Technology and Behaviorism

Often times when students get their tests back in my class, they are surprised at their scores. Usually it is not in a good way. They expect to do a lot better than they did on the test, and as they are grumbling about their grades, I ask them, “How much did you study?” I usually get the response of “a lot,” which after some discussion usually ends up totaling around 5 minutes. I had only imagined that I could arrange it so that I could graph their effort and their scores to show them the correlation. After reading the section on Mrs. Powell’s math class, I feel inspired to follow her strategy. In order to show this correlation, she had her students graph their effort and their grades to visually display their effort and their scores to find the relationship. Ultimately, most of her students saw, by creating this excel file, that the more effort they put into their work, the better they did in the class. (Pitler et al., p. 156 -157, 2007). As a teacher of seventh graders, this is a concept most of them do not realize. I often see them expecting “A’s and B’s” but are frustrated and confused why they did not get them. By doing this, students should be motivated to work.

Another way that behaviorism is enforced in education is by utilizing technology both in and out of the classroom. By using tools such as a wiki, students can work on building a project outside of class, which promotes team collaboration, critical thinking skills, and also reinforces the content discussed in class. “Technology facilitates homework and practice by providing a wealth of resources for learning outside of the classroom making it easy to work on collaborative homework assignments and providing drill and practice…” (Pitler, et al, p. 189, 2007). When students were to learn about biomes this past semester, I had my students use wikispaces.com to create interactive presentations about each biome that they could then references for later assignments. They created amazing projects, and really enjoyed working on them. This was intended to be an in-class assignment, but my students took it upon themselves the first night to work on the projects outside of class. It worked out extremely well, and the students were quite motivated to do their work.

As we continue to move through technology age, students will have access to a great amount of technology, and in order to utilize it as an effective tool, teachers must be creative and design lessons that allow students to use it within the classroom. From my experiences, any time a student has access to technology in school, they jump at the chance, and ultimately use it as an incentive for learning the content. This idea, which is very simple in reason, is the primary belief behind behaviorism, which is an effective process in the classroom.

References:

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Random Thoughts

People say "The short weeks are the longest."  I agree with that totally.  Although it was not a horrible week, it seemed like it would never end.  I did realize quite a few things this week that I am glad that I did, which ultimately put a great deal of my life into perspective.  

I am coaching the baseball team at the middle school for the again, which brings about an entirely new sense of worth in the school.  I coached it my first year with a bunch of people, and although I was paid as the assistant coach, all I really did was keep the scorebook.  The two people in charge did not care that out of the four of us, I was the only one who actually played baseball outside of high school.  After spending two years as head coach on the JV team and not being able to have a team this year due to lack of players, it is nice to get back to the basics, and teach the team how to play the right way.  I watched the Varsity team play this past week, and I realized why I dreaded the high school season.  Not so much for the sport, but rather for dealing with the parents and the head coach of the varsity squad.  To be honest, I know he is trying really hard and puts a lot of time into the game, but he needs to let the other coaches do their job too.  He is a micromanager, who does little to let us do our job.  In retrospect, it is a very good thing that I am not doing high school ball this year, and maybe won't do it again.  Only time will tell.

Chronic Behavior Student Reflection

Several years ago, there was a student in my class that was constantly challenging my authority, being disrespectful and was a constant disruption to the learning process, not only in my class, but several others as well.  I was a young teacher, still trying to establish my own values and beliefs, and had not put much thought into building a strong program for dealing with chronic behavior problems, I am sure I would not have had quite as many problems with this student. 

 

Since my class is only a half-year class, I did not know the student until midway through the year.  I had heard stories from other teachers about his behavior in class, and they had tried to talk to his parents and hold meetings with him that focused on his behavior prior to the beginning of my class.  From what the other teachers had said, he had controlled his behavior for the first few days after their meeting, but returned quite quickly to his defiant self.  When he entered my class, he tried desperately to demonstrate his power in class, by belittling me, saying rude comments about me, and constantly leaving his seat.  Within the first few days of class, he was sent out of class several times, earned a lunch detention, and was about to take the next step, which was a long detention.  As the semester progressed, his behavior in class deteriorated, and no matter what I did, or any other teacher, nothing really changed his attitude or performance. 

