Mel Henderson

Service learing opportunities in the community provides students an avenue of application of classroom instruction. It takes creativity and problem solving and can enhance the learning for the students by working with real people with real problems. 

Some interesting points. Studying and making a plan for necessary improvements and considering all stakeholders' points of view. 

Approaching the class and learning environment from a holistic standpoint, we can seek to better understand the learning preferences, learning challenges, and learing needs of our students. 

Language is an expression of one's cultural and heritage. It is important that this be recognized and that students are not made to feel minimized or lesser than in an English-only classroom. 

I appreciate the analogy of the blind surgeon. Just as she/he should not be blind, neither should we as we stand in front of our classrooms. We need to see, recognize, and celebrate diversities of opinion, heritage, culture, religion, and race.

Just as our care is client-centered, our instruction should be student-centered and should seek to include and avoid marginalization. 

I believe it is critical that I foster the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills in my students. They must be prepared to enter the field ready to tackle real-world problems without the need of constant hand-holding. 

This is a good one but, I must admit, I am intimidated. As a GenXer, I am not exactly a digital native. I have always preferred a number 2 pencil to anthing with a sreen and a battery. It looks like I need to get over my fear and laziness and start bringing it into my classroom, in order to better teach (and reach) my students. 

I always was curious about individual learning styles and preferences, but it has never crossed my mind to consider generational styles and preferences. This somehow makes my job a lot more difficult as I try to be thoughtful to all generation on learning delivery methods. 

So interesting to study each generation, their preferences, common experiences, and all those things that forms who we are. It makes a good point that, as teachers, we need to understand where our students are coming from generationally so that we can understand their strengths, wants, and learning styles.