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