Journaling for Educators

(Now that summer is here, it is time for me to discuss different educational topics alphabetically. Please join in the conversation and tell me what you think!)

Journaling is a powerful tool for self-reflection and personal growth. It can be especially beneficial for educators, who often face high levels of stress and burnout. I have been journaling for years and it really helps me clarify my thoughts and develop a teaching philosophy. Journaling can help teachers to:

• Process their thoughts and feelings: Journaling can be a safe and confidential space for teachers to express their thoughts and feelings about their work, their students, and their personal lives. This can help them to better understand their own emotions and to develop more effective coping mechanisms.
• Reflect on their practice: Journaling can help teachers to reflect on their teaching practices and to identify areas for improvement. This can lead to more effective teaching and learning for their students.
• Set goals and track their progress: Journaling can be a helpful tool for setting goals and tracking progress. This can help teachers to stay motivated and to achieve their professional goals.
• Glean insights and inspiration: Journaling can help teachers to gain insights into their own teaching and to find inspiration for new ideas. This can lead to more engaging and effective lessons for their students.

If you are an educator, I encourage you to give journaling a try. It is a simple and effective way to improve your professional and personal well-being.

Here are some tips for journaling as an educator:

• Find a quiet time and place to journal. You will need to find a time and place where you will not be interrupted. This could be first thing in the morning, during your lunch break, or before bed.
• Set aside some time each day to journal. Even if it is just for 10 minutes, try to journal on a regular basis. This will help you to develop a habit and to see the benefits of journaling over time.
• Be honest with yourself in your journal. Journaling is a safe place to express your true thoughts and feelings. Don't be afraid to be honest with yourself, even if it is difficult.
• Don't worry about grammar or spelling. The most important thing is to get your thoughts and feelings down on paper. Don't worry about grammar or spelling.
• Experiment with different types of journaling. There are many different ways to journal. You can write in a traditional journal, or you can try other forms of journaling, such as freewriting, brainstorming, or drawing.
• Have fun with journaling! Journaling should be enjoyable. If you are not having fun, you are less likely to stick with it. So, find a way to make journaling fun for you.

I hope these tips help you to get started with journaling as an educator. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Do you journal? Please share your web address so I can follow you. 

Trying New Things

In Three more questions from Seth Godin's Blog, Seth Godin suggests,

“If you’re actually proposing something thoughtful and practical, perhaps you could answer three questions:

1. And then what happens?...
2. How will that work? …
3. Why?...”

It seems like at the start of every school year, a new program or strategy is introduced to the faculty. It gets everyone excited and may involve lots of training and changes which can be very time-consuming. Then, as the year continues, people get busy or overwhelmed and these new things fall by the wayside. It seems like such a waste of time, money, and energy.

Maybe someone should ask these three questions before introducing it to a group of people. It seems like if more time was taken to think things through rather than just jumping in with both feet with excitement to try this, new programs or strategies would be more successful.

I confess that when I see something new, I get all excited and want to jump in to try this. Luckily I have a husband that will slow me down and try to discuss things first. He is the type that will ask those three questions (and probably more). He is the reason that I didn’t buy an iguana for the class to keep as a pet (thank goodness).

It feels like when something new is introduced, the group should stop and ask these questions. Then everyone should take some time to think about the answers before making any decisions. I also feel like all the stakeholders should have some say in this since it will affect everyone.

What other questions would you ask? Please share.

Smithsonian Learning Lab Webinars

I found out about three free webinars that people may be interested in and since they are coming up, I decided to devote a single post to the events. You can read more about them in Richard Byrne’s post here. They are going to be live-streamed on YouTube and you don’t have to preregister for them.

Here are the days and times they are scheduled:

Getting Started: Digital Museum Resources and the Smithsonian Learning Lab - January 13th at 4pm ET

Cultivating Learning: Deconstructing Text with Critical Reading - January 20th at 5pm ET

Creating Collections: Digital Museum Resources and the Smithsonian Learning Lab - January 24th at 5pm ET

I look forward to attending these webinars!

East Asian Women Leaders in Educational Technology

In What I’ve been up to: Silver Lining for Learning by Dangerously Irrelevant, Scott McLeod, shares about the Silver Lining for Learning initiative and lists Year 1 episodes that are available on YouTube. He explains,

“The initiative was meant to highlight interesting technology-enabled learning around the world and to spark some discussions about schooling possibilities during the pandemic and afterward.”

