Keep up with your audiance...



Teachers... a word of advice from someone who has been working with adolescents for a while? Well here it is anyway! Keep up with technology! The trends! The lingo! It matters... trust me please! When my daughter was born I feel into baby world and lost connection with teen world. Getting back in touch was the best move I made to re-connect my students. If you need to take a class, do it.

Here is the perfect example.. this blog! My first blog post ever is at the end! No kidding! It shouldn't be..should open the blog to the introduction!  It is a miracle my blog is here without my tech support guru! That man is my friend I tell you! Now, I'm no idiot.. but I also know when I'm beat and need help (thus the key to success). But this blog by golly is a work of my own creation and I am proud. (OK, thanks to those who provided the much needed guidance!).

Back to my point... You are not a teen, don't dress like a teen, you will  never be a teen again (sorry to break it to you), but this does not mean you cannot know about their world, like the same music, art, apps., games, and so on.



Images taken from Google search: teens on 7/10/2012 at https://www.google.com/search

How teachers help student develop self-concept

Teens are developing self-concept through out childhood into adolescents. Gathering evidence that helps them evaluate themselves: Am I competent? Am I attractive to others? Am I a good person? Not only do they gather this from peers, but from you as their teacher too. Consider how you present grades, test, interact with all students, male and female. I believe the tone of ones voice is critical in maintaining a positive atmosphere in your classroom.

From their interaction with you, their teacher, teens formideas and hypotheses about themselves and check out their feelings and opinions through further experiences and relationships. They compare themselves with their own ideals and use the reactions of others as a mirror for self-reflection (Dolgin, 2001).

I am sure you have heard say 5 positive for every 1 negitive, or something simular. According to reseacher Christine Carter, Ph.D, a sociologist and happiness expert at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center,  negative emotions and experiences affect us more dramatically than positive ones do—feelings of being frightened, for example, will generally stay with us for much longer than having a good laugh—we need to have more positive experiences and feelings to thrive. The following website has some interesting articals and links that you may find interesting and helpful.

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/raising_happiness/post/getting_the_ratios_right/

Reference
Dolgin, K.G. (2011). The adolescent: Development, relationships, and culture (13thed.). Boston, MA: Pearson

Social media in a teens life; understanding the impact on your students and what you can do as a teacher.

We know that teens today spend hours on social media networks socializing and communicating with peers. As a result it is important to understand the effects media choices are having on a variety of skills (communication and cognitive processing) and learning preferences of teens.

*Remember Prensky's article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" (2001) I referenced in an earlier blog. Prensky reports the average college graduate has:

• spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading
• over 10,000 hours playing video games
• 20,000 hours watching TV

Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives (I want to know how a college graduate gets through high school and college reading under 5,000 hours!)

"This research study provides a snapshot of how U.S. teens experience the role of social media in their social and emotional lives. Using survey data from a nationally representative, probability-based sample of 13- to 17-year-olds, we address these questions:

• How often are teens texting and using Facebook and Twitter?
• What are teenagers’ favorite ways to communicate with their friends and family?
• How do teens think these new communications tools are affecting their friendships and family relations, if at all?
• How does social networking make most teens feel about themselves and their relationships with their peers? Does it make them feel more connected or more isolated? Better about themselves, or more depressed and lonely?
• How do the heaviest social media users compare to other teens in terms of their social and emotional well-being?" (Common Sense Media, June 2012).

The below link will take you to an amazing report that Common Sense Media completed and published answering the above questions and more (from http://www.commonsensemedia.org/)

Social Media, Social Life: How Teens View Their Digital Lives

Images from Google search

How to get your students to take responsibility!

Is your classroom out of control? Too much talking? Missing assignments?

Quick Fix:

Responsible Thinking Process

Managing students with Respect!
Students today are far different from 30 years ago, we can all agree on that. I do not think this is a bad change of pace... Educators need to step up and have researched based answers for students. Students wants to be challenged, and want limits too. In a world with so few boundaries, providing a safe, yet challenging environment is a great place to learn!

Think of your best teacher, what were the qualities you admired? Was that person fair? Reasonable? Caring? Invested in the class? Did the teacher have clear rules and expectations? Did students have choices? What was discipline like? Now think of your worst teacher and answer the same questions..

My point, do not repeat the errors of your worst teacher! Here is a great tool to use with students that gets them to really think, connect, and move on without disrupting your whole class.... I have done it! THIS WORKS! The teachers I worked with loved the process because it works!

