Reflection
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| Reflection is a process for looking back and integrating new knowledge. Reflections need to occur throughout the building blocks of constructivism and include teacher-led student-driven and teacher reflections. We need to encourage students to stop throughout the learning process and think about their learning. Teachers need to model the reflective process to encourage students to think openly, critically and creatively. | ||
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Techniques for Reflections Closing Circle – A quick way to circle around a classroom and ask each student to share one thing they now know about a topic or a connection that they made that will help them to remember or how this new knowledge can be applied in real life. Exit Cards – An easy 5 minute activity to check student knowledge before, during and after a lesson or complete unit of study. Students respond to 3 questions posed by the teacher. Teachers can quickly read the responses and plan necessary instruction. Learning Logs – Short, ungraded and unedited, reflective writing in learning logs is a venue to promote genuine consideration of learning activities. Reflective Journals – Journals can be used to allow students to reflect on their own learning. They can be open-ended or the teacher can provide guiding, reflective questions for the students to respond to. These provide insight on how the students are synthesizing their learning but it also helps the students to make connections and better understand how they learn. Rubrics – Students take time to self-evaluate and peer-evaluate using the rubric that was given or created at the beginning of the learning process. By doing this, students will understand what areas they were very strong in and what areas to improve for next time. Write a Letter – The students write a letter to themselves or to the subject they are studying. This makes the students think of connections in a very personal way. Students enjoy sharing these letters and learn from listening to other ideas. Source: http://www.saskschools.ca/curr_content/constructivism/how/reflection.html |
Motivating Students
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The Groundwork for Motivating Students It’s the beginning of another school year, and students are excited to find out who is in their classes, what their teachers are like, and what they will learn. Many teachers find themselves overwhelmed with the heavy curriculum requirements and a sea of new faces. You may already be wondering how you can effectively motivate your students and engage them in the learning process all year long. One of the first things we can do to motivate learners is to make sure that they become and remain comfortable in their learning environments. One way to establish comfort is by providing opportunities for classmates and teachers to get to know one another. Learners tend to work harder and take more risks when they feel they have a strong, positive relationship with their teacher and their classmates. Because there are so many learners in a classroom, it is essential that good relationships be established early. Fostering positive relationships promotes high levels of motivation between:
Remember that motivated learners are comfortable in their learning environments. You will be getting to know your students and they will be getting to know you and one another all year long. Establishing a comfort level is an important foundation for the process. Read on for tips to establish and maintain a motivating learning environment. “If you put a plant in a jar, it will take the shape of the jar. But if you allow the plant to grow freely, twenty jars might not be able to hold it” |
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DID YOU KNOW? In conducting an extensive review of research on students’ need for belonging, Osterman (2000) concluded that students’ experiences of acceptance shaped many aspects of their behavior, but that schools tend to neglect and often thwart students’ attempts to establish social interconnections. Students’ social relationships appear to influence their academic engagement and success at school (Patrick, Anderman, & Ryan, 2002). An important part of that social environment is the degree of teacher support. An investigation of teachers considered to be exemplary in helping students develop independence and attain high levels of academic achievement stresses the development of strong positive classroom relationships (Ayres, Sawyer, & Dinham, 2001). TIPS: Establish and Maintain a Motivating Learning Environment Now that the new school year is underway, it’s a perfect time to create a motivational learning environment. The first step is making sure everyone is comfortable in the classroom. Since most classrooms and budgets are limited in terms of what furniture and surroundings we can provide, comfort for our students comes in the form of something much more important: positive relationships between all learners, learners and the teacher, and learners and the content. Give your learners an opportunity to get to know one another. Make it creative. Skip the dull introductions where each person gives his or her name and a hobby. Instead, use one of the activities below to create connections that are memorable.
These introductory getting-to-know-you activities are fun and provide initial connections and comfort levels. If you stop promoting connection and comfort, motivation will wane. It’s important to keep providing opportunities for students to get to know each other. Once the beginning-of-the-year administrative chores are taken care of, continue building connections between students and the content. Here are some examples and suggestions.
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How To Appreciate Your Student’s Diversity
This is a powerful reminder of the challenges – and joys that we face – in dealing with our diverse student population.
Welcome to Holland
By Emily Perl KingsleyI am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability-to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this…
When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip-to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas of Venice. You learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?” you say. “What do you mean Holland? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I have dreamed of going to Italy.”
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would have never met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…and you begin to notice Holland has windmills…and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy…and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away…because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.
But…if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you might never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things…about Holland.
Building Habits
It takes 27 days to form a habit. Remember when your mother used to ask you to make your bed every day? Then, after a while, you simply started making it on your own —without having to be reminded to do it. Making your bed every day had become a habit.
In my column, Laying the Groundwork, I discussed the importance of brainstorming expectations and procedures as part of laying the groundwork for building good habits. This time, I want to discuss in a little more detail the kinds of habits we want to build in our students — and how we can build them.
When thinking about the kinds of good habits you want students to develop, go back to that list of expectations and procedures you created. For me, for example, it’s important that students enter my classroom, check their mailboxes, and start working on their focus assignment before the first bell rings. It’s important that when I use the quiet signal, my students get quiet and focus on me. I expect my students to stay in a quiet straight line when I walk with them down the hall. It’s also important to me for students to be silent, with a clean area, before I dismiss them. Those types of habits, as well as others, also might be important to you. If you’re not really sure what you expect of your students, then take some time right now to brainstorm those actions and behaviors that you want to become habits for your students.
