Strategies to Influence Change

 

4 Practices for Innovative School Leaders

Dr. Shawn Smith, Chief Innovation Officer at McGraw Hill, provides leadership strategies that are sure to influence change. If your school or district is anything like many others across the country, it has undergone transformational changes at a rapid (perhaps even dizzying) pace over the past two years. The challenges you continue to face demand that you influence more change, driven by creative problem solving and a bit of risk. While innovation takes a unique form in every school, I’ve drawn upon my experience collaborating with innovative thinkers across the PreK-12 landscape to gather a few key practices that I believe will be critical this year.  Want to read more? - Visit this site: Innovation in Every School

Courtesy of Friends@OISE

How Meditation Changes the Brain

Meditation is an exercise that can lead to clearer mental clarity, lower levels of mental health impacts and a positive change to the outlook in life. Focusing on your breathing can shift you quite quickly to a positive outcome. I personally place one hand over my heart and the other over my stomach and breathe 4 seconds and breathe out longer than my first breath. I do this three times and it changes me drastically in a positive outcome. 

Meditation Nurtures the Brain

We’ve all heard that meditation leads to greater mental clarity, lower levels of stress and reduced anxiety. But how does meditation benefit the brain? Studies have shown that mindfulness practice brings about positive physiological changes that make the connection between meditation and the brain even more profound.

Want to read more? - Go to >>>> How Meditation Changes the Brain

You can also click this link >>>>> https://mindworks.org/blog/how-meditation-changes-the-brain/

Brought to you by Natalie@NU-OTECF

Best Practices in JK

 

Incorporating Montessori Practices in Station Rotation

Preschool and kindergarten teachers in non-Montessori schools can take advantage of Montessori strategies and learning materials.

Children learn in many ways, including listening, reading, seeing, and doing, and it’s important for them to be in an environment that makes them feel happy, secure, and confident to build their sense of mastery in their activities.

Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk, “Bring on the Learning Revolution,” inspired me to create a student-centered learning environment. My primary goal is to develop pre-K and kindergarten students’ motor skills and provide a strong foundation for the development of social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills, in order to encourage lifelong learning.

Want to read more? - Click here >>>> MONTESSORI PRACTICES

Failure is the Key to Learning

Failure sucks (obviously) but it's necessary for learning and for future success. Failing a test or getting a bad mark is a hard pill to swallow, it's especially difficult to accept the damage it does to our self-esteem and confidence, though it provides such a valuable lesson for everyone. 

It teaches resilience and perseverance, builds our sense of determination, and our self-esteem when we finally succeed. It's a set back in the moment, but gives us opportunities to grow, we wouldn't have otherwise had if we are always successful. 

Highlighting the effort put into work, and the perseverance needed to continue an activity after failing is a necessary aspect in the learning process, and are necessary for building a students determination and willingness to succeed. Failure is never final, it is just an opportunity to learn, and such opportunities should be valued to both students and educators. Although it damages confidence in the moment, it builds confidence in the long run, which is an invaluable lesson to all. 

Click here to learn more about how to manage failures with your students: 

https://www.oxfordlearning.com/the-role-of-failure-in-learning/#:~:text=It's%20OK%20to%20Fail,is%20an%20opportunity%20to%20grow.

Courtesy of DianaP@ NU

House Points to Promote School Values

 

Using house points and digital coins to promote school values

Offering rewards that students (and teachers) are excited about has changed the dynamic of our PBIS program. GEMS American Academy in Abu Dhabi has had a Houses system for a number of years. Over the last few years, while I was working in the PE department, my team and I worked to revamp the system that was in place. The old system meant that students were changing houses each year based on which class they were in. This created some limitations and also meant that students were not learning to be loyal to their house and develop the team spirit. Last year, I changed from being a PE teacher to being the elementary innovation and technology coach and coordinator, and also joined our PBIS team. As a team, we saw that the faculty wasn’t able to use the old system to support our PBIS framework as well as we wanted. We’re a K-12 American Curriculum/IB school, so our goal with Houses is to support our learners to develop specific skills that have a positive impact on the school culture. Our elementary school follows the PYP Program, which uses the 10 IB Learner Profile Attributes, which include being principled, caring, and a risk-taker. These help our students to become global citizens. Want to read more? - Click here >>>> HOUSE SYSTEM

Courtesy of Friends@St.Albert

Children are Like Sponges

 

Autism Spectrum Disorder: Learning for all minds

Since working with children with autism spectrum disorder over the past few years I have developed a deep understanding of how these children connect to learning. In fact, I was blown away with the various skills they presented at a such a young age, and one of my biggest challenges was tailoring my teaching to accommodate these brilliant minds. 

