In about a month, students will be leaving for winter break. When they return, a new semester will begin. As with every semester change, some students will be placed in new classrooms with different teachers.

In my four years, this has been either helpful or problematic, mainly because the teaching format that each teacher has can have a big effect. 

For example, some of my teachers simply teach the lesson by putting up slides and making the class take notes, while others get the students more involved. 

Neither method is inherently wrong, but students have tendencies and learning styles that need stronger consideration. 

I prefer being more involved because it allows me to communicate with others, which helps me understand material better.

 But when it comes to just taking notes, I don’t retain as much information  because it makes it difficult to understand everything based on a single set of slides.

“In one of my classes we have to do our classwork individually, and not only does it make it hard to understand the lesson, but it also ruins the purpose of coming to school,”  senior Rachel Bales says. “If I have to go to a class just to take notes, I would rather stay at home and do my work on my own.”