Okay, you have your list. You might be asking yourself, “Why is it important that I help build these habits?” The reason is to save yourself stress later on in the school year. Spring semester might seem like a long way away, but it will come around a lot faster than you think. Students who are not following good habits in the fall have a tendency to let spring fever get out of hand. Behavior can become more erratic then, and without good habits in place, students are more likely to get out of control. By setting the standards at the beginning of the year and turning good behaviors into good habits, you save yourself a lot of time and stress later.
But how can you build in students the good habits you expect? First, clearly explain your expectations to students. Next, make sure students practice the correct actions and behaviors daily. (It’s especially important to practice behaviors over and over again during the first couple of weeks of school.) Third, be consistent about requiring specific behaviors. If you see students not meeting your expectations, don’t be afraid to stop and take the time to practice the correct action or behavior right then and there.
For example, if I notice that many students are entering the classroom and “hanging out” without starting their work before the bell rings, I stop everything and practice my expectations. I have students file out of the classroom and re-enter correctly. If students are not following my quiet signal, we stop immediately and practice until they get it right. By doing that consistently, students begin to see that I will hold them accountable for their actions. After 27 days or more of doing the same actions over and over again, the behaviors become a habit for students. What you want to achieve is a classroom in which students know what to do and when to do it. That is a well-disciplined classroom.
You might find, of course, that as the year progresses, you need to stop and practice your expectations again. That is perfectly normal and can be thought of as “maintenance.”
Before you know it, however, your students will be entering the classroom and doing exactly what you expect of them — whether you are there to remind them or not. Good behavior has become — just like making your bed each day — a habit. In the end, that’s precisely what we strive to accomplish.
As you work toward that goal, remember the maxim “Good habits are hard to break” — and practice, practice, practice.
Survival in the Classroom (and Home) – Part II
Last week, we looked at several ideas on how to meet your students’ need for survival. In order to meet this need, teachers need to provide students with a sense of safety, security, and order. One way to do this is to have an environment in which discipline problems do not become an issue.
Guidelines for Behavior
Each classroom should have clearly established guidelines for student behavior. Most importantly, teachers should be consistent in addressing behaviors. Traditionally, teachers rely on positive and negative reinforcement in the classroom. There are 2 problems with this:
Negative reinforcement
Remember – students watch every move that teachers make, and they assume that the way the teacher treats one student is the way that same teacher will treat them. If a teacher criticizes, punishes, or uses sarcasm with one student in the class, the assumption is that no student is safe from such treatment.
Positive reinforcement
The use of “rewards” or other tangible incentives can also have drawbacks. The use of these external motivators can destroy students’ ability to develop self-control and also devalue relationships.
Alternatives to punishing and rewarding
Proximity – Sometimes just walking within arm’s length of a student will help the student readjust his or her behavior.
General reminders – Ask students to evaluate themselves by asking a general question such as “How well are we doing right now in following the class rules that we established?” This often will help one student be aware of his behavior without disrupting the class.
What are you doing? – Sometimes students are not aware of disruptive behavior (think of the student tapping on the desk) and will stop when made aware of it.
Gentle reminders – Sometimes, calmly asking a student “Do you remember what we agreed upon when we set up our class rules?” or “Would you please stop _____ or start ____ now?” can be effective.
The teacher look and personal directive – The effective teacher look involves the following steps: stare at the student (not angrily); move into the student’s personal space, bend down, and quietly call the student’s name; tell the student what you want her to do or stop doing (quietly so others can’t hear); thank the student – repeating his or her name; and move out of the student’s personal space.
Impose consequences – once you have tried some or all of the above strategies, you might discuss and impose consequences for unacceptable behavior. As you impose consequences, keep in mind the differences between consequences and punishments.
Consequences Punishments
Are known ahead of time Are imposed after the fact
Are fair and reasonable Are excessive
Are best when they are natural / relate to the offense Are usually unrelated to the offense
May be developed with the help of students Are imposed by the teacher
Are imposed without emotion Are imposed with anger
Example: A student comes in tardy
Consequence: The student misses the learning and must get notes from another student or the teacher on his own time.
Punishment: The student is sent to the office.
Example: A student does not bring a pen or pencil to class.
Consequence: The student borrows a pen from the teacher and leaves appropriate collateral.
Punishment: The student is given a detention for insubordination.
Individual counseling – If a student repeatedly behaves in ways that disrupt the learning environment or that put his own academic success at risk, individual counseling may be necessary. In these circumstances, the teacher may involve others such as a counselor or dean. However, such counseling is much more effective if it is done by the teacher with whom the student is experiencing difficulty. One-on-one counseling can improve the teacher / student relationship. The following questions can be used during counseling to help students make better choices:
What do you want in regard to ______ (the class, relationship with peers,…)?
What are you currently doing regarding ____?
Is what you are doing getting you want you want?
Are you willing to try something different?
What is something that might work better for you?
Enjoying Spring Break
Looking for ideas as to how to enjoy spring break? If so, check out these sites. The first one offers strange, quirky ideas. The second one has the more “traditional” offerings. No matter your choice, take time to relax and enjoy the vacation!
http://www.swimwithmanatees.com/things1.html
Principal Kendrick 