Teachers Compensating for Learning Difficulties

Teachers Compensating for Learning Difficulties

A Story by Mike Espinosa

Many students have different methods in which they learn the material for their classes.

These methods have been used by many instructors in order to help their students better understand the more complex material. These can be seen through the use of audio, visuals, and audiovisuals.


Some other methods involving the senses are overlooked by the majority of educators.

In a survey conducted by the National Educator’s Association, it was found that 50% of students learn better through visual aids, 45% learn through audio, 5% through feel, i.e. Braille, and the other 5% of students learn through the other senses; namely, smell and taste.


Green River Community College has a number of students that fall into the last 5% of the survey taken.


These students have an inability to learn the required material in a traditional fashion, which means that there is a bigger boulder on the shoulders of the teachers.


Because it is the teacher’s job to assure that the students have the best possible means of learning the subject, they must adjust their teaching styles to bring convenience to this minority.


“It’s quite a chore having the sniffers in your classroom. I spend hours trying to come up with a distinct smell that properly represents America’s stance in the Cold War,” said history teacher, Chris Torian.


Some teachers find adjusting to these learning deficiencies easier than others.

Ann Attoms, an anatomy teacher at GRCC said, “One of my students has an odd situation; he can only learn through taste. Sure, at first it seemed a bit too ridiculous to have to adjust to, but then the president of the college threatened to fire me, so I rethought my methods and realized the solution was simple.”


Attoms’ finished her modifications to her style within days. “We were going over various body parts of the human body, so I just killed a hobo and cooked the body parts that would be on the quiz. Then we had a ‘potlatch’ in class the day before the test. The student scored 100%, and continues to do so, scoring 100% on every test after that. He’s one of my best students.”


Phillis Eddins, a health teacher at Kentwood High School, also thinks that adjusting was quite simple. 


“We were going over the reproductive system. I could tell that he was having some trouble on the subject matter. I met him after class one day, and we talked about what would make him score better on his tests. He told me that he learned through taste. I spent around one day thinking about it, and the only logical conclusion was to show him how all the parts taste. Sure, my husband, his parents, and the police were angry, but he got 100% on the female portion of the final.”


From our findings, it seems that teachers are very willing to conform their methods to benefit their students, except for those sniffers. Screw them.

© 2010 Mike Espinosa


My Review

Would you like to review this Story?
Login | Register




Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Request Read Request
Add to Library My Library
Subscribe Subscribe


Stats

441 Views
Added on February 2, 2010
Last Updated on February 2, 2010
Tags: Journalism, satire, News story, public school, disabilities, learning, students

Author

Mike Espinosa
Mike Espinosa

Covington, WA



About
- College Student at Western Washington University - Philosophy Major - English with Secondary Education Interest Major - I enjoy academic punctuation and grammar and can edit them quickly. - I am.. more..

Writing