In class today there was a presentation on growth and development. This is an interesting topic, especially as someone who is considering teaching middle school. Students will be going through a lot of changes during this time and it will be important to take these into account as I plan my teaching.
We did an activity where we were given a part of our body and asked to share something that we like about that body part. This was a great activity to do especially with the messages that kids often get from the media about body image.
There were also a couple of thematic units that were presented today.
These included topics of:
Identity
Overcoming Adversity
Self acceptance
Finally, there was a great activity that I want to remember to do with my kids. It involves finding a partner and having them be your buddy. When body parts are called out, you must find your partner and touch your body part to theirs. For example: foot to elbow, knee to back, ear to ear, etc. This was a great activity with lots of fun and laughing!
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Friendship
Friendship is something that children sometimes need guidance through as they navigate grades k-12. Learning about healthy friendships is important for students and without loving and true friendships, students are likely to have a greater difficulty navigating social life in school.
The following are some things that I learned in class to help students:
Teach students about true friendships
Often, kids don't know the difference between a true friendship and one that is more fake. It is important for students to know that friendships are mutual where both friends put in effort to the friendship and benefit each other.
Activity involvement
Getting kids involved in activities is really important. By doing this, they can find friends with similar interests.
Friend role model
It is important to be a role model to children when it comes to your own friendships. By having good friendships yourself, students can see what a healthy friendship is and learn from the friendships that you have.
These are three major take aways that I got from this portion of the presentation, but a few other things that are important are having service to others, having honesty and tact, talking about boundaries, and having empathy towards others. Overall, all of these are important in their own ways to developing and maintaining healthy friendships and relationships and kids can learn a great deal from this information to help them socially and emotionally.
The following are some things that I learned in class to help students:
Teach students about true friendships
Often, kids don't know the difference between a true friendship and one that is more fake. It is important for students to know that friendships are mutual where both friends put in effort to the friendship and benefit each other.
Activity involvement
Getting kids involved in activities is really important. By doing this, they can find friends with similar interests.
Friend role model
It is important to be a role model to children when it comes to your own friendships. By having good friendships yourself, students can see what a healthy friendship is and learn from the friendships that you have.
These are three major take aways that I got from this portion of the presentation, but a few other things that are important are having service to others, having honesty and tact, talking about boundaries, and having empathy towards others. Overall, all of these are important in their own ways to developing and maintaining healthy friendships and relationships and kids can learn a great deal from this information to help them socially and emotionally.
The Feelings Scribble
This activity relates to emotional development and helps students build a self awareness of their own and others' emotions. It starts off with a simple scribble drawn with a dark color. This scribble is likely to have various spots that students can color in and add different colors to.
We picked colors that represented different feelings including
- Sadness
- Anger
- Happiness
- Anxiousness
- Love
- Fear
Then, after coloring in our scribble, we had a chance to think of a variety of questions that relate to what we drew such as:
- Look at the different colors, why are some next to each other and some far apart?
- Is there one color that there is a lot of? Why?
- Did you have a harder time coloring some of the colors than others?
Overall, this was a great way to get students talking and sharing things about their emotions at a deeper development and I think that the activity is worth while.
We picked colors that represented different feelings including
- Sadness
- Anger
- Happiness
- Anxiousness
- Love
- Fear
Then, after coloring in our scribble, we had a chance to think of a variety of questions that relate to what we drew such as:
- Look at the different colors, why are some next to each other and some far apart?
- Is there one color that there is a lot of? Why?
- Did you have a harder time coloring some of the colors than others?
Overall, this was a great way to get students talking and sharing things about their emotions at a deeper development and I think that the activity is worth while.
Emotional Development
In class, we listened to a presentation on emotional development. Emotional development has some major components to it when we think of the students. These include self awareness, social awareness, self management, peer relationships, and responsible decision making.
One thing that we discussed to help students build self esteem and develop emotionally is the self portrait. This self portrait consists of a silhouette of the student where they write out things that they like about themselves on it. Then, the whole class gets a chance to go around and add to the positive comments that you made about yourself. This is a great activity to do in class that I see myself using in the classroom to help build self esteem esp. for middle schoolers.
One thing that we discussed to help students build self esteem and develop emotionally is the self portrait. This self portrait consists of a silhouette of the student where they write out things that they like about themselves on it. Then, the whole class gets a chance to go around and add to the positive comments that you made about yourself. This is a great activity to do in class that I see myself using in the classroom to help build self esteem esp. for middle schoolers.
Found Poetry
Found Poetry is a great activity that I enjoy doing. It is simple and a fun way to add a bit of creative writing into the study of a book or story.
The link below shows a found poetry piece I made in my ART 300 class.
https://sites.google.com/site/johnschielart300001/projects/visual-poetry
We chose to type our found poetry, but I think that it can be more worth while to fully create something visual from it so that students can benefit from more ways than just one. This is something I will use in my future classroom and maybe I can even find a way to incorporate it into mathematics!
The link below shows a found poetry piece I made in my ART 300 class.
https://sites.google.com/site/johnschielart300001/projects/visual-poetry
We chose to type our found poetry, but I think that it can be more worth while to fully create something visual from it so that students can benefit from more ways than just one. This is something I will use in my future classroom and maybe I can even find a way to incorporate it into mathematics!
Cognitive Development
In class, we learned about children's cognitive development. Cognitive development deals with information processing, perceptual skills, language learning and other aspects of brain development.
One of the most interesting things I found from this information presented is that how long our minds are developing even through our early 20's. We discussed the effects on alcohol, drugs, and stress on our system as we are developing. It is amazing how much our minds are changing throughout adolescence and keeping this in mind is important as we become teachers to students in middle adolescence.
During this presentation we were also asked to show what we had learned from it with a drawing. Students were able to present and share their drawing with the class and it was fun and interesting to see the different perspectives that others took with their drawings.
One of the most interesting things I found from this information presented is that how long our minds are developing even through our early 20's. We discussed the effects on alcohol, drugs, and stress on our system as we are developing. It is amazing how much our minds are changing throughout adolescence and keeping this in mind is important as we become teachers to students in middle adolescence.
During this presentation we were also asked to show what we had learned from it with a drawing. Students were able to present and share their drawing with the class and it was fun and interesting to see the different perspectives that others took with their drawings.
Ice Breaker Fun
Shoe Activity
In class, we did a great activity that I can see myself using in the future as an ice breaker. Each student was instructed to get into a circle and toss their shoes into the center. Then students were each asked to grab 2 shoes that were not their own and find the person who is the owner of each shoe.
By doing this, it gave students a chance to mingle with one another and meet each other. Once the students met, they were asked to introduce themselves and share with each other what their favorite kind of shoe is and why.
By sharing this question with one another, you can really learn a lot about someone by their favorite kind of shoe. For example, my favorite kind of shoes are running shoes because they take me everywhere and I put hundreds of miles on them. Some people had favorite shoes like work boots or sandals which say something about their personality as well.
In class, we did a great activity that I can see myself using in the future as an ice breaker. Each student was instructed to get into a circle and toss their shoes into the center. Then students were each asked to grab 2 shoes that were not their own and find the person who is the owner of each shoe.
By doing this, it gave students a chance to mingle with one another and meet each other. Once the students met, they were asked to introduce themselves and share with each other what their favorite kind of shoe is and why.
By sharing this question with one another, you can really learn a lot about someone by their favorite kind of shoe. For example, my favorite kind of shoes are running shoes because they take me everywhere and I put hundreds of miles on them. Some people had favorite shoes like work boots or sandals which say something about their personality as well.
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