Autism spectrum disorder is being diagnosed more often than ever before, and our job as educators is to help students of all learning abilities connect to learning in a way that benefits them. I know this can be challenging, but it is less challenging when we understand how their minds work. 

Should all teachers be required to understand autism spectrum disorder in order to teach in schools? Here is a video I found that delves into the mind of this disorder, or we can call it a 'gift' that is misunderstood by many. There is so much to know, and the more we know, the more we can help them reach their true potential.

 

You can find it here >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3PrAqJ-H9k

 Brought to your attention by: AimeeW@NU

 

Sent from Mail for Windows

 

eSchool News: Edtech is Transforming the Classroom

 

Educator retention hinges on these 3 things

Critical insights reveal how edtech is transforming the classroom; most educators say we are now closer to fully realizing the potential of technology in teaching. Confidence in the education profession has dropped for the second year in a row, according to the 2022 Educator Confidence Report from learning technology company HMH. An annual barometer for how educators across the country are feeling about the state of teaching and learning, the report found that 76 percent of educators feel negatively about the state of the teaching profession in the U.S. The Educator Confidence Index, a measure of overall confidence (out of 100), continues to drop and now sits at 40.0—its lowest in the report’s history—down from 42.7 in 2021 and 49.0 in 2020. Want to read more? - Click here >>> Lacking Confidence

8 Proven Benefits of Outdoor Learning for School Children

 Looking at how to promote your outdoor education within your program?

There are real physiological, social and academic benefits to taking learning outside, just as there are drawbacks to not doing so. For example, have you ever considered that your pupils might be at risk from ‘nature deficit disorder’? Here are eight ways that outdoor learning could provide a big boost to your kids’ learning. It’s not called the great outdoors for nothing!

Check out the link below for some pointers to support the importance and the benefits to taking the learning beyond the four walls:

https://www.thestablecompany.com/blog/8-proven-benefits-of-outdoor-learning-for-school-children

Brought to your attention by: HayleyK@NU

Grade 3 Games to Play on Education.com

Here you go - a few more games to play for Gr. 3 students.

There are so many games and at diverse levels, so all the students can engage at their level.

Choose from 100+ games.

Can you say, "FUN"?

Click: https://www.education.com/games/third-grade/

Brought to you by Friends@NU

Failure is Learning

I just felt like sharing the following with you in relation to the presentation on today's learning key: Failure is Learning.

These are some of the content I've written in the past. I also have a page where I share similar content. I have provided it below:

https://www.instagram.com/inspoinsquares/?hl=en

Courtesy of Saranqi@NU-OTECF

 

Youth Mental Health

 

3 strategies to support youth mental health

Finding ways to support youth mental health requires developing new strategies, but it’s a challenge we can meet. Every year more than 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States–that breaks down to 7,000 students every day. Leaving high school has major implications for the rest of a student’s life, including considerably higher rates of unemployment, poverty, depression, chronic physical and mental illness, incarceration, and even a shorter life span.  Among the students who do not complete high school, over 20 percent did so because of early onset psychiatric disorders, with mood disorders being the most common. This is extremely concerning, as the U.S. has recently experienced significant increases in struggles with youth mental health. In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association declared a national emergency in children’s mental health, along with the Surgeon General issuing a national advisory in the wake of alarming increases in the prevalence of mental health challenges.