Over the past year, I have been going to the Silver Lining for Learning website where the episodes are listed or you can go to their YouTube channel and subscribe. You can also attend the live YouTube meetings.

“Silver Lining for Learning is an ongoing conversation on the future of learning with educators and education leaders from across the globe. Hosted by Chris Dede, Curt Bonk, Shuangye Chen, Punya Mishra & Yong Zhao, these conversations began under the “dark cloud” of the COVID19 crisis and continue today. We see these conversations as space to discuss the creation of equitable, humanistic and sustainable learning ecosystems that meet the needs of all learners. These conversations are hosted live on YouTube every Saturday (typically 5:30 PM Eastern US time) and are archived on this website.”

I thought since violence against Asians has been in the news along with this past month being National Women’s Month, I would share a recent episode about East Asian Women Leaders.

Episode 52 | Reaching Out and Reaching In | East Asian Women Leaders in Educational Technology

They explain the episode as:

“This episode will explore the recent projects and initiatives of three East Asian educational technology leaders, Insung Jung, Ok-hwa Lee, and Meifeng Liu, within their home countries of Japan, Korea, and China as well as their work around the globe. What have they each done during the past few years? What have they each discovered? And where will they go next? This session will also highlight what the governments in Japan, Korea, and China have been targeting since they start of the pandemic and the associated successes and failures. What insights do these prominent woman leaders have for the world community as well as for young female scholars in the field of educational technology and distance education?”

It is a fantastic episode and very interesting. I hope you take the time to check it out.

Parents or Practitioners

A few weeks ago I attended a free seminar on Parents or Practitioners that was excellent and I wanted to share the information with you. 

“Webinar 1: Parents or Practitioners? 

Clarifying responsibilities of caretakers and practitioners of students with disabilities in remote learning environments 

Questions addressed: 

1. What does IDEA say about the role of parents or caretakers should have in their child's education? 
2. Have there been hearing decisions related to the role of parents or caretakers in remote and online learning environments? 
3. What does research say about how parents or caretakers support their child with a disability in remote and online learning environments? 
4. What are the differences between the duties of a special education teacher and parent or caretaker in remote learning environments?” 

Handout 

FAQ 

If you have the time, please look over these materials. They give such great information and may help you in your remote classroom.

Making Professional Development Better

In Bad PD is Sometimes Your Own Fault from  Ideas and Thoughts, shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) asks,

“What examples do you have of being able to turn a bad or perhaps seemingly irrelevant PD session and finding value for yourself?”

I believe that some professional development sessions are better than others. Not all professional development needs to be a waste of time, even if it is boring. I can always learn something new, no matter what.

Before the session, I remind myself that I can’t learn everything about a topic in the time allotted. I need to list things down during the session that I would like to explore further.

During the session, if the presentation isn’t meeting my needs, write down questions that can steer it to my needs. How can this information be used with my students? How can it help me in the classroom? By making it more personal, it can help me have a different perspective. If I can’t figure out the answers to this question, try asking the presenter to help answer the questions.

After the session, think about how I actively use the information to make my teaching better.

If I go into the session thinking it is a waste of my time, it will feel like it no matter what the presenter says or does. The same goes for my own lesson and students. When I teach, I need to figure out a way to show the learning is relevant to my students.

I would like to teach my students to ask the questions they need to ask in order to make their learning more relevant. They need to learn to ask these questions of the teacher if necessary without it sounding disrespectful.

How do you turn a boring PD session into something meaningful to you? Please share.

Converge Autism 2017 Conference Day 2

Click here for pictures.

Yesterday’s post was about day 1 at the Converge Autism Conference hosted by Springbrook Behavioral Health. Today was the second day and it was just as awesome! I was happy to see that there were some teachers in attendance.

There are also 4 blog posts on the Springbrook Behavioral Health site that are worth checking out:

Activities That Build Oral Motor Skills

Using Deep Pressure Stimulation to Improve Sensory Processing

Enhance Sensory Processing Skills With At Home Vestibular Activities

Activities That Support Sensory Integration for Children with Autism

The first session of the day was Autism Spectrum Disorders with Dr. Fisher.

1.     Dr. Fisher likes the definition of Autism under DSM4.

2.     Autism Spectrum Disorders covers Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder, Childhood Disintegration Disorder, Retts Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) – not otherwise specified.