Responsible Thinking Process introduced by Edward Ford, educator at Arizona State University School of Social Work, educational consultant, and author of over 10 books, in mid-1990's. Non-confrontational way of addressing student behaviors so your classroom is a productive learning environment. I have worked this process and it works! Follow through and consistency are key!! Read the book before implementing school wide, classroom can work if you have great classroom rules!  Here are the steps:

1. What are you doing?

2.What are the rules?

3. What happens when you break the rules?

4. Is this what you want to happen?

5. Where do you want to be? or what do you want to do now?

6. What will happen is you ______ again?

Here is an example of how a conversation can go:

Student is talking over the teacher.. teacher gives a warning "please stop talking, or lets hold on the conversation for about 10 minutes until group discussion time". Student keeps on talking.

Teacher speaks directly to student: "What are you doing?"

Student: "Talking"

Teacher: "What are the rules?"

Student: "to talk one at a time" or "not to talk when your talking"

Teacher: "Thank you, what happens when you break the rules?"

Student: "I get a warning" or "I get a detention" or "you contact my parents"

Teacher: "Is this what you want to have happen?"

Student: "no" (If yes.. then be prepared to move straight to consequence)

Teacher: "What happens if you break the rules again?

Students: "I will get a warning, or detention, or call parents" (this depends on school wide and classroom rules)

* The book is a must read if you want to implement this process. I did this for a self contained ED program.. fantastic! I know another professional who did this school wide and reduced discipline issues by 3/4th within 12 months (year round school).. this does work!

RTP is like 1,2,3 Magic for the classroom!

Fast Facts About Special Education Meetings

What about the special education meeting I am invited to? 

Fast Facts!

What to bring and what to do:

*Advice by Leah, special ed guru for the past 15 years*

I am the team leader for a special education team and here is some quick advice on what to bring to IEP meeting when you are asked to attend:

1. First, yes, you must attend because it is a legal requirement for a general education teacher to attend.

2. Bring the students grade's and a few work samples if possible.

3. Always start with a positive report regarding school (stay away from "has a great smile") remember.. even your most difficult student has great qualities... resilient? All student can learn and make progress, even if it is not to state standards (IEP= Individual Education Plan)

4. State concerns as concerns, not a complaint about the student, and please be considerate of your body language and tone of voice. Good communication with parents goes a long way in building positive relationships.

5. Always remember... you are talking to parents about their child. Put yourself in their shoes! Be compassionate! Imagine if this were your child.

6. Please remember and IEP is a legal document....if you have any questions or do not know what to do... ask! Your speciality is general education and WE are a team. These are all our children! 

7. IEP's are in place for a reason, not all students learn the same or have the similar capabilities. Students attend their meetings. Keeping in mind an adolescents self-esteem and development, being honest about their abilities and stating this appropriately can be challenging.

 

 

Reference

Travers-Pucci, L. (2012) personal experience.

Need help understanding the DRAMA!

What is going on with my students?
The DRAMA!

 The goal of the below information is to guide you in understanding the developmental stage of adolescents. The highs and lows, the fun and the drama!
 Key Facts From:

The Adolescent: Development, Relationships, and Culture, Chapter 2; Dolgin (2001).

*Forming a personal identity is the single most important task of adolescent development

*G. Stanley Hall, the “father of adolescent psychology,” thought that adolescents were by nature emotionally volatile and unstable.

                                                                                

*Freud believed that adolescents are anxious and moody because they are plagued by newly awakened sexual urges.
 

*Hall theorized that adolescence is a turbulent time of life—one characterized by vacillations between emotional extremes (sound like your classroom?)

*Adolescents (along with adults and children) are greatly affected by observing others, especially respected others.  They have an almost instinctive drive to copy, or model, what they see others do (Be a good role model! they are always watching you!)

Now what you ask? Quick pointer for emotional teens in your classroom:

• Set very clear boundaries and routines, student will feel secure and safe

• Post learning targets daily, set expectation high

• Maintain open communication with parents/guardians, teacher website

• Remember, you are their teacher, not their friend or social worker.. get help when you feel a student needs it. You are not in this journey alone.

 

 

Reference

Dolgin, K.G. (2011).
The adolescent: Development, relationships, and culture (13thed.). Boston, MA: Pearson

How important is it to read? Using technology to keep them reading.......

Research states the following:

"Today‟s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives. "

-Prensky, 2001: author of  Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, From On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001)

What can you do in your classroom to enhance reading? I challenge you to double the reading hours!

Consider using:

 TECHNOLOGY...

*CELL PHONES

*EMAIL

*BLOGS

By clicking below you will be redirected to Marc Prensky's website where you can not only read the whole artical Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, but also explore his other articals and books that  may assist you in your teachign career, 

Go to Prensky artical here

Photos from Google.com/search