- Where do you find the majority of your teaching resources?
- There are so different types of teaching resources out there, that sometimes it can get overwhelming. Books, programs, and suggestions from colleagues are all wonderful resources to use for teaching. However, I find the majority of my teaching resources through the internet. The internet provides so many different types of resources that teachers can use and it saves us so much time.
- Who do you look to for support and research for new ideas?
- I'm apart of my district's technology committee, which has made it easy for me to learn about the different kinds of technological resources and how to implement them within the classroom. I teach elementary students, so some of the resources that they mention are too advanced for my students to use. I also go to my school's librarian for technological assistance. She too Mastered in Instructional Media and is now completing her second Master's degree in Instructional Technology.
- Do you follow any particular blogs? If so, please share.
- I actually do not currently follow any blogs. Social media like Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat has pretty much kept my interest in the sense where subscribing to a blog never really occurred to me. However, if there are any blogging platforms that would be useful in the classroom, I would be more than willing to check them out.
- What are some of the hot topics you face in your situation, particularly those that are controversial but also new challenges?
- I feel like there are so many of challenges within the classroom stem from students having social and emotional issues. I can honestly say that almost on the daily, and sometimes multiple times a day, teachers are dealing with students who are defiant, who refuse to do their classwork, who don't know how to communicate appropriately and are suffering from either depression or anxiety. When talking with veteran teachers, they said that there has always issues with students, however not to this extreme. We all believe that video games and lack of sleep have a lot to do with it. Rather than socializing with one another, they would rather play a game on their Xbox all day. Some of my students have mentioned to me that they're staying up and playing video games hours on end.
- In addition to students having social and emotional issues, I believe that parents' view of teachers has changed as well. Instead of allowing us to work as a team to make their child successful, it feels like it's parents versus teachers.
- Hot Topic: Do you think that video games have an affect on students' social and emotional skills? Do you think the public's outlook on educators has changed throughout the past 10 years?
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Unit 1
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Hello,
ReplyDeleteI think you have said it wonderfully when you mentioned that there are so many resources, that it becomes overwhelming. There are times that I just stop looking at what I was trying to find and go with a different idea because I'm not even sure where to begin. The internet is great, but it can be stressful too.
I think your hot topic is a great conversation piece, especially with all that has been happening in our world. This is has been a huge topic in my school. We recently had a "wellness day" where we took a look at what our students are facing and how we can help, and video games has been a prime subject. Although, I would love to say I disagree and would hope students can just shut them off and make a connection between the real world and reality, I truly don't see that happening. After talking with coworkers about this topic, it has been more and more obvious that these games are changing our students, all around as a person. I don't see this happening as much with elementary (K-3) students, but I'm sure it does.
I think the way we teach, has to connect with our students. One of our classes in this program has taught me that we need to make the connections with our students and we have to teach them a way they can be taught. Sometimes, this is through virtual games. As teachers, we are constantly learning and evolving therefore, I think we need to help our students by taking an interest in what they are learning. However, if we teach our students through their interests, we also have to teach them the advantages, disadvantages and appropriateness. We need our students to understand why we are teaching them what we are.
This is a great topic! Thanks for sharing,
Jenny
Hi Jenny!
DeleteThanks for responding! It's interesting hearing about how other teachers from other schools are experiencing the same exact concern as teachers from my school. I don't know how many times this topic has come up this year about how video games are literally all the students think about. It's interesting to see how my students react when I even mention one video game that they love to play. It's crazy to see them just come alive with excitement over something that they honestly shouldn't be really excited about.
I agree that we should connect with our students likes and interests. I use a virtual program called MobyMax with my students. MobyMax is an educational based program that allows the students to practice skills that they are learning in the classroom and rewards the students with game time points. These game time points collect into a certain amount of minutes. The better they do academically, the more game time points they can earn.
How wonderful that you are part of your district's technology committee! Another classmate is part of their district's as well. You both must be great resources for your students to advocate for technology. Your hot topic is interesting. I think it depends on the type of video game and also their habits. This ties into your next topic - yes I do think the public's outlook on educators has changed. I think many people think children should be more so 'raised' in the classroom rather than educated, whereas they should be raised at home. This ties into the video game topic - teachers can only do so much, many bad habits form outside of the classroom. I think my question in return is what can teachers do about these two hot topics? Thank you for sharing! - Jessica DiBernardo
ReplyDeleteHi Jessica!
