My MEL Experiences

• Hands On: In my high school chemistry class, our teacher has us use plastic models of molecules so we could fit them together and visualize how molecules go together in  a compound. It was easier to imagine it when working with our hands and physically putting them together than to try to visualize a foreign concept in our heads. -
• Helping Students Succeed: My high school Spanish teacher knew that her class was hard, and kept it hard so the students who didn't actually want to be there or learn would have to drop it. She very high expectations of what she wanted us to know, but once she was down to the students who wanted to be there, she really supported us and pushed us every time we struggled.
• Student/teacher Relationship: My high school honors geometry teacher was the funniest, kindest, and most amazing teacher that you would ever meet. For students who were done early or who learned best working with their hands, she gave them rubics cubes and other things like that to help them focus. She was always laughing, joking around, and made everyone feel comfortable and respected in her classroom.
• Learning Styles: In my high school American studies classes, we had four units and each until had a variety of projects the corresponded to the different learning styles. I never realized that until now. For example, he made us make a jingle describing the character traits of one of the characters in The Great Gatsby. He made us do movies to go along with The Scarlet Letter, and I did a sculpture project to show what I learned about the industrial revolution. These projects address different multiple intelligences.
• Autonomy: In my high school chorus classroom, instead of memorizing a piece and singing it for our final exam, we got to get into groups and choose a musical of our choice and memorize, act out, and sing at least 3 songs from that musical. Our group picked the musical Cinderella, and I got to be the fairy-godmother and sing bippidy boppidy boo. It was easier for us to choose what we wanted to sing instead of being forced to sing something in Italian that couldn't relate to our lives.