SAT

 As soon as i met these students I fell in love with them. Even though I only taught them for a month but it was a month I honestly enjoyed. I got the chance to teach them SAT, something I was familiar with since I had recently done it. 

 As soon as they found out I had done it, they began asking me all types of questions; wanting advise from me. You see their former teacher hadn't taken SAT so she hadn't any idea of what it feels like to actually experience it. She didn't have any idea of some tips that can come in handy on while taking that exam.

That's when it hit me, sometimes our students 

need teachers who have actually been through the things they are going through. 

They need to know that we have also been through these same things and made it out alive. I was so happy to give them all the tips, advise and help i could think of. They listened attentively and absorbed everything so eagerly. 

How to create a positive atmosphere in class?

A positive classroom atmosphere is essential for students to learn and develop. Research shows that a positive atmosphere increases student academic achievements and leads to increased self-esteem. Creating a positive classroom atmosphere takes effort on the part of the teacher and students. By setting a positive example for your students and using positive reinforcement to promote positive behavior, you can turn your classroom into a positive learning environment.


Always be positive. 

The most important tool in creating a positive classroom atmosphere is for the teacher to be a positive role model. Being positive doesn’t mean being happy all of the time. Rather, being positive means approaching every issue with a positive, constructive attitude.
There are little ways to be positive, such as smiling in the morning when your students arrive.
You should also be positive when difficult issues arise. For example, if a scary news story comes up in class, talk about things the students can do to help. Or discuss how it’s okay to be sad and no one should be looked down upon for expressing their emotions in a healthy way.

Model good social skills. 

Your students will mimic the behavior that you display. If you react with anger when a student misbehaves, your students will think this is the right way to respond to frustration and they will do the same. On the other hand, if you display self-control in the face of frustration, your students will do the same.
Important positive social skills include empathy, tolerance, patience, and effective communication.
As an example of good communication and patience, if a student is disrupting the class, don’t ignore the student and then suddenly lash out with anger. Instead, calmly ask the student to respect the class’s time. If the student continues to be disruptive, tell them that you need to send them to the office and you’ll be down later so the two of you can discuss the problem.
You can also praise students when they display good social skills and point out their behavior as a model for the rest of the class.

Use strong role models. 

Integrate role models from the community into your classroom. The more role models from different walks of life your students see, the more they will feel that a good attitude can apply to any situation.
For example, bring in a policewoman or fireman from the community and have them discuss how they approach the difficult aspects of their jobs with a positive attitude.

Putting back values in Education!

While technological advances are wont to throw up all kinds of questions about pedagogical practices and the evolution of the learning environment, the role of values in education gets far less attention. This seems strange, given that developing a basic set of values has always been a cornerstone of a students’ education.

So what kinds of values should teachers help students to develop, and how can they do so without coming across as preachers more than they do educators?

To decide, an educator would first need to consider context: students now live in a fully globalized world in which more people than ever are connected via the web. One of the significant results of this greater communication and access to advanced technology is the deluge of information we receive – news, entertainment, opinions, advertisements and so on. How are young minds to cope with all this stimulation? Are they properly equipped to cope with it at all?

Values in education can help ensure that they are.

Even though the world changes rapidly, the values that students need to develop are actually not really much different to those that were taught in bygone generations. It is just the application of those values in education that has changed.

Showing respect to others, for instance, or caring for the environment are just as important as they ever were – and maybe even more so – but they are now applicable in a variety of new ways. For example:
Teaching students to be respectful of others can now be applied to their behavior online as well as off-line. Students should understand the importance of acting responsibly and respectfully when using forums, social media, or mobile devices.
Similarly, good citizenship can now be equally applied to practicing good digital citizenship, whereby students learn to avoid the misuse of information or to acknowledge and respect others’ right to peace and privacy.
Showing tolerance and understanding to those less fortunate. The escalating refugee crises is challenging both communities and schools to integrate people in a respectful and sustainable way. School is the ideal place to start teaching the correct values towards refugees and develop understanding of different cultures around the world.

Webinar!

Resolving Tough Individual Student Behavior Challenges with Prevent Teach-Reinforce (PTR) by Dr. Rose  Ph.D BCBA. 

 The title of this Webinar speaks for itself. It basically teaches teachers how to handle students presenting bad behavior in classrooms in a more effective way. Effective meaning that this disciplinary practice teachers will use is intended on making the outcome a more routinely behavior. In other words, Dr. Rose is trying to create a system in which misbehaving students will learn how to stop their wrong behavior by following a routine. Once teachers sense that a student is going to being misbehaving they can begin to follow the stepped procedure they have set for the student in order to prevent the behavior from escalating to the extreme. Dr. Rose also states that each misbehavior is dealt with in different measures. Each misbehavior has to have its own plan, execution and time to be worked on. For students with multiple misbehaviors, teachers should state them all and assess which one is most important to be dealt with first according to severity or necessity. 

The program consists of 4 steps. 


