My MEL Experiences

• Context: In my High School Economics class everything we did related to our lives. It was progressive, first we learned how to write checks and balance a check book, then we bought a car, next we got married, and finally we bought a house. For each project there was a check list of what had to be included at the end, but it was very flexible. For example for getting married you had to find flowers, a cake, dresses, tuxes, limos, and so on. Every activity was something that would most likely be useful in our lives.
  
• Hands-on: In my fourth grade class we were learning about astronomy. We each had to pick a certain amount of constellations and draw what they looked like, and generally learn about them so we could tell others about them. We then created our own planetarium, I guess thats what you could call it. We took heavy black plastic and drew on our constellations in relationship to everyone else's. Then we created a big black bubble that you could crawl in and out of. It took up our entire classroom. We took turns giving "tours" of our sky to first and second grade classrooms. It was the most fun I had all year. We each learned about our stars but learned about others by sharing with each other. It was a lot more fun to do this activity rather then sitting in our desks, reading a book.
  
• Autonomy: In my Junior High School English class we always had a list of different projects that we could choose to complete. There would normally be some types of the following projects; paper, poster, song, and presentation. That way we could pick what we were best at and most comfortable doing. We could also go and talk to her about creating our own project or slightly altering the ones she had. It made my life easier because I could pick the project that worked best for me.
  
• Learning Styles: In my sixth grade class we were always doing a lot of different activities from every different Learning Style, though I did not realize it at the time. We spent a lot of our class time writing and reading but there were always activities that went along with them that would be from other areas. I remember doing a lot of pictures to represent our writing, and spending a good deal of time outside. We did group projects, we did projects by ourselves. We had a lot of flexibility within the class to make the class work for us.
  
• Connections: In my history class sophomore year my teacher never made connections from what we were learning to us or the time now. We did the same thing every class. We would come in, get our homework checked off, then we would go over the homework, and then she would lecture on the new topic. After she was done we would open the book, read the chapter, and answer the questions that came after. It was always the same and always one of the hardest classes to stay awake in.