With the ushering in of teachers who have grown up as millennials with certainty the one thing we have brought with us is the ever-advancing age of technological advances. It was only a matter of time before these technological feats transitioned into the world of education. When I was a primary school student it was unlikely the teacher utilised a projector. Out came a tv rolled in on a trolley to watch an educational video. That was about as technological as it got. Moving into Secondary school technology was far more prominent. However fast forward almost 10 years and educational technology is an integral aspect of my teaching. Teachers are eager to employ technology to enhance the learning environment. According to a study conducted by Lynne Schrum it was founded that “most educators will expend the effort needed to integrate technology into instruction when, and only when, they are convinced that there will be significant payoffs in terms of student learning outcomes” (Schrum, 2011). But in other instances, is educational technology a hindrance? What if somehow your technology failed during a class where it was central to the lesson. How do you adapt to a setback like that? Do we rely too much on technology and not on traditional methods of teaching? A situation arose for me personally where technology failed me. I now recall a time when technology had failed me. During my inspection for SP3, the visualiser decided to disconnect from the computer on three occasions. I was aware that the wire connecting the visualiser to the computer was faulty prior to even beginning my teaching practice. However, it had only disconnected on one occasion to me prior to this inspection. It really put technology into perspective. The topic of Education Technology is one I am currently considering for the Creativity and Innovation Seminar in February. I believe that this is a worthy topic as “advancements in educational technology are not only improving the learning process through experimentation and data analysis” (Educational Technology Courses, n.d.). I am proposing using social media as a platform to deliver technical graphics in an exciting and innovative fashion. It can be widely agreed that many of our students use a form of social media in their everyday lives. It has become so influential I can describe it as an integral part of their daily routines. Why not exploit this addiction to social media to create a learning environment that can provide a host of advantages? With the best of intentions teachers can use “technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.” (Morphew, 2012). However, in conclusion I can only describe educational technology as a metaphor for a double-edged sword. Something that can have both favourable and unfavourable consequences. Bibliography Morphew, V. N. (2012). A Constructivist Approach to theNational Educational Technology Standards for Teachers. Eugene, Oregan: A Constructivist ApproachforTeachersNational Educational Technology Standardsto theInternational Society for Technology in Education Educational Technology Courses. (n.d.). Retrieved from EdX: https://www.edx.org/learn/educational-technology Schrum, L. (2011). Considerations on Educational Technology Integration: The Best of JRTE. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education.
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Friday was an especially eventful day for me. I witnessed an incident where a student physically assaulted another student in my very own classroom. The conflict ended as quickly as it started. I isolated both students, one in the machine room and the other inside the office adjacent to the woodworking room. I got both students to write an account from their perspective as to what happened as did I and various other witnesses in the classroom. Both students received green cards from me and are on report for the full week. I believe that “Harshly disciplining an aggressive student might fuel his anger and make him more determined to continue the aggressive behaviour.” (Shore, n.d.) so, I just let the class roll on as normal with one student returning to the class and the other getting solitary confinement. To fully comprehend how a student can resort to physical violence you must consider external influences. As a teacher, you have a responsibility to cater for student’s wellbeing, both physically and mentally. The students within this school come from a vast variety of backgrounds, some being far less well off than others. I was chatting to the school liaison officer in the staffroom about the attendance of some students yesterday and he happened to give me a very serious insight into the life of some of these students. He stated that although some of them may be late regularly or miss a few days, he gave them tremendous amounts of credit for getting to school at all. There are a select number of students who must get up in the mornings on their own accord and make their own lunch as their parents will do neither for them. I found this quite upsetting, but it is a sad reality for some of the students. You can never be sure as to what they’re going through in the homeplace and this must be considered. I always try to build a professional relationship with all my students as I feel it is important to build a positive relationship with them in order to build mutual respect and rapport