Lesson 8

A blog is an amazing way to stay connected! It is quick and easy, and there are lots of ways to add more information to your blog. Using a blog for a classroom can be helpful for many reasons.

First of all, I think a blog could be a great way to stay connected with parents! Posting updates and reminders to the blog could be a great way to let parents know about important information. It could also be a great way to let parents see a little bit of what is going on in the classroom. We can share pictures of what we are doing in class and let our parents feel more a part of the classroom.

Another way to use a blog in the classroom is to connect with other teachers. As a teacher myself, I love looking at other teacher's blogs! They hold so much information and ideas! I can find practically anything on blogs. By documenting what I am doing in the classroom and sharing it with others, it will connect me to other teachers who can share ideas/suggestions with me. A blog is truly a great way to network with teachers across the country and really across the world!

I also think that introducing your students to blogs can be a great teaching tool. In high school classes, a blog could be a great way for students to document their progress. They can also use blogs as a way to publish their work. 

The great thing about a blog is that it is so versatile. There are so many different uses for a blog. The most important thing about a blog though, is that it connects you. Whether it is to other teachers, the parents of your students, or just to your students, you are forming more links of communication. Using that communication is so important! I love the idea of having a blog for your class and I hope to implement that in my classroom this year.

Lesson 7

Teenagers are in such a tough position in their lives. They want to be treated as adults, they want more responsibility and freedom. Unfortunately, their brain development is not ready for this. But since they vocally state that they want to be treated as an adult, this is how they tend to get treated. And it doesn't help that often times they physically look like adults. I have a sister in law who is over 6 feet tall and has been since she was 13. She always gets treated as if she is older than that. I even have to remind myself sometimes that she is still a teenager and really just not that mature yet even though she looks older.

I think this is something that can be applied to all age levels. Some kids look older or younger than they really are. You can't base behavior and punishments on how you think a child should act based on their appearance. It is important to be aware of how old a child is and where their development really is at that point in their life.

Age can be really tricky, but it is important to be aware of development. Even some kids who seem to "develop early" really need to be treated at their age and development level.

Lesson 6

It was amazing to learn how math and music are related to each other! I learned how to play the piano at a young age (I didn't stick with it and am not very good but I can pluck out some songs) and I never realized how similar it is to math! I am a big math person and I never understood why the different music times and sequences didn't make sense to other people. Now I know why! If you struggle in math or music, you are probably going to struggle with the other one as well.

Being a teacher though, I can use music to help my students. Finding music that increases their energy or relaxes them throughout the day can have an impact on the classroom environment and help to encourage learning. Also during the lesson, I realized how important it is to have music classes in our schools. It is important for all students to have at least some exposure to music and learn a little bit about how to play instruments. With so many budget cuts that have been occurring there are some schools that are losing their music programs. I think this is one program that is very important to keep and encourage students to be a part of!

As a big math person, I appreciated the information it gave on relating math to the real world. I think playing games in the classroom is an excellent idea of teaching basic math concepts. Games like "Sorry" and "Chutes and Ladders" are simple games but they do require a knowledge of counting. I think it would be great to incorporate these games into the classroom.

Lesson 5

While going through this lesson I was actually reflecting a lot on my own family. We are expecting our first baby this fall and a lot of the things that we have talked about in raising our children were brought up in this lesson. My husband speaks Spanish and so we have debated on whether or not to teach our children both Spanish and English. I also love to read and already have a large collection of children's books that I am building to help develop that love in our children. So it was interesting for me to consider all of these different pieces of information from a teacher's point of view.

As an adult I tend to speak to younger children with simpler language. However, this lesson brought to my attention that it is important to use more complex language to help children develop their language skills. There are times when I teach dance and use bigger words and those big words always grab their attention. I think by introducing new vocabulary it keeps kids excited and engaged. However I also think it is important to not introduce too many unfamiliar words at once as that could be overwhelming for the students.

I also really liked how it stressed the importance of reading and reading together. It is important for kids to hear how words should sound while seeing the word at the same time. I also think it is important that children get to choose what they are reading. My husband used to hate reading but I introduced him to some books that I thought he might find more interesting. He has found that he actually loves to read when he has the right book in front of him! I think if more children were able to choose what they read they would develop that love of reading as well.

Lesson 4

The main thing I think of when I hear "relational" is finding ways to connect with your students. I think it is really helpful to find common ground between you and the students. For example, about a week ago I was teaching a lesson on quadrilaterals. We got to the square and I asked my students if they ever played 4 Square when they were in elementary school. Several of my students got excited very quickly telling me about their experiences playing 4 square and then some students started saying that they loved to play tether ball. I used to love to play tether ball in elementary school so we all started talking about those memories together. It was a brief, maybe 5 minute interruption, to our lesson, but it helped me not only connect with my students, but it also allowed my students to relate what we were learning about to something that was familiar to them.

This is something that I think is very important. Students need to know that their teachers care about them as individuals and not just what their test scores are. Offering support and advice for things that have nothing to do with what is going on in the classroom is a great way to build confidence and trust in each other. By building that relationship, you are creating positive experiences for that student and building up the image they have of themselves. In return, the student will be more responsive in the classroom and more willing to be a hard worker. 

Connecting with our students is so important. So many students need an adult that they can trust, and as teachers we have an opportunity to provide that support. 

Lesson 3

Lesson 3 involved watching videos about attention and emotions. I will be the first to admit that I think ADHD is over diagnosed. I think that often times parents want an excuse for their child's behavior or poor grades and ADHD is something to blame it on. However, I do think that there are children who have significant issues with focusing. For these children, I do think it is important to be aware of them and their needs. One way to combat this issue of keeping a student's attention is to keep the day entertaining. I think it is important to keep changing what you are doing. I teach dance to young girls, and we don't do the same thing for more than 10 or 15 minutes simply because they get distracted and need to keep going. I think the same thing is true in the classroom. The activity needs to be changed often. Children need to be allowed to get up and move around. One thing that I plan to do in my future class is do ZUMBA every day. I want the children to get some exercise, get their blood flowing, and have something different to look forward to.

I also thought it was interesting how much our emotions can have an affect on the development of our brains. Children that are exposed to homes where there are high stress levels and depression are being exposed to toxins for the development of their brain. As a teacher, I need to make my classroom as stress free and inviting as possible. I want my students to come to class and feel relaxed and know that I care about them. But for me to do that, I need to make sure that I am taking care of myself as well.

Lesson 2

After watching the videos about Vision and Hearing, I feel like the environment of the classroom is so important! I feel like their needs to be a lot of color, pictures, and textures to help stimulate the brain. I think it is also important to play different types of music. I think playing classical music in the classroom would be a great idea and a good way for students to be exposed to different types of music as well.

While reading the chapters for this lesson, I also learned a lot about the importance of smells in a classroom. Having plants in your classroom can create a big difference. It is also a good idea to have different aromas that can keep students alert and energized. I really liked the idea of using peppermint as a scent in the classroom.

One of the biggest things that stood out to me though, was the importance of understanding why students are struggling. Are they not able to see the board to follow the directions? Can they not understand and differentiate between the "b" and "p" sounds? Are they unable to process the directions that I give orally? Is a certain color dry erase marker extremely difficult for them to see on the white board? Asking these questions is very important to understanding a students behavior. You can't just pass them off as being unfocused or bad at following directions. It is important to understand why they have this behavior. This could be a big help to them being able to fully understand what is happening in the classroom. It could make a huge difference for the student!