3.     DSM5 has taken out Aspergers and PDD

4.     Affects mostly boys; 5-1 ratio

5.     3 Primary areas of Impairment: social deficits, communication problems, repetitive behavior

6.     Other frequent findings in ASD: Obsessive compulsive/repetitive behaviors, Visual/Concret learners, hypersensitivity to stimuli

7.     Brain Abnormalities in ASD

a.      increased head circumference between 6 and 9 months of age due to an increase in overall brain mess

b.     As you grow, brain “prunes” dendrites, but autistic patients have less “pruning.”

c.     More pruning, the more efficient your brain gets (walking through the park vs. the jungle)

8.     Causes of Autism

a.     No single cause of autism

b.     Symptoms due to an abnormality in the brain

c.     Research indicates a genetic/hereditary lik to the disorder

d.     Some research points to a trigger

e.     Similar to a Two-hit hypothesis of cancer and other disorders

9.     Medicine

a.     It works

b.     SSRIs – anxiety medicine

c.     Atypical Antipsychotics

d.     Anti-seizure medications

e.     ADHD meds – makes anxiety worse.

10.  Resources

a.     SC Autism Society

b.     Autism Society of America

c.     Youtube Video – The Womean Who Thinks Like a Cow

The next session I attended was Autism Spectrum Disorder, Treatment Strategies and Understanding Love Languages with Jennifer Ammacher.

1.     You can never love too much.

2.     Keep your love language tank full.

3.     Natural instinct to touch things.

4.     The 5 Love Languages by Gary D. Chapman.

5.     Physical Touch such as sit close together, pat back/shoulder, play Twister, sing a song, hold hands, help with hand over hand assistance, dance, side hugs, high fives, apply lotion

6.     Physical Touch for parents: hugs and kisses, comb hair, stroke head or back, ask if they want to be held or cuddled, bear hugs, hug them after applying discipline, tickling, hold a special toy, family group hug, hold on your lap

7.     Words of Affirmation

a.     powerful way to communicate

b.     Affection, praise, encouragement, guidance

c.     Nurtures child’s self-worth and security.

d.     Teach children to develop positive self help.

8.     You can change your world by changing your words. Remember death and life are in the power of the tongue. – Joel Osteen

9.     Words of Affirmation in school

a.     Verbally affirm their actions

b.     Cards and notes

10.  Words of Affirmation at home

a.     record your feelings of love for your child to listen to when you are absent

b.     talk about their accomplishments

c.     lunch box notes

d.     encouragement jar

e.     notes/emails/cards each day when you are gone

11.  Quality Time

a.     Giving undivided attention

b.     Focused attention = feelings of love

c.     Time spent together = loving memories

12.  Quality Time in School

a.     Being a reliable presence

b.     Undivided attention

c.     Allow “wait time.”

d.     Share thoughts and feelings         

e.     Follow their lead

13.  Quality Time at Home

a.     Daily chores together (modeling)

b.     Pleasant loving eye contact

c.     Cook and eat together

14.  Acts of Service

a.     Perform a service the child views as valuable

b.     Modeling love when we do for others

15.  Acts of Service in School

a.     Show hospitality

b.     Fix a toy

c.     Practice a favorite skill

d.     Provide stickers they like

16.  Acts of Service at Home

a.     Tying their shoes

b.     Perform daily duties with a loving heart

c.     Show charitable acts to others

d.     Select one specific act to do daily

17.  Gifts

a.     Undeserved gift as payment

b.     More than just a tangible object

18.  Gifts in School

a.     Cards with pictures

b.     Stickers

c.     Wishing stone

d.     Materials to make a gift

e.     Arts and crafts

f.      Friendship bracelet

19.  Gifts at Home

a.     Special presentation

b.     Small gifts

c.     Personalized gifts

d.     Song or letter

e.     Scavenger hunt

20.  Quiz – http://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile

21.  The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell

After lunch (which was provided for us), I attended Dr. Killion’s session on The 4 T’s: Tantrums, Timeout, Toileting, and Talking.

1.     Choice vs. orders – best technique to prevent a tantrum.

2.     First protect from harm by any means.

3.     Consistent warning is followed through

4.     Time out is most misused strategy

5.     Time out pad – symbol of time out

6.     Show no emotion when putting in time out – no explanations or lecture

7.     Gentle persistence – same way every time

8.     Take away from something that is good

9.     First –Then is better than If-Then

10.  Keep sentences short

11.  Toileting – Task analysis

12.  Talking – task analysis

The last session we attended was I Want to Move It Move It with Jeffery Cohn.