for one another. As a result of this misbehaviour I felt let down. It was a slightly disheartening experience that made me question my teaching. What made these students misbehave; was it because they believed that in this classroom, they can get away with things like that? Was it because they were angry? Was it because they were going through mental health problems? Or was it simply due to an attitude problem? I will think deeply before entering my next class with them. By reflecting on the class, I hope to be able to come up with solutions and strategies to prevent student misbehaviour from occurring in future classes. I need to work on being active “preventing violence is your goal, you must learn to predict trouble so you can stop disputes before they happen” (Vrouvas, 2017). Some of the things I feel I could do better to pre-empt such behaviour include scanning the classroom more often, prevent turning my back on them as much as possible, as well as circulating myself around the room more often and targeting questions towards those who look to be losing involvement. It is important to keep in mind that “every situation is different, but if you are assertive and proactive, you can comfortably deal with the majority of physical confrontations in your school” (Catapano, n.d.). I hope the fact that I dealt with this misbehaviour in a reasonable fashion will prevent these students as well as others from doing so again. If such problems are to persist, I will strongly consider taking further action as I will not tolerate behaviour that takes away from the classes overall learning experience. Bibliography Catapano, J. (n.d.). How to Stop a Fight. Retrieved from Teach Hub: http://www.teachhub.com/how-stop-fight Shore, D. K. (n.d.). Dealing With Student Aggression. Retrieved from Education World: https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/shore/shore040.shtml Vrouvas, M. (2017, May). How to Best Deal with Violence or Fights in the Classroom. Retrieved from STUDY.COM: https://study.com/blog/how-to-best-deal-with-violence-or-fights-in-the-classroom.html It was good to be back teaching again after the Christmas break. I resettled smoothly by starting off new topics with each class, this gave us a fresh slate for the final 6 weeks ahead. As this is our last stint of placement before graduating hopefully, I must make the most of these last 6 weeks, taking every opportunity to learn as much as possible about myself and the profession. For this week’s reflection, I will be focusing on the topic of special educational needs. Specifically, a challenge and solution that relates to my class group. There is no such thing as a perfect class, everyone has their own set of strengths and weaknesses to offer making all classes unique from one another. Some students happen to have more severe or specific special educational needs than others, which can have a heavy impact on their ability to learn. Special needs can come in many different forms, both physically and mentally. However, these individuals have the right to learn in the same way as everyone else. As student teachers it is imperative that we practice an array of skills for handling a wide range of student needs in the classroom to ensure they are all catered for and included within the lesson. Inclusion refers to the way in which teaching and learning in a school is organised in a way that enables the school to cater for pupils with a broad range of ability and needs (Kyriacou, 2007). One of my students suffers from selective mutism. Speaking with my cooperating teacher 6 weeks ago I was told that the student “just won’t talk to you”. Selective mutism can be defined as “a complex childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a child’s inability to speak and communicate effectively in select social settings, such as school. These children are able to speak and communicate in settings where they are comfortable, secure, and relaxed” (SHIPON-BLUM, 2019). In class this student has a blank facial expression and never seems to smile. The student has stiff and awkward body language when in a social setting and seems very uncomfortable or unhappy. How do I deal with this in the classroom? It is important for me to understand that the physical and behavioural symptoms are due to anxiety. To positively influence the students learning, I need to focus on helping the student learn the coping skills to combat anxious feelings. Over the past four weeks I have specifically been trying to build a relationship with this student. One in which they can feel comfortable to speak freely. I had to build trust and be patient taking tentative steps each class and building upon that each day. Week one it would be a simple hello as they entered the classroom. On week two I would ask the student one to one if they were okay with the topic. With week 3 I would specifically target them with a simple yes or no question during the lesson. Each week I was extremely observant to see if I could progress. When week 4 came around I started to push the boundary. I asked them questions that would require a sentence for an answer. Having seen this student open freely to me I feel a sense of accomplishment. Of course, the student won’t engage in a full-on conversation but they’re making small advancements to becoming less restricted. For that, it is commendable. In recent years the Irish educational system has undergone considerable review and changes in response to international demands for an educational system that recognises diversity and prevents students with special needs from being marginalised (Rose et al., 2010). Evidence of this can be seen within a lot of the classes that I have thought, where factors that aid special needs inclusion are present such as Special Needs Assistants (SNA’s). By becoming aware of the barriers that may hold those with special needs back, I can do my best to accommodate them with the tools to prevent their disability impacting their capability Bibliography Kyriacou, C., 2007. Essential Teaching Skills. 