Journaling Effectively

October 28, 2014

Hi All,

Journaling can be an awesome outlet for students. But, journaling effectively can be difficult. How can we plan fun and thought-provoking lessons using journaling for our students? The following include a few tips:

• Journal weekly: Have a specific day for your students to journal. Have them take this opportunity to clear their minds, and think about the future. 
• Create goals: Have students think about goals they want to obtain over the course of the year. If students complete this in September, they can check on the progress they're making. 
• Global communication: Connect with classrooms around the world. Teach your students about diversity by having pen-pals halfway across the world. (This would be a task completed using blogging, but blogging and journaling can be combined)
• Students and Parents: Ask parents to respond to comment in student's journals. Keep students excited to check back by having others look over their work. Be sure to get permission first!
• Have a morning question: Provide students with a question they can answer in their journals each morning. This will make journaling more consistent.

Be sure to stay consistent! Students may forget their journals if they aren't writing frequently. Journals can also be used for choice time, or after all other work is completed. 

Plenty of ideas are available; please comment with your ideas, and suggestions! 

Adam

Battling Test Anxiety: How can we cope?

October 9, 2014

Pre-service teachers need to enter their first classrooms with knowledge that will allow them to create a successful learning environment. One of the largest epidemics facing classrooms today is anxiety/test anxiety. It's been reported that 5-19% of school-aged children are struggling (Lowe & Raad, 42, 2008). Anxiety is an IEP and students can receive special education services to help further learning. Some ways we can help our students thrive with this disorder include:

• Teach students that anxiety is normal, "it's okay to be anxious!". This allows our students to breathe and feel okay. 
• Teaching students how to take deep breathes to calm their minds and bodies. 
• Allow students to take a break from class and go on a walk with a Para-professional. This will allow students to breathe and calm themselves before returning. 
• Help students envision themselves elsewhere, give them a mini-escape before taking a test.
• Adjust assessment to give students the opportunity to have real results. As a future educator, I will never want to place a "D" on an anxious learners report card. This may not be indicative of the student's ability level. 

(Tips retrieved from: Twelve tips to reduce your child's stress and anxiety by: Amy Przeworski) 

Takeaway: Understand your students. Learn their abilities, knowledge levels, and capacity. Assist your learners where they need it. Fight anxiety with coping methods and understand the prevalence. 

Adam

References

Lowe, P. A., & Raad, J. M. (2008). Anxiety. In N. J. Salkind & K. Rasmussen (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 38-44). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2660600021&v=2.1&u=nhc_main&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=8dbe78d93707e9721049af7a755cd428

Przeworski, A. (2013, February 19) Twelve tips to reduce your child’s stress and anxiety. Psychology Today. Retrieved October 11, 2014, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-worry-mom/201302/12-tips-reduce-your-childs-stress-and-anxiety

My History of Technology in Grades K-12

September 8, 2014

Hello All,

Thinking back, all that comes to mind is change. Over a twelve year span, students went from using floppy disks to online services such as a google drive or the cloud. 

In elementary school, I remember sitting down at a large grey computer and having a floppy drive I kept in my backpack. It seems that we never really used the computers that were located in a lab in the library. Although we used the computers infrequently, I remember a student accidentally printing out hundreds of papers and the frazzled librarian battling the overwhelmed, and likely overworked, printer. As the years went on we began using computers more. Around fifth grade, our school got the COW, computers on wheels as teachers called it. In fifth grade we were all expected to complete a PowerPoint. I was so excited! I always loved using computer and I knew how to place noises in my PowerPoint. 

Middle school started involving even more technology. The library computers were slow, but we were expected to use them to work on our reports and projects. Each year we had a technology course. The technology teacher uttered the most memorable words from middle school, "Okay students, take out your typing books and began -- A-S-D-F-;-L-K-J-H". For eight weeks we all endured the wrath of memorizing the school keyboards. This was by far the most boring class.

By high school newer inventions became popular. The school had carts filled with iPads and students were expected to complete research papers and have a better understand of how to appropriately use technology. Classes were offered such as "gaming and apps" or "journalism", which allowed students to create newspapers or create their own computer games. The opportunities technology brought on seemed endless.

I've always had an interest in technology, but not enough to pursue it as a job. In the future, I'd love to have a classroom where students used multiple mediums to complete creative and thoughtful work. My hope is to work with younger students. My expectations won't include having them complete research papers, but they could all take lessons learned in class and create an online e-book that could be sent home to their parents showing how they've mastered spelling words. Additionally, online services could be utilized to further a student's education. This could be used for gifted students who need a challenge.

Overall, technology in the classroom has endless possibilities. Teachers, or pre-teachers, in this 

modern age should be preparing for the technologically advanced classroom they're about to be apart of. 

First Class - Exciting!

September 7, 2014

Greetings Everyone!

It was very nice to meet some of you! I am super excited to be taking EDU-235. I have big plans for my future and being an education student at Southern New Hampshire University is a wonderful start for me. 

I decided about two years ago that I want to teach. This year is my third year working in before and after school programming. During my first year, I spent extensive time working with one student on basic addition and subtraction. I did nearly everything to ensure the topic clicked. One day after tutoring my supervisor came up to me and said, "you really have a knack for this, have you considered teaching?". The thought hadn't crossed my mind much, but once it did I quickly loved the idea. This year, I have switched school districts and have a group of about forty-five students. I am super excited, but nervous about the workload. I hope that I can find a way to manage myself and continue to be a successful student. If you have any suggestions please let me know - I spent all of last semester making crazy lists to keep track of myself, but I'd really enjoy a calmer semester. 

One of the reasons I'm excited to be taking EDU-235 is because I will get to share skills I'm learning with staff and students. Who knows, maybe one afternoon I can take groups up to the computer lab and we can all make our own Tagxedos. Wouldn't that be awesome?

If you read this post, do you mind answering the following question: Why are you in an education program? I always wonder. I see so many different faces in my classes and I wonder how everyone gets their initial interest. 

I wish you all the best this semester and I look forward to seeing you during the week. 

Looking forward to an awesome semester,

Adam Mullen