Want to keep reading ... Click here >>> READ MORE

“Professor Dave Explains” Mathematics YouTube Channel

Mathematics is always something I have struggled with throughout my education. The moment it wasn't compulsory anymore in secondary school, I chose to stop taking math completely. I would commonly experience feelings of anxiety when confronted with math problems and to still dislike math to this day. However, I know that as an educator for primary and junior grades, I would have to practice my math skills once again and be competent enough to teach it to students. After scouring the internet for various math related study resources, I came across a YouTube channel entitled "Professor Dave Explains". 

Professor Dave covers mathematics and science ranging from the most basic math to university level math problems. While Professor Dave's self-learning YouTube channel covers mostly math and science, it is continuing to grow and encompass a multitude of subjects such as language, social sciences, and humanities. I found the Professor Dave Explains YouTube channel to be very informative and easy to engage with as Professor Dave simplifies the math lessons into short videos and provides practice questions at the end of each lesson to check learning progress. Specifically, Professor Dave breaks down his YouTube lessons into playlists so that his channel is easy to navigate and find the exact subject or lesson you are trying to learn. 

The playlist I found the most helpful so far was his playlist entitled "Mathematics (All Of It)". In this specific mathematics playlist, Professor Dave's lesson videos start with learning the most basic elements of mathematics and it gradually progresses into more difficult math subjects as the user progresses through each lesson.  

Both educators and students could use this YouTube channel to develop their existing skills or learn something new if they wish. For example, an educator could navigate to the Professor Dave Explains YouTube Channel and find a video on fractions if they wanted to refresh their memory before giving a lesson on fractions to their students. Another example could involve an educator integrating a short Professor Dave Explains math video into their lesson to add a fun visual element to help with student learning and retention of the subject matter. I believe this self-learning YouTube channel can be extremely beneficial for both educators and students who either struggle or thrive in mathematics and other subjects. There are lessons on this channel for everyone regardless of their mathematical skill level or capabilities. 

Below you will find a link to the YouTube channel to check it out yourself!

https://www.youtube.com/c/ProfessorDaveExplains/playlists

Brought to you by Chris@NU

Reading Recovery Replaced With Empower Reading

Reading recovery has been removed from schools board wide in Ontario and replaced with 'Empower' reading. The program was developed by the Learning Disabilities Research Program (LDRP) at Sick Kids Hospital. 

The differentiating factor is working in small groups opposed to working one on one with students. The program is intended for culturally and linguistically diverse learners (CLD), who are learning English and students below grade level in reading. In addition, it has been found to be effective for students with Dyslexia.

The problem with reading recovery is that it utilized 'cueing systems', levelled readers and is not backed by educational research. Whereas Empower covers 'five decoding strategies', as pre-skills to later engage in a variety of learning activities.

Attached is a link with further information about the program:

https://www.ldatschool.ca/empower-reading-taking-a-scientific-approach-to-reading/

Brought to you by: SydneyG@Niagara University

Emotion Control Display Idea in the Classroom

I just wanted to share a cool idea I had come across on my first day of placement yesterday. I am in a grade 4 classroom and noticed this display my Associate Teacher had put up in the classroom about emotions. I have attached a similar picture I took off the internet along with my post. It used the characters from the Disney movie "Inside Out", which I'm sure most of you are familiar with. I found this interesting and eye captivating as an educator. 

This is a great resource to put up in your classroom to help those who have a hard time regulating their emotions. This display identifies the emotion that the child is feeling and also gives examples of how they can deal with it in school. I thought about writing about this because sometimes as adults, we are unsure on how to deal with our emotions or others. This is a display that will help children understand the different emotions and it's okay to be feeling the way you are. 

        

Would you include this in your "future classroom"? 

Courtesy of  VithushaT@NU

Team building activities for kids in your classroom!

As a primary grade student, I never enjoyed going to the first day of school, and I had difficulty sleeping every night before the first day of school. I would think about my school, who would be my teacher, my classmates, and so forth. But I remembered my grade three teacher playing icebreaker team-building activities with us, which helped me transition into my new classroom. So now I use my own experience and play team-building activities with my students on the first day of school and throughout the year!

I have played some of the activities from the link below, so if you want to have fun with your class, please check them out. There are various activities, including icebreakers and indoor and outdoor team-building activities. 

Here is the link to team-building activities:

https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/team-building-activities-for-kids/

Enjoy!

