Challenging Behaviors

 Research suggests that students that exhibit challenging behaviors are struggling with outside factors such anxiety and depression.  Focusing on social and emotional learning as well as mental health can be very beneficial in teaching students how to cope with stresses of academic and personal life.  Our world has become a lot more fast-paced and it takes a different approach to manage it.  

Understanding interventions such as educative time out is a very useful tool while working with special educations students.  Although time-out is frequently used by teachers, researchers and practitioners, it has become a controversial procedure because of misunderstanding, ineffective use, and ethical considerations. Regardless of the type of time-out used, it is the discrepancy between the time-in and time-out environments that provides the conceptual basis for time-out. When time-out is determined to be the intervention of choice, the least restrictive and aversive procedure likely to be effective should be designed on an individualized basis.  

Discussions and Writing

There are a plethora of online tools that teachers can use to effectively elicit classroom discussion and improve student writing. One of the many takeaways that I had today was using online tools to help students through the learning process, not just using them to feature student products. For example, I had never really considered using FlipGrid in a way for students to ask questions about the lesson. I am interested in doing this in the future. It was also refreshing to see how Actively Learn allows students to receive feedback in a timely manner in order for them to be able to make writing revisions.

Technology and Improving Student Voice

Technology can be used as a tool to amplify multiple aspects of a classroom: assessments, projects, discussions, presentations, etc. With 1:1 inclusion, there are multiple opportunities readily available for teachers. But what is the best way to incorporate tech?

One avenue that teachers can use technology for is amplifying student voice. Traditional classroom instruction contains teacher centered strategies that look for parroted responses from students. Often times, this does not allow every student a chance to participate. Using technology, on the other hand, gives each student a voice in the classroom on any topic.

And this is where it gets interesting. "Any topic" means any topic. There seems to be a certain perceived safety in being able to type out a response and edit that response accordingly. I noticed this with my Civics class this past semester. Sensitive topics were approached, with discussion occurring about immigration, gender, racism and many other topics. General, traditional discussion would only have several students leading the discussion, arguing points across the classroom while the rest of the class listened. And while active listening is important, the number of voices in the actual discussion became limited.

Enter technology. With each student having a Chromebook, every student was able to put forward their thoughts on a discussion board. The curious thing about the participation was the editing after posting. Students and their actual thoughts were edited to mirror other students. So while students were participating, they were still parroting their peers.

Building a comfortable classroom culture is the real step. And while technology improved student voice, it didn't improve the authenticity of the student voice. So while it was successful, improving student confidence and creating or reinforcing positive student culture is still the precedent in the classroom.

The Last Induction

I hate to admit that I have no idea what I learned from induction 4, compared to what I learned in the other inductions, or from my colleges. I have a list of things that I want to try, want to look into, or want to change about my classroom.  I know that we started using actively learn last year. 

I had thought about using the canvas calendar to inform student on the daily activities but we already started the year using OneNote and a google slide show so I did not want to recreate the calendar again. 

Every time I came to an induction or another PD, I left with a long list of things to try and unfortunately very little time to try and get to it all.

The one thing that I know I will leave induction with is the importance of talking with colleges about what they are doing in their classrooms.  It truly is inspiring to see all of the great things that you people are doing in your classroom and it is so important that we share our successes with each other and all try to make this a better place to teach and work!

Cheers 

Induction IV Takeaways

I've been able to more effectively use Canvas as a result of the first session in Induction IV, including utilizing peer reviews within the tool and organizing my classes so that students can more easily use the tool themselves. Today's morning session really made me think about how to reframe discussions in class, when and why I use formal discssion boards, and how to utilize them more effectively in class going forward. I also look forward to continuing to further my own PD, and have found that when you find communities of educators online, they are full of wonderful ideas and often open to sharing resources, as well.

Discussions

I think my largest take-away from this was formulating effective student discussions using Canvas. I have used this in Program Success since we learned it. It was in a transition activity that involved students posting about post-secondary plans and goals. They then commented on each other's posts. We communicate the need for appropriate, praise, feedback, and questions. This could all lead to group communication and check-ins on how people are working towards their goals and group accountability.

Matt Kahler

Directing Your Own PD

I really liked the idea that we are all increasingly in charge of our own PD.  I listen to Psychology podcasts all the time and use the information in my class but never really thought of it from the paradigm of PD. Here is a link to my favorite one!  It addresses behavior in many situations and is relevant to many classroom settings.

Hidden Brain Podcast

Enjoy!