After having a month to think about and reflect on my first year of teaching, I know I was not the teacher I wanted to be. I did not ever expect to be the world's best teacher my first year teaching, but I know I could have done better in some aspects. I think I got caught up with trying to have everything done- lessons for all three classes planned, documents created, homework for my online classes done- and the stress of that caused me to lose focus on my students. Plus many times I did not create lessons or units to the high standard that I would have liked, I did not cultivate a classroom learning environment in the way I wanted it to be, and classroom management was a confusing struggle. The good news is that I've learned a ton from my failures. So instead of focusing on the bad I wanted to share a few things I learned. It was during the second half of year one that I started getting the hang of things a little more. I think the fact that I was willing to change and go with the flow helped me tremendously this first year. I changed so many things from the first half of the year to the second, including my classroom organization and classroom management techniques. A couple techniques that I used exclusively during the second half of the year that worked wonders for me were Hands & Eyes and Hands on Head. "Hands and Eyes" is a Whole Brain Teaching strategy that I used when I wanted my students complete attention on what I had to say. How it works I say "Hands and Eyes" and then students fold their hands together, turn their whole body towards me and look at me with their complete attention. Hands on your Head (when you're done) is something I used to help me tell who was done working and ready to move on and who was still working. Using this made it very obvious to me at a quick glance who was ready to move on and who wasn't (plus it keeps their hands occupied). How this one works is that when I say "Hands on Head" the students who are done rest both their hands on the top of their own heads. I waited to do this until I thought a majority of the class was done because I have the students keep their hands on their heads until I released them to move on. There are plenty of other ideas that I came up or found during year one that worked well, but these are the two, that I wish I would have used sooner and more often. I am hoping that during this coming school year I will have more time to post about some of these ideas I find or create so that others can use them in their classrooms as well! Looking forward to year two, in order to remedy some of my failures I have been looking and have found some good resources on classroom management as well as creating better lessons and learning environments for my students. One of these resources is where I got the picture above ( link to the full article is located at the bottom). I knew that classroom management was a struggle this year for me, but I didn't realize that the reason was because I was sabotaging my own classroom management until I read this. Turns out I did a lot of these, especially, number 1. I find it helpful to know A) that I am not the only one who did these things and B) know what exactly I did wrong so that I am able correct it for next year. There were so many things with classroom management that I was not prepared for this year and realistically, there was no way I could have been. There were so many things that my students did or didn't do that bothered me that I had never even thought about before. On the other hand, there were other areas of classroom management that I was prepared for which I think was mostly on the classroom organization front with my extras binder, calendar board, and SC (student center). All in all, year one was a success in my books. I left room for improvement, learned from mistakes, and I didn't give up. Year two here I come!
0 Comments
So now that it's summer I have a little (more like a lot) more time to work on things. Recently I updated the aesthetics of both my class website and online teaching portfolio as well as updated some of the content on my portfolio. I am very pleased as to how they turned out. If I haven't said it before, I'm going to say it (again) now, I LOVE Weebly! They all look so clean and professional! I have the links to both sites above, but I will post some screenshots of how they look now as well. First us is my Teacher Portfolio. I wanted to simply this site and update my content. I chose three fonts and one color, purple, my favorite color of course and for the theme I went with Journey. I love that the tabs move as you scroll down the page. I think the new aesthetics showcase my qualifications so much better now! Next is the class website. I wanted to make my site less busy and less girly. Although I love making things girly, I try not to go too crazy because I know it can be a turn off to the young men in my classes. I think I accomplished both with this final round of editing. I went with only two colors, black and blue, and three fonts. The main heading is Komika Axis, titles are Oswald, and everything else is Raleway. I thought the fonts I had before were a bit much (and kinda girly) so I'm very pleased with my new choices. As for the theme I had before, I think the background got to be too much with the pattern and colors. I like having the white background, I think it puts the focus is on what students are there for, the content and links! I also changed my email signature. I added the URLs to my web portfolio and blog and decided to delete the quote I had on the last one. I love the quote I had on the old one but I like the simplicity of this one better with just one image. If you are wondering what the old versions looked like take a look back to my post from last December. Unfortunately, I didn't post pictures of what my portfolio previously looked like but I can tell you the current version is better!
