Thursday 2/11 Reflection

There are a variety of strategies that were used in class today that I really enjoyed that I could find useful in developing community and are effective teaching methods in the classroom. The following are the activities we did in class and some notes about what each activity entails:

Tea Party Activity
Quotes were taken from the book that we were reading and each person was given a different quote. We were instructed to read the quote and think to ourselves what the story might be about based on that quote. Then, we had a "tea party" where we each read our quotes to one another and after listening to as many quotes as possible, we were then instructed to develop an opinion of what the story would be about based off of the quotes.

Energizer - Alphabet
We were put into teams, first team to "spell out" the alphabet using all of the bodies in the group won.

Clock Buddies
This is a great strategies for creating pairs and groups of students. Students create a clock and mingle around the room finding a "clock buddy" for each hour on the clock. If you want students to have discussions, they can partner up with their "5 o'clock clock buddy". This breaks up the hassle of trying to find a partner or having someone left out without a partner.

Carousel Reading
Around the room were posters with topics that we might encounter as we are reading the book. We wrote on the chart paper everything we knew about that topic and did this in groups. We then presented it to the class to share what the whole class's knowledge of the subject was.

Plagiarism Free Summaries 
This was my favorite activity from the class that really showed a good way to show students a strategy to avoid plagiarism. We took various short stories or articles and picked out about five to eight, 1-3 word phrases to pick out important parts of the article. Then we compared these words with people in our group. It was interesting to see what main ideas others picked out from the articles. By doing this it ensured that we would copy the words on the page and it was successful for writing summaries in our own words.

Suicide Prevention Presentation Reflection

On Thursday February 4th, we had two speakers join our class to share information on the prevention of suicide. I believe that it is necessary for people to be trained at and listen to information regarding suicide with the great prevalence that it has in our society. For college aged students, suicide is the second leading cause of death. This is devastating especially because after hearing the presentation, I learned that suicide is preventable. 

I learned multiple warning signs of suicide and to name a few, they included:

- Talking about wanting to die or wanting to kill oneself

- Looking for a way to kill oneself, ie. searching for/buying a gun

- Talking about being a burden to others

- Withdrawn or feeling isolated

- Sleeping too much or too little

- Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs

- Displaying intense mood swings

These are all things that I am now more aware of with friends/family members and I believe that it is important to say something if I notice any of these signs. 

One of the things that I find so interesting about mental illness and suicide is that it is so rarely talked about. Going to a speaker like this is a great way to segway into a conversation with friends or family. It is frustrating how taboo or stigmatizing the idea of seeing a counselor is as well. I have gone to counseling many times myself and I was embarrassed at first to talk about it. Now that I have gone, I see so much value in seeking help when it is needed, even for things that do not necessarily concern depression or suicide. 

I found it interesting that the night before these speakers came to class that Eric Hipple, a former NFL quarterback spoke on campus. I went to this presentation as well and found it heartbreaking to hear his story of his own suicide attempt and having to experience his son's completion of suicide. I had brought some of my residents to this presentation and it really opened up the door to a conversation about issues that we or our peers and families might be facing. I think that the more we talk about it, the more that it can be prevented and the more people who need to will seek help. It was an important conversation that we had and I hope that after seeing these speakers, the conversation continues.