DeleteThank you for responding to my post! I really think you hit the nail on the head by stating, "yes I do think the public's outlook on educators has changed. I think many people think children should be more so 'raised' in the classroom rather than educated, whereas they should be raised at home." This is really difficult for any educator to deal with, especially the younger teachers. I believe that younger teachers have a harder time with this because they usually don't have children of their own. I'm saying this from my own personal experience. But, it is definitely interesting to see that this is a problem happening all around and not just within my school district.
How wonderful that you are part of your district's technology committee! Another classmate is part of their district's as well. You both must be great resources for your students to advocate for technology. Your hot topic is interesting. I think it depends on the type of video game and also their habits. This ties into your next topic - yes I do think the public's outlook on educators has changed. I think many people think children should be more so 'raised' in the classroom rather than educated, whereas they should be raised at home. This ties into the video game topic - teachers can only do so much, many bad habits form outside of the classroom. I think my question in return is what can teachers do about these two hot topics? Thank you for sharing! - Jessica DiBernardo
ReplyDeleteWould you be willing to describe the culture and socio-eeconomic status of your students in general? I would like to see this before I respond to the SEL aspect.
ReplyDeleteI work in a rural school district located in Southern York County PA. The elementary school that I work in would belong to the mid to lower range socio-economically. We are pretty up-to-date with our technology for the most part. However, there is a good portion of our students who do not have internet at home.
DeleteHey Shannon, I'd love to know more specifics about the Internet sites and resources. Also when you talk about social media, say more about what you find there?
ReplyDeleteThe internet sites that I typically resort to on almost a daily basis is Techers-Pay-Teachers, Superteacherworksheets.com, Pinterest, MobyMax.org, and Google Search.
DeleteSocial media has kept my interest to the point where blogging never really came to across my mind. I think this is due to the fast pace immediate feedback to a vast audience rather than a specific audience. Honestly, if it wasn't for taking this Master's program, I wouldn't even really know how to blog. This year though, I do find the benefit of blogging with my students on specific topics that I am teaching in class using the app called Seesaw.
Hi Shannon,
ReplyDeleteIn response to your hot topic, I would say that it doesn't just seem like multiple times a day that I'm dealing with defiance... it feels like every waking second! Then again, I teach 7th and 9th graders so if anyone's trying to figure it all out, it's that age.
Your connection of staying up late and playing video games to a student's social and emotional skills reminded me of something that happened in my class last Friday, and I figured I'd share. In my lower level Science 7 class, I have a student who absolutely kills it. He regularly gets 100% on quizzes and tests and he's usually eager to answer questions and participate. I noticed early on in the school year that some days he was just totally off. He would be almost sleeping in class and extremely irritable and uninterested in class. I assumed he wasn't getting enough sleep and left if at that. Last Friday, while I was at my computer taking attendance, I glanced up and watched him throw a pencil at another student. I was FLOORED. This was so out of character for him. I took him in the hallway and he leaned against the wall and slid down, sitting and crying. He wouldn't talk to me but I just let him take his test out there, and he eventually came back in once he was calmed down. I was pretty upset over the situation- like I said, it was very unlike him- so I reached out to other teachers who have him, asking if there's something going on at home and mentioning his "off days". One teacher mentioned that his "off days" are usually due to his lack of sleep (as I suspected), which is because he stays up all night playing video games. SO, to answer your question, I very much believe that video games affect the social and emotional skills and behavior of students, especially if they are staying up all night to play them. For the current age of my students, I can't imagine trying to go through a day surrounded by their peers without a decent amount of sleep!
I really enjoy your second question as well, as I was lucky enough to have not 1, but 2 parent meetings yesterday! It very much felt like in the meeting it was parents vs. teachers. I know I speak for all of the teachers that were present, when I say that we were there to figure out some type of solution, and it felt as though the parents thought we were attacking them and so they retaliated right back. This is not a trend I see with all families though; especially students who have parents that are teachers!
Thanks for sharing!
Abby
Hi Abby,
DeleteThank you for responding to my post! Although you teach 7th-9th graders and I teach 4th graders, I can connect with your student on so many levels. I have a student, who actually just recently moved, who pretty much was the same exact way. At the beginning of the year, he was legitimately a straight "A" student. But as time went on, he became more defiant and irritable. Here I found out that this 9/10 year old was staying up will 3 in the morning playing a rated M video game. I would have multiple private talks with him about the importance of getting sleep and how it makes you feel better, but it was no good because he told me that the first thing that he does when he gets home is play video games. Mind you not that is about 12 hours of video games a day. We've had multiple talks with his parents, but nothing helped. It's so frustrating because this student has so much going for him and all he cares and thinks about is getting to the next level on his video game. I really hope your student makes a connection between how he feels when he up late at night and is irritable the next day. Thanks again for responding!