3rd ed. s.l.:Nelson Thornes Ltd.. Rose, R., Shevlin, M., Winter, E. and O’Raw, P. (2010). Special and inclusive education in the Republic of Ireland: reviewing the literature from 2000 to 2009. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 25(4), pp.359-373. SHIPON-BLUM, D. E. (2019, January 13). WHAT IS SELECTIVE MUTISM? Retrieved from SMART CENTER: https://selectivemutismcenter.org/whatisselectivemutism/ Last week was a very special week within the school environment, Mental Health Week. The school and many members of staff went to tremendous efforts to ensure the week was enjoyable with a valuable message for all. It consisted of a wide variety of activities taking place throughout the week in many different forms. At the start of the week I found myself questioning the reasoning behind such an event which led me to do some research. After looking online, I found some worrying statistics. I discovered that Ireland’s teenage suicide rate is the fourth highest among high-income countries, while one in five Irish children aged 11-15 years say they experience two or more psychological symptoms, such as feeling low, irritable or nervous, or having sleeping difficulties, more than once a week (Cullen, 2017). The most disturbing stat of all was that one in 10,000 Irish 15- to 19-year-olds will die by suicide. Ireland has the highest suicide rate for female children in the EU, the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI). With this newly found knowledge I was eager to play my part and bring awareness to mental health and wellbeing. Just thinking that a student in my very own classroom could be going through the hardest time of their lives in silence was both distressing and alarming. Speaking to my colleagues in the staff room they reminisced on last year’s mental health week. They recall a memorable activity in which they partook in a lip sync video which was put together by all members of staff. The idea of this was that it would be shown to students and put everyone in a good mood which it certainly did. The video was also posted on YouTube where it received a wonderful response from parents and the wider local community. Some of the activities that took place across the week included, a breakfast morning, guest speakers and music at break time. My cooperating teacher highlighted to me the impact that we can have on our students. He said to imagine a situation where a student in your class is suffering from poor mental health. If something happened? What did you do to promote mental health? Could you have implemented strategies to promote mental health? This was an eye opener. It is important to keep in mind that all students within the school fall into the adolescence category. The adolescence category is a very important period for both social and emotional development for young people. Having good physical and mental health enables the youth to manage whatever challenges they may come across during their development. I decided to implement an ‘inspirational quote of the day’ into my class introduction. These quotes could range from words of inspiration from the likes of Socrates and even influential sports stars like Conor McGregor. The class welcomed this with a positive reaction and even seemed to implement a positive attitude to the start of class. At the end of the week, it became clear to me that schools can play an important role in the mental health and well-being of their students and staff. It should certainly be a feature of all school health initiatives as it contributes to a better quality of life in students (Schools-for-health.eu, 2017). For the week to be effective, important strategies had to be implemented. It was well designed and organised, it linked to school, home and community, it developed respectful and supportive relationships amongst staff and students as well as addressing the school ecology and environment itself. At the end of the week, I certainly came out through the school doors with a satisfactory smile on my face and I am sure everyone else in the school environment did too. I will be carrying what I have learned into the future as catering for a child’s mental wellbeing is a daily task, not just a once off event. Bibliography Cullen, P. (2017). Too many Irish teenagers have mental health issues, UNICEF says. [online] The Irish Times. Available at: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/too-many-irish-teenagers-have-mental-health-issues-unicef-says-1.3125710 [Accessed 23 Dec. 2018]. Schools-for-health.eu. (2017). Mental health in schools. [online] Available at: http://www.schools-for-health.eu/she-network/health-promoting-schools/health-themes/mental-health [Accessed 23 Dec. 2018]. |