Brought to you by BijalS@NU

Different Styles of Learning

As a student who struggled in school as a visual learner, it's very important to me that I, as a future teacher, remember that every child learns in different ways and that it's essential to accommodate those learning styles as best we can. The first step is understanding what types of learning styles we are dealing with. According to the "VARK" Model, there are four main learning styles:

Visual Learners: learn best when they see and observe what is being taught through pictures, drawings, diagrams, etc. (Also known as spatial learners).

Auditory Learners: learn best by having the content verbalized to them. For example, they prefer listening to a lecture about a subject as opposed to reading about it in a text book. (Also known as aural learners).

Kinesthetic Learners: these learners prefer the use of their bodies by doing what is being taught like acting out information or being hands on. (Also known as tactile learning).

Reading/Writing Learners: learn best through the written word. They enjoy writing and reading content for information. 

https://www.verywellmind.com/vark-learning-styles-2795156 (VARK Model link)

If you are unsure which learning style you might fall under, there is a 16 question quiz through "VARK" linked below that will tell you which style best fits your learning needs. It's important to know which learning style we fall under because when we recognize our own identity and struggles in learning, it can shed some light on the journey that our students are on in education.

https://vark-learn.com (Quiz)

While researching this topic, I came across some websites with tips and tricks on how to best teach children from the 4 main styles of learning as well as other more specific learning styles outside of the "VARK" Model. Take a look at these links for more information!

https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/types-of-learning-styles/

https://virtualspeech.com/blog/teaching-strategies-different-learning-styles

https://aussiechildcarenetwork.com.au/articles/teaching-children/implementing-different-learning-styles-when-teaching-children

                             Courtesy of: Laura@NU OTECF

Teaching Strategies for ADHD!

This week, we really touched upon what ADHD is and ways to support students with ADHD. As a person who recently got diagnosed with ADHD, I was able to learn so much about it differently but really the main idea of what ADHD actually is. Since being diagnosed, I am still figuring out different strategies that work best while attending school. 

While going through this week's lectures, every time there was a characteristic that was explained, I would literally be nodding and constantly thinking "yup that's me! Definitely can relate to that!" or "oh really? I didn't know that or I didn't even realize that's something I do a lot!" As a student teacher, these strategies and tips would not only help the students but also for myself as well! I often forget that just because I know information on how to support students with ADHD, doesn't mean I can't use them!! 

So, I found an article that has a list of strategies that can help students with ADHD and how to implement these strategies in the classroom. I also found this classroom tips where it visually shows how to assist students who have ADHD. I hope to use these strategies/tips in the classroom and just to constantly remember that it's okay to use these strategies on myself in class!

 

https://www.additudemag.com/teaching-strategies-for-students-with-adhd/

Thanks for reading!!! FabiolaR@NU

Grade 2 Games to Play from Education.com Website

Oh my, these games are so much fun!! Love them.  The kids will never know they're actually learning to tell time, write paragraphs, find words, and so on and so on!! 

They make these games engaging, motivating and addictive.  Choose from 100+ games.

Check out the Grade 2 games for your kiddos: 

https://www.education.com/games/second-grade/

Once again, brought to you by Friends@NU

Students Desk Organization

As someone who struggled with organizational skills in elementary school, I have been looking for exciting yet motivating ways on how elementary children can stay organized with their school work and desk materials. Many pros contribute to students' organizational skills that can lead to future success not only in their academic life but also in their personal life. 

After scrolling through TikTok, I found an interesting video that shows how a teacher motivates students to keep their desks organized and clean. One thing that stood out to me was how entertaining and creative the teacher made the process of organizing. Using a stuffed animal called desk monkey, she placed it on a desk that was the best organized, indicating that this student's desk has a clean area to sit and complete work. She rewards students by placing the desk monkey on their desks to acknowledge their success in having an organized work area. This means that binders are appropriately placed with no excess or loose paper hanging out of the desk, and pencils and erasers are placed towards the front of the desk opening, which is easy to access. Writing and math folders are often located on the top, which is what students access the most. 