⇒Step 1: teaming Purpose: Members (desired)
Evaluate strengths and weaknesses of team functioning. 
Outline roles and responsibilities. 
Determine a consensus-making process. 
Members (desired)Person with knowledge of student (e.g., Classroom teacher, parent, related service provider, paraeducator,).
Someone with expertise in functional assessment, behavioral principles (school psychologist, behavior specialist, counselor, etc.). 
Someone with knowledge of context/resources.

⇒Step 2: Goal Setting Purpose: Targeted Areas:
Identify behaviors of greatest concern to the team and possible replacement behaviors (teach).
Prioritize and operationalize behaviors.
Develop teacher friendly baseline data collection system.
Targeted Areas:Problem behaviors.
Social skillsAcademic behaviors.
Tools Goal-Setting Form

⇒Step 3: PTR Assessment
Each team member independently answers a series of questions (5+ pages for EACH target) related to:
Observed antecedents/triggers of problem behaviors.
Functions of the problem behaviors.
Consequences ordinarily associated with the problem behaviors.
PTR facilitator summarizes input and develops draft hypothesis- based on patterns of response.
Team reaches consensus.
Tools Functional Behavior Assessment Checklist.
Functional Behavior Assessment Summary Table

⇒Step 4: Behavior Support Plan
Team selects supports/interventions from each component (P-T-R).
Detailed behavior plan developed.
PTR Facilitator provides training and assistance with plan implementationImplementation fidelity evaluated.
Tools: Intervention ChecklistIntervention Scoring Table.
Behavior Intervention Plan Hypothesis.
Behavior Intervention Plan

Multiple Intelligences!

Using the PeshaKusha in class helped us recollect a lot of information we took during our undergraduate years. My group was responsible for multiple intelligences. As teachers we need to keep these type of intelligences in mind whenever we plan our lessons.

How to Teach or Learn Anything 8 Different Ways:

One of the most remarkable features of the theory of multiple intelligences is how it provides eight different potential pathways to learning. If a teacher is having difficulty reaching a student in the more traditional linguistic or logical ways of instruction, the theory of multiple intelligences suggests several other ways in which the material might be presented to facilitate effective learning. Whether you are a kindergarten teacher, a graduate school instructor, or an adult learner seeking better ways of pursuing self-study on any subject of interest, the same basic guidelines apply. Whatever you are teaching or learning, see how you might connect it with:

• words (linguistic intelligence) 
• numbers or logic (logical-mathematical intelligence) 
• pictures (spatial intelligence) 
• music (musical intelligence) 
• self-reflection (intrapersonal intelligence) 
• a physical experience (bodily-kinesthetic intelligence) 
• a social experience (interpersonal intelligence), and/or 
• an experience in the natural world. (naturalist intelligence)

Of course there are many other factors that a teacher must consider but knowing a teacher's own students abilities and strengths is a key factor for a successful lesson plan.

Debate!

During this semester, the most memorable experience I'll cherish is the debate we had during our Philosophy course with Dr. Wassim Abou Yassine. 

As a judge, I had to be neutral towards both parties. I had to take all the perspectives and information my fellow classmates were presenting and try to decide who had convinced me more with their arguments. 

Are you with tablets or books? Now at the beginning we think of this question at a personal level. I mean I thought about it concerning my beliefs. I'm the type of person who would do anything to sit down, drink Nescafe, hold a book and get lost in it. But then again, as a future  teacher, the arguments presented by my classmates arguing for tablets had me think twice about my beliefs. The facts they showcased about the E-ink and how it is harmless for students to use, the cheap prices of tablets available nowadays like Kindle, the heavy back packs students will give up if they use tablets at school, how easy it would be to use them for students and how much they'll enjoy it. The opposing team did try strike back at these arguments but their counterstrikes were faulty and lacked the statistics the other team presented. They talked about things that can be easily fixed if tablets were to be used like not being able to track what page the teacher is working on, the harm it causes and how expensive they are. 

If we think about it, we are living in an era that it heavily driven by technology. Sooner or later we have to give in to the fact that electronics and technology will take over. So why not try to make something that is inevitable to happen better instead of dwelling on it. 

Bedtime Story!

A few days ago, I was at the mall. I decided to hit the toy store and check for some bedtime story books for my daughter Yasmine. The only story I could get my hands on was about a little mouse who found things she had been missing after she decided to tidy up her house. I had asked the worker to wrap it up as a gift. As soon as we got home, my husband and I, gave Yasmine the present and she was ecstatic! She opened it up so fast we all started laughing. As soon as she say it was a book she said "wow bedtime story!". From that instant she wouldn't stop crying she wanted to go to sleep just so we could read the story together.

My point behind this story is that we as parents should manifest the love of reading in our young ones as early as possible. Reading knows no age. The younger we start with our kids the stronger the love of reading becomes. The more they read for the joy of it instead of being forced to read like most kids these days are. We all know reading is what builds the language fluency and accuracy. It's through reading that students become better at a language. 

Speaking from my own experience, I loooooove reading! It's a way I escape all the stress of life and just have some peace to myself. I hope to pass this on to my own daughter and students in the future. If we allow kids to taste the joy of reading a book, we'll be giving them a treasure to hold on to a lifetime.