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI'd like to respond to your Hot Topic questions, though I fear I may be the one voice of disagreement in the crowd. You asked, "Do you think that video games have an affect on students' social and emotional skills?" As a fairly young teacher (this is my 5th year), I have grown up with video games. In fact, I play a ton of video games: FPS games, MMORPGs, Sandbox games, games with great narratives, so on and so forth. Despite this, I feel as though my social and emotional skills are adequate, if not above adequate. I also play most of of the games my current students play: Fortnite, CoD, Five Nights, etc. I do not find any of these games problematic for social/emotional skills. The source of the problem, in my opinion, is the parents. When I was growing up, there were certain expectations I needed to follow when it came to both the video games that I played and the books that I devoured. I, myself, had to pay for any games, consoles, or books that I wanted. I had strict restrictions on when I could and could not play my games; outdoor play was a requirement. From what I've seen, most parents do not hold these expectations anymore. I have students who talk about playing all night and being exhausted the next morning. This kind of restrictionless gaming is what is causing social/emotional skills in my opinion, not the games themselves.
You also asked, "Do you think the public's outlook on educators has changed throughout the past 10 years?" My answer to this is yes. 100% yes.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Nicole Stouffer
Hi Nicole,
DeleteIt's interesting to see how your opinion is different than the others, but please don't fear anything. This is also my 5th year of teaching, which makes me assume that we're about the same age. I've played my fair share of video games growing up and still do. However, your point on stating that the source of the problem is the parents, I would have to agree 100% with. You make some interesting points which is why I followed up with the question about the public's outlook on educators. Jessica DiBernardo previously stated that " public's outlook on educators has changed. I think many people think children should be more so 'raised' in the classroom rather than educated, whereas they should be raised at home." I honestly couldn't have stated it any better than that.
Hi Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI teach middle school students and I too have seen an abundant amount of kids staying up too late playing video games. Kids who are staying up late lack self control. Parents need to monitor their child's activity because some students aren't mature enough to display this self control.
However, with the topic of social skills via online gaming, I think a lot of games do allow socialization within the game and also give students a topic of conversation with others in school. If they are interested in the game then it allows students to connect with others easily. With that being said, students still need to be trained on digital citizenship (aka cyberbullying) so that they do know how to communicate appropriately with their classmates.
Thanks for your thoughts!
-Melissa H
Hi Melissa,
DeleteThank you for responding. Everyone seems to agree that the lack of sleep is a problem that students are facing when playing video games. As Nicole stated above, she thinks that the parents need to be accountable for this because they aren't setting up appropriate expectations for the child. Parents also need to not set the expectations, but they need to follow through with what they say. In addition, I understand that we are going down the virtual road in education, therefore school districts need to make sure they are providing staff and students with appropriate digital citizenship training.
Hi Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI am still amazed at what resources one can find online. You can spend hours looking, if you are not careful, for valuable resources or piecing together a great lesson from various sources!
I am sure, being on the technology committee, you get to help guide your district in the right path. I enjoy teaching at the high school level since the technology is easier in some respects to use with that population rather than elementary students.
The hot topic you choose was right on the money! The students I teach come from an impoverished area. I have always dealt with social and emotional issues but not to this extreme. Especially being in the special education setting, I teach students with those needs and more. The idea that playing games and lack of sleep are not helping is correct. Without sleep, children are irritable and unfocused. These problems can make any situation worse, especially on a daily basis! Schools are not doing enough to help this problem.
Parents are not helping with this at all. Some try but most do not hold their children accountable for anything. I've had more parent meetings this year than ever before but have not noticed any changes in behavior of the children.
Video games and the whole social media world have had a definite effect on students. Our district gave chromebooks for the students to use. Most of the time, kids are playing online games or trying to watch movies. It is ridiculous. There is a total lack of education in social and emotional skills. We need more of them and less standardized tests.
I feel that the public's outlook on education has changed in the past 10 years. My school, or actually myself, actually serves free breakfast to the students in homeroom. Each year, the district requires more of the teacher but doesn't take away anything. The world looks to teachers to do it all. Raise one's child, teach them everything and deal with their unruly behaviors because the parent just says, go to your room. The room that has the games, the ipad, smartphone or something else to occupy their time instead of a parent.
-Tony Spinnraker