Another interesting finding was that when no student had a clean and organized desk, the teacher placed the monkey at the front of the classroom, with a message on the board indicating that there was no room for the monkey to sit. As shown in the screenshot of the TikTok, the board says, "Third grades! I couldn't find a place to sit! Please clean your desks <3 Desk Monkey". This type of classroom engagement is done in a creative way yet also teaches students a lesson on how to be organized. Having a well-organized structure sends a clear and positive message to students. 

As a future educator, I will use tips like the desk monkey to show the importance of organization and how it can produce productive work for students once they know their materials are organized. These types of classroom management tips help set the foundation of student responsibility. It teaches them to prioritize activities, set and achieve goals and increase productivity and efficiency. And most of all, it's entertaining for students! In the future, I hope to implement my ways to motivate students to become organized through interactive activities. 

Courtesy of: Alexia@NU-OTECF

Education.com: Games for Your Grade 1 Students to Play and Learn

Enjoy these games for your Grade 1 students.

So many games and just not enough days in a year.  Play and learn - what more can you ask for.

Have fun!

Visit this site for lots of great games to play:  https://www.education.com/games/first-grade/

Courtesy of Friends@NU

Inclusion in Classrooms; Students with Disabilities

After reading more and more about inclusion in classrooms thus far in my first year of teachers college, I have begun to envision ways, as a future educator, to incorporate and acknowledge different learning needs in a classroom setting. In my post-secondary years, my best friend struggled with a learning disability. When it came to reading, she struggled with the pronunciation of words and the understanding of verbal information. One day, during English class, our teacher decided that we go around and each re-aloud a portion of the book Romeo and Juliet. My friend immediately panicked and began to have anxiety as she counted the students until it was her turn. She felt anxious that she wouldn't be able to pronounce certain words out loud and other students would make fun of her. She also didn't want students to know she had a learning disability.

When it came to her turn, she got flustered and felt under pressure by the teacher to read something she felt uncomfortable reading out loud. She trembled with her words and felt frustrated that she couldn't read at the same level as all her other classmates.

I quickly connected with this week's reading on Chapter 4, "Learner Differences and Learning Needs." The section on Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities talks about a critical aspect of how students feel when their disabilities are unacknowledged. The importance of helping students understand their disabilities acknowledges their differences, and makes them part of their classroom community. When educators don't help students understand their disabilities, students become victims of learned helplessness. When students' needs are not acknowledged, they begin to believe that they can't control or improve their learning, so they eventually remain passive and helpless in the classroom. This is how my best friend felt when the teacher didn't acknowledge her learning disability. As a future educator, I will engage in team teaching within groups to eliminate these negative ways of teaching students with learning disabilities. Hence, if students feel uncomfortable with reading out loud to a whole class, they have the option of reading with a confined group of peers. Collaboration is not always easy, but I believe it's worth it for both students and teachers. 

Courtesy of Alexia @NU OTECF

Starfall

While working with the primary age level as an Early Childhood Educator, I often found it challenging to keep some students engaged with their curriculum activities. As an educator, I understand that children have different learning styles, and not all children can learn by sitting at a desk and completing worksheets. This motivated me to find a new educational resource to help draw the children's attention in my classroom and keep them engaged. Through much research, I found a website called Starfall, which turned out to be a success within my practice as the children enjoyed using it.

Starfall is an educational website that caters to children from kindergarten to grade three. They are a non-profitable organization that provides free to affordable educational game experiences for children. The goal of Starfall is to provide a positive environment where children learn by having fun! On this website, there are many educational games and activities that are based on the different age-level curriculum expectations. Starfall attracts each child's attention by providing them with fun and exciting games focusing on math, language, art, and music. The creators of this website believe that children should be provided with experience that allows them to explore and play. When children participate in these types of experiences it will allow them to become confident and successful learners. Thinking back to when I was in school, I remember how boring learning fractions was in the classroom. On Starfall, children learn about fractions in a fun way by splitting up pizzas and other foods into different pieces. By making lessons visually appealing to children it can help them gain the motivation that makes them want to learn. 

 

Reference link:

https://www.starfall.com/h/index-grades123.php

 

Selina@NU