Overall what I went for with all of these changes and updates was to de-clutter and simply. The way everything was wasn't terrible, but to me they felt overwhelming to look at with too many colors, patterns, fonts, etc. Less is definitely more! I learned about PBL a while ago and have wanted to do it in my classroom ever since. I think PBL will allow me to be the kind of teacher I want to be and create the kind of learning environment that I envision for my students. I believe that health and PBL go hand-in-hand because PBL is about making learning the content relevant and health topics are about life. I tried to do a PBL unit with my 8th graders this spring but it was a complete bust. It wasn't great timing on my part with online classes and it still being my first year teaching. I connected with another teacher over twitter, as he is doing PBL in his classroom this year, and that was helpful but not the same as having someone at my school that I can observe and collaborate with in person. So as I was trying to find more information on PBL I found this book through BIE (bie.org). I had already planned to work on curriculum planning over the summer so I thought this would be the perfect time to buy it. Now I will work on fixing my units while also slowly turning them into PBL units. I'm super excited to start reading it and learning how successfully conduct PBL in my classroom next school year.
I haven't posted on here in a while again as somehow this semester is crazier than the last, but I'm surviving. So I've learned about this instant response tool at MELT day back in January. The presenter only briefly mentioned it but I was intrigued so I looked into it and I love it! Below I have embedded the smore I created for one of my online classes in order to share "my favorite tool" with my classmates. Check it out!
At the beginning of the school year, I said I was going finish sorting through everything the previous health teacher had left for me and I finally did it! It feels so satisfying. I reduced 4 full filing cabinets to this beautiful one to the left. There is one drawer for each class and the hanging files insides are color coded (as are the labels on the outsides) and organized by unit of study. I'm in love! What prompted this was that I found out I would be moving classrooms and my new classroom is significantly smaller than the one I had this year. We had a staff workday and all of my grades were already done for the quarter so I figured I would get it done. There was no way I wanted to have to move all of this stuff just to throw it once I get into the new classroom. I have a much better understanding of what my curriculum so it was much easier to know if I would use or need something as I sort through everything. I also went through my bookshelves again and got that reduced to 9 shelves! All in all it was a ton of work, but it feels really amazing to have it done with! It had been bothering me for a while so It was nice to have the time to do it. I had two overflowing recycling bins worth of things by the end! I will most likely still sort through some things again when I pack stuff up to move, but a majority of the hard work is done! I've already started drawing up plans for how I think I will set up my new classroom. With getting rid of so much clutter, I think everything will fit in the new, much smaller, space! At the beginning of the school year, I decided that I wanted to get two diffusers because my room is a rather large space. So to do that did some research, wrote a proposal and then submitted it for a local grant pay for the initial start-up costs of the diffusers and a variety of EOs. I have that below, but first I thought I would share a few pictures from my classroom and talk about what I've noticed since having them. My 7-9th graders love them! They often walk in and remark about how good it smells as do other teachers in the school! My students often want to know what EOs or mix of oils I put in & know what they do. Other teachers at the school have also come to talk to me about it which is pretty cool! In terms of smell, I've found it really does help to keep my classroom smelling great and I think, depending on what EO I have in there & what it does, I can see the effects in my students. Some days I do a blend of different EOs and other days I just put in one, like today I have peppermint in & I'm laser focused on writing this post! I will definitely need to buy more EOs, but the cost isn't so bad when you buy one at a time. For initial start-up, I used Amazon to order everything. For my EO brand, I choose Young Living EOs after doing my research on the different brands. As for the diffusers, I went with Deneve Reiverok Ultransmit because it was the only diffuser with 5 stars on Amazon and had good reviews. For me, I knew that if I was going to do this I wanted to get a diffuser that worked well, which these do, plus it is easy to care for and use. In case you are interested here is the proposal I wrote up for the grant. Healthy Lives and Minds: Using Essential Oils in the Health Classroom
"Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived." Helen Keller Teaching primarily middle school students, my classroom does not always have the best aroma. Even so, I want to provide my students with a pleasant and stimulating classroom that is not only easy on the nose, but also beneficial to their minds, spirits, and overall health. As a health teacher, I want to be a role model and expose them to alternative wellness methods. My Students: My students range from 7th grade to 9th grade. Our school is a 7-12 secondary school with a student population of 241. We are located about 130 miles west of the Twin Cities. Due to our location, our school has to tackle many distinct challenges that are unique to being in a rural area. This being a health classroom I love teaching my students about new and alternative methods of health care that they might not otherwise experience. I think it is important for students to have as much knowledge about health prevention and care as possible so that they can make the best-informed decisions for themselves throughout their lives. In our class we aim to address all of the six critical health behavior concerns of today’s youth, alcohol and drug use, injury and violence, tobacco use, nutrition, physical inactivity and risky sexual behaviors, according the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), all of which are preventable and are often established during childhood or adolescence. We use a comprehensive health education approach that equips my students with both the knowledge and skills needed to enhance their well-being and quality of health throughout their lives. In addition to that, comprehensive health education aims to motivate students to maintain and improve their health, prevent disease and avoid or reduce health-related risk behaviors. I believe adding essential oils to our classroom will accomplish many of these goals. My Research on Essential Oils What are Essential Oils? Essential oils are the aromatic compound naturally found in plants. In nature plants, distractive smells provide protection against predators and disease as well as assist with pollination. Throughout history, many different cultures have used EO’s for their medicinal and therapeutic benefits. How do Essential Oils interact with the Limbic System? “During inhalation, odor molecules travel through the nose and affect the brain through a variety of receptor sites, one of which is the limbic system, which is commonly referred to as the ‘emotional brain.’ The limbic system is directly connected to those parts of the brain that control heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, memory, stress levels, and hormone balance (Higley & Higley, 1998). This relationship helps explain why smells often trigger emotions. Knowing this, we can hypothesize how inhalation of essential oils can have some very profound physiological and psychological effects” (Halcón, 2013). Knowing this, it is easy to understand how Essential oils can have such advantageous effects on both health and mood, in children and adults. Essential oils have been shown to “reduce anxiety, increase focus, and…have a positive impact in the classroom” (Ibanez, 2013). “In his paper, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Terry S. Friedmann, M.D., M.D.(H), A.B.I.H.M., writes, “When essential oils are inhaled, they not only provide exquisite fragrances, but they have also proven to be able to produce physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being of people since the beginning of time” (Ibanez, 2013). Essential Oils not only provide mood benefits. Diffusing them can also “purify [the] air of unwanted odors and some airborne pathogens” (Ibanez, 2013). Therefore, Essential Oils serve as a both a natural disinfectant and an air purifier as well as air freshener. Below I have included a list of the Essential oils I would like to have for my classroom. I broke the list down into categories of the Essential Oils effects as well how they would benefit the students emotionally in my classroom.
Sources: Halcón, L. (2013, July 16). How do essential oils work? | Taking charge of your health & wellbeing. Retrieved from http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing -practices/aromatherapy/how-do-essential-oils-work Ibanez, Z. (2013, December 10). Essential Oils and Kids. Retrieved from http://educationaladvancement.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/essential-oils-and-kids/ |
AuthorI teach 7-9 Health Education & Computer 7 in rural southwestern Minnesota. I love using technology in my classroom and teaching students about how to live healthy and informed lives.
Archives
April 2016
Categories
All
|