Wake up and Live ….and change lives for a living
I am a Dyslexic facilitator.
I am not a teacher. Teachers need to know processes, procedures and information that students may or may not be able to understand. This is the dilemma of a teacher: All these students have different ways of learning, different levels of prior knowledge and different mental or emotional blocks to prevent them from taking the information on board. Our poor teachers have only one way of teaching the entire class, hoping to catch the majority of pupils in the net of knowledge. That method still is mainly auditory. Most kids seem to learn that way, at least for the short term to show good marks in tests – until it is all forgotten one week later. Visual or kinaesthetic learners; however, are left behind in this model.
I am not a tutor, either. Tutors have the advantage that they can teach one-on-one or a very small group and tailor their tutoring, hopefully to the learning style of their student. Unfortunately most tutors are not trained to even pick up someone’s learning style – and if they do, they don’t always know how to teach something in a variety of ways.
My job is easy: I have to empower my dyslexic students (the visual or tactile learners) to realise their own full potential, to gain the confidence that they CAN read and comprehend everything they read and write. I show them ways on how to be in charge of their focus. They are the ones that become the masters of their own learning. I just give them the tools to do so.
The advantage here is that I am not feeding them with fish but showing them how to fish. I am not feeding them with information but they will learn how to gather that information in a visual manner, so it makes sense. Once it does, it will not be forgotten one week after their exam – it will be a permanent picture in their mind.
Are you changing lives for a living?