1.     He shows a lot of tools to use for movement such as a scooter, jumping stones, bean bags, bouncing ball, stomp rocket, hula hoop, and isometrics. You can sing songs and have them add different movements.

2.     Gross Motor Bingo

3.     Hula Hoop Circle

Converge Autism Conference 2017 Day 1

For pictures, click here.

Last week I attended a two day conference on autism hosted by Springbrook Behavioral Health. This was their first annual conference and it was a big hit! There was quality sessions by qualified speakers and the conference was well attended! I was so glad I went and I look forward to attending this next year. I hope after you read about the sessions that I attended and things that I learned, you will think about attending this conference next year if you live in the area. The facility where it took place was very comfortable easily accessible.

The first keynote was by Dr. Killion on Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis. Dr. Killion is the author of The Functional Independence Skills Handbook (or FISH) Developmental Program.

1.     Autism was not clearly identified as a developmental disability until 1943.

2.     A person with autism demonstrates the ABCs:

·      Asocial behavior -  may not want cuddling, difficulty interacting with others, may prefer to be alone, may avoid eye contact. Asocial is not antisocial.

·      Behavior – burst of aggression, noncompliance, stereotypic behavior (don’t try to stop it because they need it to feel normal)

·      Communication  impairments

3.     Autism doesn’t occur randomly.

4.     Transition – give cues at least 5 min. before and then 1 min. before.

5.     Literal – be careful about using idioms (shrimp on the Barbie, cat out of the bag).

6.     Keep it visual.

7.     Keep a consistent schedule.

8.     Use Task analysis.

9.     When speaking:Keep sentences short.

10.  Don’t repeat until after 30 seconds.

11.  Use concrete words.

12.  Use gestures with your speech.

13.  Communicate – point to a picture if necessary or use sign language.

14.  Antecedent Control – changing things that may lead to problems.

15.  Affect – your impact on the environment and the environments impact on you.

16.  Learn a lot from giving a touch on the shoulder. Some with autism may find it offensive.

17.  All behavior has function!

18.  3 reasons for behavior: get something, avoid something, or sensory stability.

19.  Postive reinforcers – things the person likes

20.  Negative reinforcers – take away things the person likes; doesn’t last, temporary change

21.  Punishment – doesn’t work

22.  Schedules of reinforcement –

·      ratio (given per number of correct responses)

·      interval (given for periods of time where something does or does not happen)

·      fixed (given for an identified number of suceses)

·      variable (given in a random way for an average number of times) – most powerful

23.  Sometimes the moment has to pass before we can address it.

24.  Bribes vs. operant conditioning – insuring the act and not the reward is the motivator (reward after the appropriate behavior and not before)

25.  Threats – say what you mean and mean what you say.

26.  Choice vs. orders – most directives can have a negotiable part along with the non-negotiable.

27.  LEAF – listen, empathize, act, follow up

The second Keynote was by Jeffery Cohn on Finding Exceptional Abilities Not Disabilities.

1.     Many people on the Autism Spectrum have difficulty managing sensory input.    

2.     Auditory problems – may be due to improperly functioning stapedius , which is the middle ear muscle that contracts in response to loud noise. When it isn’t working, sounds may seem louder.

3.     How to help a child prior to being overloaded to avoid shutdown

·      Modulate room sounds and voice tones.

·      Create sensory space for calming and organizing thought.

·      Give time for response when asking questions.

·      Reduce white noise in room.

·      Use more visual prompts over verbal.

4.     Lights (blue and green on the walls to calm people.

5.     Squeeze ball under chin to help stress

During lunch (which was provided), there was a panel discussion and the audience was able to ask questions. I found this was very informative and educational.

After lunch, there were 2 breakout sessions and I chose Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP): Both Behavioral and Mental Health Models by Melanie Watt.

1.     Hope Remains Ranch

2.     Horses can sense a person’s heartbeat.

3.     Horses have fight or flight so if someone is acting up, the horse will move away.

4.     They will be having an open house where you can demos and take a tour.

The last session of the day was by Dr. Janice Young on “Do You Know What I Know? An Insider’s Guide to Meeting the Needs of Students with Special Needs.”

1.     13 disability categories under IDEA

2.     Progress monitoring – MAPS, Woodcock Johnson, DIBELS, Easy CBM (www.easycbm.com)

3.     RTI

4.     IEPs

5.     Differentiated Instruction

6.     Instruction: Presentation (how is it being taught), Process (how students will learn), Product (how students will demonstrate what they learned).