Blog about blogging

Blogging is a great way to keep parents informed. A classroom blog can provide links to resources, updates on class or school activities or just good information to have. Having current and updated information is important. Blogging could be a good activity for students as well since it provides a place for them to keep important information that is accessible from any computer. 

Blogs are only as valuable as the information contained in them. Also, people need a reason to visit your blog. A teacher should keep this in mind before putting a lot of time into developing a resource. You need to equally identify a way to attract visitors to your blog. 

Teaching teens

Teens lack adult reasoning capacity. A teen student should be accountable; however, they require some leniency as they are learning to develop skills like responsibility. It is natural for teens to push away from adults as they seek their independence, this probably also translates to pushing away from teachers. Being obsessed with social relationships, trouble with sleep rhythms and being easily distracted by novelty are also typically seen in teen students.  Students should be expected to stay awake during class, but the teacher might be able to better work with a student whey they understand about changing sleep rhythms.

Math and Music

The information about music and math are both very useful to a teacher.  Just like all aspects of learning, support from the family in early childhood is very important for learning math skills. Children who play board games and practice skills like estimating will likely have a greater chance of success at school. Making math understandable, rather than rote memorization, will also provide a benefit to students. The concept that we give children calculators was a controversial idea brought up in our lesson, but perhaps having this tool available could be helpful for students who could be moving on to more complex concepts but struggle with the memorization. 

While Mozart will not make you smarter, it can have other benefits. There is research based data that shows that students could do better on exams after listening to something upbeat and pleasing to them. There is also a correlation between music and math fluency. It's possible that music helps improve math activation or it might be that people with high levels of brain activation in math make good musicians. Regardless of the reason, music can provide enjoyment, spark creativity and introduce other cultures to the listener. 

Language and Reading

The videos on Language and Reading provided great information about brain development in children.  As a future elementary school teacher, it's interesting to see how much brain development happens before the child arrives in the classroom. You have to hope that the children received good care from their parents/caregivers in the early years to give them the best possible opportunities in school.While some sensitive periods will have passed by the time they reach the classroom, the brain remains plastic.  The teacher must work with children of all levels of language development to help the students reach their potential. 

Relational Teachers

A relational teacher is one who can connect with students. There are many people who are absolutely brilliant in their field, but if they cannot engage and reach the students, they will not be effective teachers. As a teacher, I plan to engage my students by getting to know about them, using their name, finding out what motivates them. I will also try to structure my lessons in a way that each student feels like they have a valuable role to play.  There is also a lot of power in praise for job well done or recognition of an accomplishment.

EDU270 STEM Exercise in Learning

Exercises in learning are no different from drills in sports. These activities reinforce skills that have already been taught and help fine-tune understanding.

Beach Ball Elements
In a STEM-focused environment you might want to keep the first 20 elements on the Periodic Table fresh in the minds of the students. For this activity, you would take a beach ball and write the numbers 1 - 20 randomly around the ball. The students would take turns tossing each other the ball and calling out a finger (ie - right thumb) as the student catches it. Whatever number is written closest to the finger called will be the element number the student will have to identify. This could be made harder by asking the student to not only identify the element, but also the symbol or atomic mass. This incorporates movement which helps with memory formation as well.

EDU270 STEM Educational Neuroscience

Educational Neuroscience is an emerging field which aims to provide a bridge between understanding the physical/chemical/electrical functioning of the brain to education. There are many challenges facing today's students that might be helped by additional understanding of how the brain works. Specifically in the cases of ADHD, dyslexia and other areas of learning disabilities, it would be great to understand if there is a specific cause that can be addressed.

The National Institute of Health says that Neuroscience education is important because of it's role in identifying and treating health and disease, it's ability to apply the science of learning in classrooms and the natural curiosity about ourselves and our minds.

Educational Neuroscience is important to STEM teachers because it will help to reinforce the importance of brain plasticity and how various techniques can support good brain development. 

http://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/k-12_edu.htm

"Attention" and "Emotions and Learning"

The information contained in the videos Attention, and Emotions and Learning will help me as a teacher in several ways. First, understanding the difference between normal attention difficulties and disorders like ADHD will help keep behaviors in perspective. I think that keeping an open line of communication with the parent is very important as well. Regarding emotional development, it is very important for the teacher to provide a stable, kind environment in the classroom. Even if a child has a stressful situation at home, at least they will have a nurturing environment at home. 

EDU270 STEM Optimal Learning Stages

Acquisition is one of the stages for optimal learning. Connections are strongest when they are both novel and multi-sensory. In my experience as a First Lego League coach, I've seen the excitement that is added when you add Legos to a lesson. There are many Lego math lessons but I particularly like this one about fractions. Legos are brightly colored, tangible and certainly a fun and novel way to learn about math.

Math lesson: Fractions with Legos

Lego Fractions Worksheet

Lesson 2 Discussion - Hearing and Vision

As a teacher, learning to identify signs of vision or hearing issues will be important. Early identification of issues are especially important in the years of early childhood when these senses are developing and making important connections in the brain.

In order for lessons to be successful, the student must be able to understand what is being taught. This includes being able to see visuals and hear verbal instructions.  There are tests for both vision and hearing that are administered by health professionals and various treatments that can be applied to help the student. As a teacher, I can adjust my method of teaching to best meet the needs of my students.  The classroom should be visually stimulating and there shouldn't be any loud or distracting noises that might detract from learning. 

Lesson 1 Discussion

After watching the videos on brain architecture, plasticity, and understanding the impact of the environment on a child, how does this information impact you as a teacher?

Gaining information about how the developing brain of a child works is important for a teacher to understand. Being armed with this knowledge, teachers can strive to tailor their lesson plans to work with how the brain already functions, rather than to work in a way that would cause stress or frustration for the student.  This information impacts me because, as a teacher, my students will be better served by the fact that I understand these concepts and will implement strong, research based curriculum in my classroom.  I also think that it is a benefit to understand that a 10 year old child has been formed by their experiences. I can not go back in time to fix any negative experiences in their early development, but I can do my best to give the child a positive experience which will serve as the foundation for future achievements.