EDU 270 - Blog 8

I have enjoyed this semester of blogging and have had to utilize this tool several times in other classes. I think that blogging gives students an opportunity to fully process the new information that they have learned. In my future as a classroom biology teacher I will require my students to do a weekly blog entry that consists of answering three questions. First, they will have to explain one new concept from this past week. Secondly, they will have to explain how this will pertain to their lives either now or when they are adults. Finally, they will have the opportunity to ask one question about the content from the past week. I will compile questions and answer them aloud to the whole class because I have found that if one student asks a question there are at least two others who were afraid to ask.

I think that allowing more online and word based applications such as maintaining a blog will be helpful for myself and for my students. Not only is it another way to communicate, but it will allow me insight into how to improve my instruction.

EDU 270 Blog Post 7

Teens are commonly held to the same consequences as adults for their poor decision making skills. The fact remains that science has proven that even though teens may look fully grown to the outside observer, their brain is still very much developing. I first heard of this concept when M.A.D.D. came to ASU while I was a student there. They had simply put up a booth and had several mothers and reseaarchers talking to students on campus and I honestly wandered over there in hopes of a free pen. What I found out is that there had been research done on the brains of young adults from ages 16 to about 27 and that the parts of the brain responsible for making decisions and risk taking did not get done developing until people were 25. I was only slightly surprised as I was in my mid-thirties going to a university full of 18 to 21 year olds. On Monday afternoons I would listen to stories about my lab partners drinking, drug use, and one night stands while shaking my head in disbelief. Except I did believe them and remember back to my own drinking binges, drunk driving, and more risky behavior I'm not going to admit. I think seeing the fMRI scans solidified the crazy behavior that myself and many others have participated in during our youth. Fortunately most of us make it out of this phase relatively intact, but some do not.

For those who make really bad decisions and commit crimes, many are held to adult consequences. Legally, in the U.S., we are declared adults and responsible for ourselves at the young unripened age of 18. With half an adult brain we are released into the wide world, and it is the responsibility of the educators that have these young adults in the years just before this to attempt to instill some sense of what good decision making looks like. The first thing that this means for me as a teacher is to set the example. By making good decisions in front of my students, I am demonstrating what that looks like, as many students may not have a good role model elsewhere. I will also make sure that my students have someone to talk to about their lives that can give them some direction and some questions that they should consider before making an important decision. Having someone to guide them through the thought processes that should happen prior to making important decisions can assist teens in learning how to make better decisions. I also plan on giving the students a chance to think about their decisions before adult level consequences are put into the equation.

For those of us who have made it through this age of having a developing mind, it may not be news that young people are generally poor decision makers, but if the adults in their life help them along maybe we can have fewer binge drinking 21 year olds.

EDU 270 - Blog 6

This week I learned about how music affects learning and the development of the brain. I think the biggest take away from this lesson is how education research is not always represented completely in the media. I had heard of the Mozart effect and being a biologist didn't really believe the way it was presented in the media. The way that this will help me in my future classroom is that I now know that while listening to music that makes students happy and relaxed can provide a small benefit, it is not beneficial to allow students to have their headphones in listening to music the entire class period. I have had students in the past that cite the Mozart effect as a reason that I should allow headphones on during exams and independent work time.

However since it has been found to stimulate many parts of the brain, I will also try and incorporate music into some of my lessons next year. If I put facts into a song it may help me differentiate the learning since there are a great deal of things that one must be able to memorize, such as the names of the stages of cell division. This might allow some of the students that learn better through music to remember things better. I know that was how I learned my multiplication tables and it worked pretty well.

EDU 270 - Blog 5

Language and Reading

I was not shocked to find that a large proportion of eighth grade students could not read on grade level from the video. After teaching ninth grade last year, I noticed that assignments with extensive reading often did not get completed by a good portion of the class. This is simply because the students had not been taught how to read properly with a phonics approach. Many different methods have been used in the past to teach reading such as sight words or whole word approaches, but only the phonics method activates the proper parts of the brain needed to become a strong reader. In my future classrooms I will add a mini-phonics lesson to my lessons for the day as a reading warm-up. For most subjects in the secondary classroom, a student is expected to be able to acquire knowledge from reading and if a student is not a strong reader then they cannot do this. This can lead to frustration, distracting behavior, attention difficulties, and oppositional behaviors. By incorporating these lessons into my day I hope to alleviate these behaviors and build more confident readers who can succeed in academics and professional life.

EDU 270- Blog 4

What does it mean to be relational as a teacher? How will you interact with your students to accomplish this?

To be relational as a teacher means that you are accessable to your students. That they are welcome to ask questions without fear of being degraded. You also need to be able to relate to your students and see their perspective on things as well as your own. This does not mean being friends with your students or not holding them accountable, but being a trusted adult that they can talk to about your subject matter or anything else bothering them. It also means being a cheerleader for their successes and to make them responsible for their failures.

I will be relational to my students by holding informal tutoring sessions, letting them know that I am available to talk if they feel the need, and greeting them each day at the door asking them how their day is going. I will never say that a question is a stupid question or demean my students.

EDU 270 Blog 3

Attention, Emotions and Learning

In the lessons about attention, emotions, and learning I learned that there are things other than what can be seen in the classroom going on in the heads of students. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding ADHD in the past few years as more and more children are being diagnosed. I think this is in part because of better awareness and partly because of the type of education system we have in the United States. Even though there are some factors that contribute especially to hyperactivity, such as artificial food dyes, that are relatively new. I also think that it is important to recognize that the attention problems must be exhibited across multiple situations. If a student loves history and can sit still and pay attention in history class but daydreams through algebra it might be a problem with algebra and not with attention. 

Emotions also play an integral part in the school day. I think that it is important for educators to remember that there is a whole person sitting in the desk. These students have emotions, home lives, relationships and all of these can contribute to the amount of learning that takes place in the classroom. When anyone is under stress chemicals that are harmful to the brain are released and their ability to learn is severely diminished. When a child whose brain is extremely plastic and add the toxic chemicals from stress it can have an enormous effect on the brain. While working with students who happened to be from a low socioeconomic status I saw first hand the effects of financial hardship and stress on students. Those students that I knew had a lot of stress at home seemed to be unable to focus and complete assignments. As a teacher this will help me by understanding that my classroom needs to be an inviting, encouraging, and safe place away from excessive stress and distractions.

Lesson 2 - EDU 270

This week I learned about how the senses of vision and hearing affect student learning. The fact is that the entire environment of the classroom affects the ability of the students to learn. I personally have vision and hearing problems that began during my early years of school so I know what it's like to not be able to understand what the teacher is saying or not being able to see the board. In kindergarten I had no idea I had a hearing problem caused by severe ear infections until the teacher noticed that I would not respond to her when I was not facing her. This was the first sign that I had a hearing problem and it was discovered that I had ear infections in both ears when my mom took me to the doctor. In regard to my eye problems I started developing headaches any time I tried to read the board in class from squinting so much that in second grade I needed glasses. If my teachers had not picked up on these clues I might very well be deaf and nearly blind today.

The biggest thing that I will take into the classroom with me from this lesson is that if you see something that might indicate a hearing or vision problem speak with the parents and let them know that it might be time to see an appropriate doctor. Problems with vision or hearing can permanently affect the development of the brain and the skills that the child may have not acquired or lost may become long term problems.