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

Helpful web sites for fast information!

Understanding the psycho/social needs of adolecents who need your help!

New teachers, this post is to assist you in finding quick and easy to use resources I have used in the classroom, in groups, and applied to school wide interventions. I hope you find these helpful. Please post and questions so that I may be of assistance!

*http://www.behaviordoctor.org/index.html : Guided behavioral support
*http://www.rippleeffects.com/ : Technology and supporting learning
*http://www.keirsey.com/default.aspx : Help id. student learning style
*http://www.simplek12.com/ : Teaching and technology

My personal favorite: http://www.additudemag.com/  A wealth of information on teaching all level of students with not only ADHD, but other mental health issues. Ideas are great for whole classroom!

 

Teaching with Compassion

Welcome to my Blog. I look forward to sharing great information and conversation regarding best practices in education the high school students of today! Such a unique time we live in! Many opportunities and challenges for all of our students.  Educators, consider the following:

"We can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.  We can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal....For we make the difference.  We can destroy the heart and mind of one child or many children or we can open hearts and minds of children and instill a feeling of true worth and human dignity that will enable a child to surmount the tragedies of poverty, of prejudice, of futility.  We need go no further than the nearest classroom to find a child already beaten by life, a child who already feels he is nobody.  We can help him feel that he is somebody.  We make the difference" (unknown)