This blog discussed the ideas for and against personalized learning. The author argues whether children are capable of directing their learning effectively. Personalized learning is great because children become more engaged because they have more control over their learning. He argues that teaching was created because children are not capable to direct their own learning.
From this blog, I learned the following:
Personalized learning keeps children engaged because they have a choice in what they learn and are more inclined to want to learn and retain the information.
While all children learn differently and have different interests, psychologists say that children are more alike than they are different in learning patterns. A classroom with a shared objective and activities is an effective classroom.
One of the biggest driving forces behind children's learning is constructive controversies. This is a term the author uses to describe when students challenge each other to further their learning and can all collectively grow.
This article is very contradictory because it constantly is arguing which way to learn is better, but the outcome is that every classroom is different. While classroom objectives and learning strategies can be the same, students sometimes must learn differently to retain information and comprehend what they are learning. I will always keep an open mind in the future when I am teaching as to help every student. While the lesson plans and objectives should be the same, students have different methods of learning and can help each other learn through constructive controversies.
This webinar was created to prove that children need social and emotional skills to survive. Children need to know how to regulate and deal with emotions as early as possible to be successful in classes and in life. They need to know how to communicate effectively with teachers and other students. Many teachers do not know how to teach children how to do this, so this webinar explains some ways to help children develop those skills.
From this webinar, I learned the following:
Children need a consistent and predictable schedule and pattern to be able to develop social and emotional skills as well as anything else they need to learn.
Connecting on a personal level with your students every morning before class promotes learning and improves social skills. Starting the students' day off with a positive connection can keep them engaged throughout the whole day.
You can help children self-regulate by getting them to commit to classroom rules. They can then help regulate their emotions to stay calm and follow the rules they committed to at the beginning of the day. Students will learn how they feel and be able to express those feelings.
This webinar helped me understand some of the simple ways that I could help my future students develop social and emotion skills. It taught me some simple ways to teach children how to regulate and learn their emotions. Teaching children how to regulate their emotions and learn how to verbalize how they are feelings is one of the most important things to teach. Starting a foundation can be done with simple acts like what was shown in this webinar, but learning how to teach children about how to regulate their emotions will always be a learning process. Every child will have different emotions, backgrounds, and social skills so every child must be taught in different ways when it comes to developing social and emotional intelligence. Talking to children about how they are feeling is one of the best ways to teach them emotional awareness.
This podcast is about students' behaviors and how to deal with challenging students. Sometimes, punishment creates a disconnect between teacher and student and positive reinforcement can keep students from wanting to really learn. Instead, they share other ways to deal with challenging behaviors by making a connection with students and getting to know them better.
From this podcast, I learned the following:
I learned the acronym ABC which stands for antecedent, behavior, and consequence. This acronym is a method to promote good behavior by getting to know your students and creating a relationship with them. Usually, if teachers can get to know students well, they can prevent "bad" behaviors from occurring, which is where antecedent comes in.
Consequences are often hard for students to understand and can lead to students not trusting their teacher. This is where ABC comes in and hopefully the undesired behavior can be prevented. If not, consequences can be used. Consequences are not always punishments, but could be taking a break from the situation, making reparations, or loss of a privilege.
When taking a privilege away from a student, a good way to keep the connection to your student and keep your student's trust is to replace it with something else. Taking away a privilege is taking something away when it is being misused. When students lost a privilege, there needs to be something it can be replaced with. If it can not be replaced, it is not a privilege, but it is a need.
This podcast helped me understand how to manage children's behavior without punishment. I always thought that punishment or positive reinforcement was the only way to manage behavior in the classroom, but ABC is an effective way if a relationship with the student is established. Positive reinforcement can cause students to only want to do work to get the reinforcement instead of wanting to learn. While it may be hard to learn more about managing behaviors in the classroom using this method, I think that during my clinical residency I will understand and learn more about creating a relationship with my students. Using ABC to manage behaviors is something I hope to do in my classroom so that I can promote healthy relationships with my students. I am learning more about these methods in EDCI 125 on my project for Philosophies of Education on Ethic of Care.
While many people discuss the problems with remote learning and how students struggled with it, many people found success with remote learning. Teachers and students found that remote learning helped students be more independent and focused. Some teachers even found that remote learning was better than in-person learning and will be implementing some remote learning in their classroom from now on.
From this Edutopia article, I learned the following:
Students found that remote learning worked better for them because of the lack of classroom distractions. They also had no distractions outside the classroom like extra curricular activities that they were worried about instead of their classwork. They could completely focus on their schoolwork and their grades reflected this focus.
Teachers found that remote learning allowed students to set their own pace and work more independently. Because students were able to set their own pace, they could exercise, eat, and take breaks as they needed instead of being bound by the strict bell schedule in school. This also allowed students to get enough sleep to perform better in their school work.
Students felt less anxiety during remote learning because they were not worried about standardized tests and they could focus on truly learning. They also felt less anxiety because there was no constant scrutiny about their grades and classwork and students enjoyed the independence.
Many teachers started to implement opportunities to work more remotely even after in person classes began again. Giving children the opportunity to work at their own pace gives them independence to work at a time that is best for them. For example, most college classes implement remote learning and students are able to work around their schedule. Allowing students to work when it is best for them in classes in high school can reduce stress levels, boost grades, and even get students excited to learn. Google Classroom is a great way to do this. All assignments are in the classroom and are accessible everywhere. This is a great way for students to take control of their own work. Through COVID, we learned that remote learning and using technology to learn can be more effective for some students and should be used more often. I plan to implement opportunities for my future students to work at their own pace and be more independent.
Twitter has been a huge social media platform since I can remember. People use it for news, laughs, or work. Twitter accounts are public so anyone has access to the information on accounts. While Twitter is a great tool, it is limited to 280 characters per post so you must create a thread of comments for longer posts. The comment and retweet actions are really good for discussions across the world.
Educators use Twitter to learn about new methods to teach and find ways to improve.
Twitter is great for educators because they can search for and find the content they need or want to see. They can easily do this through hashtags or looking on specific accounts.
Educators can use Twitter to reach out to other educators to network. This can be done at anytime because of the convenience that Twitter allows.
I will use Twitter to learn about other educator's personal experiences with teaching early childhood education. Educators can post about their own experiences so that other educators can learn from them. I am specifically interested in children's behavior and phonics. I will use Twitter to learn more about promoting good behavior in the classroom effectively and helping children learn phonics. I have already followed some behavioral specialists on Twitter and am learning more about managing children's behavior in the classroom.
TikTok is a fairly new social media platform where users can post short videos. Many people use TikTok to share their experiences in the classroom. Sometimes, it is funny stories that those teachers have experienced in the classroom and sometimes educators share methods and professional development content. Educators often reach out to other educators on TikTok if they have found a problem in the classroom or need help with something while teaching.
Many educators have found the answers to problems they were facing in the classroom on TikTok from other educators.
Educators have expanded their professional networks on TikTok by collaborating on a video or simply by reaching out with questions.
TikTok has also inspired people to become educators by sharing what it is like. You can find relatable education memes, helpful videos on common problems, professional development videos, and informational videos on how to become a teacher.
I will use TikTok to learn more about being an educator and teaching. There are many TikTok videos on behavioral, emotional, and social growth that I have seen. I would like to use TikTok to expand my knowledge on these topics and learn more about how to help my future students in these areas. TikTok is actually one of the reasons I decided on early childhood education instead of secondary education. Educators on TikTok showed me that you can create relationships with your students to manage their behavior in the classroom when they do not really understand how to behave yet. TikTok is a useful tool that I will continue to use in the future if I ever have any questions or need to reach out to another educator.