'm going and what I am doing."
He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
I nodded. "For an auditory learner you need to read the stuff out loud. Turn information into a song, or poem. Then you will find that they learn really quickly.
"The third group is the action, or textile learners. These students need to move. You can't strap them to a seat, in a closed off room, then expect them to make straight A's. It just does not work that way. They need to move. They need to exercise, you need to take that ability to learn through movement and put it to work. This is why my table is so high and I have put the chairs against the wall. For different students I allow, or don't allow them to fetch themselves a chair.
"What if they are tired?"
I laugh. "First of all, I have never met a true action learner, that get too tired that they HAVE to land, But if they do I allow them to fetch a chair as long as they can prove to me that they are still learning."
"Now that we know the three base groups, there are two different ways to implement it, quickly, and slowly. Some of us learn fast, others learn slowly. Some have things memorized within one or two hearings, seeings of the information. Others need to encounter the information six, seven, even twenty times! Most of my foals I am sent are slower learners. Not all, I have a few who memorize quickly, but this means I have to slow down. You must present the information many different times, in many different ways in order for them to learn what you are trying to teach."
"Example?" He asked.
"Remember when you were learning your ABC's?"
He nodded.
"Well, The first time they probably sang them. Then the second time you were shown a chart while they were sung to you. The third time you were shown the chart, sang them, then had to write it all down. Maybe you even played The ABC Body game where you had to shape the letter with your body and maybe even a partner's body. Now each time you encountered it it was the same thing presented a little differently to keep it interesting. Although even with this system you need to be very careful how you handle it. Not always does it help to make it new and different each and every time. Some need stability. So fore these you pick three or four methods then do them over and over and over again in a pattern. So for the first day of the week we sing them, second day we write them, third day we fly them... Then repeat the process. This keeps it just enough interesting that the abstract learners have verity while the concrete learners have structure."
I glanced back over at his paper to read what he had written. 'Eyes, Ears,Movement.' 'Fast, slow' 'Abstract, concrete.'
I smiled. "Then there are 'solitary,' learners, and 'group' learners. Some need to be with a partner comparing notes. Others if you put them with a group will just sit there, and not learn a thing."
"You?" He asked.
I giggled. "I, am a solitary. I prefer to learn alone, but the funny thing is I teach best when I have a team. You will find this true for you. Just because you learn one way does not mean you will teach best using that same method."
He scribbles this down on his paper. "Anything else?"
I gestated to the room. "Environment! Some learn best inside, others outside. Some need open space, others need closed off. Some sprawl there work, others Make one or two neat stacks and that is it. A good example of sprawler learner and 'compact' is my father and I. Tell me what you notice about my desk?"
He looked at my desk confused, then shook his head. I giggle. "Alright I will explain to you what you see. With my desk, though large I hardly ever use the entire thing. Most of what I am doing stays in the drawers, I only have out what I am doing at that point in time. To my left I have the papers I still need to grade, the center is what I am grading at that moment, then finally the right pile is what I am finished with and ready to sort and return to my students. I have out three, and only three writing utenciles. A red pen, a green pen, and a purple pen. My students all know what each color means. I also sometimes have out a notebook with a pencil on it just in case I need to solve the problem for myself. My desk is neat, orginized, and tidy.
"Now let's take my father's desk for example. Have you ever been in his room while he was grading papers?"
Whistle shook his head once more. "I don't think I have ever been in Coach Feather's class room."
I laugh. "You haven't missed much, My dad is a sprawler. When he grades he pushes EVERYTHING against the wall and has every student's work in a different stack somewhere on the floor. The music is loud and... Well I find it rather annoying. It is chaotic, and mind boggling. Somehow though he gets his stuff graded just as fast as I do. AND keeps on top of his lesson plans better than I."
"Hasn't he been doing it longer?"
I laugh once more. "Absolutely, but the fact of the matter is, we don't think the same so it is hard for me to understand how he gets his work done in an environment that I can't even function in. Dad, has also confessed to me that he can't think in my room. Why? Because it has too much order.
"This brings us to another learning difference. 'Random, and systematic'" I waited for him to list this as well.
"The last and final difference I want to point out is not a learning style, but rather a method in which we think. Mathematically and-" I pause unable to remember the word I was looking for. "Word learning..."I finally say. Some do better in the subjects that require a great deal of Math and logic capabilties. There are others, though who learn better with the non logical subjects, but rather the ones that require a great understanding on words. Right brain thinkers verses left brain thinkers." To demonstrate I drew a picture.
"As you can see left brained ponies think best logically, or mathematically. The right brain does better with creativity and words."
He glanced at it. "So, which are you?"
I laughed. "Well Whistle, Then there are students like me, who can think in either hemisphere." Passed my chalk from my right wing to my left and continued to draw. "We have not one strong aria, but struggle in both. Everyone will strech between the line in at least one or more arias."
He wrote this down. "Anything else Miss Lilly?"
I walked over to my shelf and pulled a book off of it. "Not anything that this does not cover. I have covered all the basics here, but if you wish to learn more here is my book that I read to learn all of this."
"I thought you said that you were a auditory learner!"
"Just because I learn best through my ears, doesn't mean I can't learn the other two ways. It just means it takes me longer to have it all learned."
With that he thanked me and trotted out.
(more author note)
If any of you are interested in learning more about this subject HERE is the book I discussed in the story. If you are looking for it in a public library, it's dewy decimal number is. 370.1523/TOB. The author has a fun, picture oriented, writing style that is easy, and fun to read. Each chapter is summed up in a actual, factual, nutshell. And at the end of every section she has an image of what she is talking about. I wish I could have covered this entire book in this post but. 
The book is 165 pages long. Sorry guys, A brief summery is all you are getting from me.
I hope you enjoyed getting to know the teacher side of Lilly in her natural environment. I really enjoyed writing her at the older age. I'll see you again here tomorrow.
Cowgirl VK out
2643032 I discovered when I got to the end only thing I accomplished was to introduce it. Yes you will be a mix of them. Everyone is. And everyone has their own ways of learning. I'll be doing a part two next week where I take all this and put it to what we know about the different characters.
As far as left brain, right brain, goes you can tell by which hand you use more often to read and write. I am ambidextrous. Which is what finally clued my mom into the fact that she could not just teach me one way.
So basically part two will be more like the first blog entry Lilly did explaining the love languages. We will be dealing with a much older Lilly so she won't be quite so confusing. I hope....
2643082 Then you are left brained, but everyone does use both. Flipping between them as they go... (I think I have been working With Zecora too much today, I think my story needs put away.)
2644889 I have never broken my arm before. But if one hand is busy I just switch hands. Besides the fact that my left arm is a bit more shaky than my right there is no difference. If there is an left handed kid in mom's ss class I am always the one to help them for I can cut, draw, write... eat... with my left hand just as well as my right. I have practiced long and hard to be able to do this.
2644896 No, not really. It just strengthens your weaker side.