 

Looking back, there are several things that I would have done differently to handle this student.  Dr. Wolfgang outlines a plan on how to deal with chronic defiant behavior, and I should have followed a plan similar to his.  The first thing I should have done was to call his parents the first day he was removed from class.  Dr. Wolfgang discusses that this is a crucial step because it gains their support early, and also establishes a history of your efforts to control the student’s behavior (Laureate Education Inc, 2008).  When I did call his parents later in the quarter because he had earned an after school detention, I was told that they support my decisions and actions, but still, the student’s behavior did not change.  From there, I should have set up a parent/principal conference, but instead, his other teachers and I tried a staffing meeting to try to get him back on track.

 

During the meeting, the student was brought into the room, and we had a round table discussion about why he had been brought in, how he felt about his behaviors in class and what he could do to work on them.  It seemed to be more of a “shape up” type of meeting, but really did not establish any plan for him to follow in order to change his behavior in class.  What we could have done during that time was establish a behavior contract or steps for him to follow when he is being defiant.  Behavior plans are essential for students with rebellious behavior because it helps them shape their attitudes and performance into a more positive form.  Failure to help a student change is not beneficial for anyone involved.  After all, Jones and Jones point out that teachers often build Individualized Education Plans (IEP) for students who are struggling academically, but very seldom do we build IEP’s for students who are struggling behaviorally.  They go on to say that,  “Everyone loses when we fail to develop individual behavior change plans for students who’s behavior is disrupting the learning environment,”  (Jones and Jones, p 389, 2007). 

 

For his behavior plan, it would have been essential to teach him to think before he acts, and to teach him that his actions would have serious implications in the near future.  “Kids live in so much in the here and now, they’re not reflective about their behavior.  They don’t think about this action I’m doing now, what’s going to be the long-term affect.  It’s just they do it because it feels good or their angry at the moment,” Laureate Education Inc, 2008). Dr. Wolfgang.  In order to set up his behavior plan, a straightforward approach to building one can be found at http://k6educators.about.com/cs/classroommanageme3/a/createcontract.htm.  At this site, they discuss some key points focusing not only on how to build the contract, but also how important it is to hold follow up meetings to see how effective it is and if it needs to be changed at that point. 

 

As the year progressed, it became more evident that he made it his personal mission to irritate and harass as many people as possible, both his fellow students and his teachers.  In that process he also learned when to stop just before the serious consequences were given for his actions. 

 

He is currently a freshman in high school, and he still struggles with this issue.  After seeing how he treated his teachers and peers, it was no surprise to me when I saw after two months of this school year, he had been suspended twice for fighting with upperclassmen.  Unfortunately his behavior has not changed, but had all of his teachers put forth more of an effort to build an IEP for his behavior, maybe he would be a different person now. 

 

References:

Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2007). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom 8th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program thirteen. Interventions for Severe and Chronic Behavior Problems [Motion picture]. Classroom management to promote student learning. Baltimore: Author.

Reflection: Dealing with a Defiant Student

Early in my first year of teaching, I had an incident with one of my students, which was my “initiation” into dealing with defiant students.  The student was the stereotypical football player, over six feet tall (he had a few inches on me), and every teacher had problems with him in class.  My class was split in half by lunch, and the student was being quite rude and disrespectful the entire class.  On the way to lunch, one of the other teachers gave him a reminder for a detention, and he ripped it up and threw it on the ground.  As he started to walk away, I sternly said, “Don’t walk away, get back here and pick it up.”  The student, not caring about what I said, continued to walk away.  Seeing his totally disregard for authority, I lost my composure, and before I realized it, the student and I were in each other’s faces, yelling just outside the cafeteria.  If I would have had more experience in dealing with situations like this, I would have been able to handle the situation much more civilized and peacefully.  Though the student was out of my class for the rest of the day, the next few days were quite tense because neither of us had much respect for each other.  It took time for us to make amends, but by the end of the year, we both had a mutual understanding of each other.

