Learning Experiences

The most effective in-class learning experience, that I can remember, was when I was being homeschooled. I was in seventh grade and my mom was teaching me about the World Wars as well as the Holocaust. My mom is very passionate about history, so she went really in depth into the details of what started the wars, how each country was eventually pulled into the conflict, and how the wars came to an end. This was the first time that I had really heard about the Holocaust, and really the World Wars in so much detail, and I have been interested in them ever since. My mom had me read personal accounts of the wars, as well as accounts from Jewish prisoners in the labor camps, which allowed me to see the events of the war from a point that I could relate to. I was also required to read a few chapters in a text book, and my mom printed out pictures of the many different events so I could really understand what was happening. None of my other teachers ever spent that much time on any particular time in history, but I will never forget all of the things that I learned that year with my mom teaching me.
The most effective out-of-class learning experience would be learning to ride my bike. My dad made me ride my tricycle until I was positive that I wanted to take my training wheels off and ride a "big girl" bike. When I was ready, he got out his bike and first showed me how to ride it, and explaining how the petals worked as well as the brakes. Then he made me get on my bike while he held on to the back of the seat to help me balance, and petal for a few feet while he helped to keep me from falling. Without telling me, he would let go of the seat and let me ride by myself. Once I figured out that he wasn't helping me, the thought of riding by myself wasn't as scary as it was before, because I already knew that I could do it.
When learning about the World Wars and the Holocaust with my mom, everything that I was finding out was new, so I payed a lot of attention to everything that she said and showed me. All of it being new also kept me interested the entire time, and made me want to know more details, and learn all that I could about it. Because it was my mother teaching me, she knew the techniques that I would learn the best from and what would keep me interested, which was good. My dad teaching me how to ride a bike was also something that was new, but I had to be ready to learn how to do it first. I had to prove that I would pay attention and really try to focus on what I was doing. Again, because it was my dad who was teaching me, he knew the things that would scare me away from learning, and how to avoid those things.
From these two experiences, I know that for me to learn and really understand what I am learning, I have to see things from multiple points of view. I learn the best by reading about something, but also having an image that I can physically see and from that image get a feeling of what people went through, and how they felt. I also have to be willing to focus all of my attention on what I am doing, or I won't get a lot of what is being said because I start thinking about something else and then I have missed half of the lesson! So, I know that I learn best by reading about something and by having it shown to me, whether it be a photograph or an example of how to do something.