 

Had I followed the steps of the teacher-behavior continuum outlined by Dr. Wolfgang (Laureate Education Inc., 2008), I would have been able to handle the issue more effectively, peacefully and quicker without losing any respect for and from the student.  In retrospect, there are several steps that I could have done in order to avoid such a vocal confrontation.  The first thing I should have done was to keep my composure and take some deep breaths before confronting the student.  The teacher that gave him the detention slip tried the “looking technique” and had no success, but had I taken time to listen to him, and ask why he was having a bad day, maybe things would not have been so volatile at lunch.  By using the “naming technique” discussed by Dr. Wolfgang (Laureate Education Inc., 2008), I could have used a variety of “door openers” to find out what was bothering him before lunch and work towards ways to help him rather than make things worse for him. Ultimately, the goal would have been to help him the best I can, and also strengthen our teacher-student relationship rather than weaken it.   

 

If I would have taken the time to listen to him, I’m sure we would have also strengthened the amount of respect we had for each other, and thus making the class run smoother in the future.  A month or two later, I took the time to talk to him after school one day, and found out what was going on in his life.  I also helped him review a test we took, and he made a comment about how easy the test was because a lot of what we learned was common sense.  If I had spent time working with him sooner, I’m sure he would have excelled in my class throughout the year, not just at the end of the course.

 

During the actual confrontation in the cafeteria, there were several things I could have done differently.  I could have calmly discussed with him why I was angry at him, focusing on how I saw he disrespect the other teacher, and also how this is an inappropriate way to act in school.  Something else I could have done was change the way I commanded him to pick up the paper.  Rather than saying, “Don’t walk away, get back here and pick up the paper,” I should have said, “Come here and pick up the paper.”  Dr. Wolfgang points out in his discussion the idea of motor-meaning, where students “only hear the last thing” (Laureate Education Inc. 2008).  In the case above, he most likely only heard the walk away part because he was already walking away. 

 

This whole situation could have gone completely different had I been better prepared for situations like this and as a result made different choices on how to deal with the student.  Using a “Ladder of Success” as outlined by Jones and Jones (p. 341, 2007), I could have instructed the student on how to make choices that would demonstrate proper behavior in school.  In the same aspect, I could have used the same ladder of success for myself to make the appropriate decision on how to handle the situation.  By teaching students how to use the ladder appropriately, they are given the power to make the correct decisions on how to handle tough situations and their feelings.  “As it relates to communication, it means teaching students and ourselves a model for effectively dealing with our feelings,” (Jones and Jones, p. 340, 2007).  This model gives students the power to make their own choices focusing on positive choices, which lead to success, or negative decisions, which lead to loss of privileges and possibly even disciplinary consequences.  This would have been a great tool to use at the time because there would have been a power shift in a good way for the student and myself.  He ultimately had the power in the situation because he got what he wanted: out of my class and away from the teachers, but had we followed this model, we both would have had the power.   I would have maintained control of the situation, and myself and he would have had the ability to make proper decisions to vent out his frustration from outside issues.

 

As I look back on the whole situation, I know that I would have handled it completely different than I did, and I realize that as a result, neither of us learned how to deal with difficult situations in school.  I do know now proper ways to handle situations and will employ new strategies discussed by Jones, Jones and Wolfgang to handle future deviant students. 

 

References:

Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2007). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (Laureate Education, Inc., custom 8th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program twelve. Limit-Setting Techniques [Motion picture]. Classroom management to promote student learning. Baltimore: Author.

Building on Relationships

It is imperative for students and teachers to have positive relationships within the classroom in order to build and maintain a positive learning environment. For this to happen, there are several strategies that need to be implemented in order to establish a sense of community safe for all students to learn in.  These approaches need to focus on the teacher and student relationships, as well as the student-to-student relationships.   In order to build in teacher-student relationships, I will employ the following strategies:

 

Praise, Prompt and Leave

One of the strategies that I will employ more effectively in my classroom deals with the way I help students out as I walk around the room as they are independently working.  Most teachers try to help students as quickly as they can so that they can help as many students as they can.  Often times, teachers scan student work for mistakes, point them out, and then suggest ways to correct their mistakes.  This may seem the most energy effective way to do things, but it often gives the students a sense of inadequacy, or frustration because they did not receive any positive feedback.  Teachers are not intentionally trying to send that message, however, it comes across that way.   This also goes for behavior issues as well, students that misbehave often times do so for attention, or trying to avoid doing the work.  Teachers then seem to focus more on the negative aspects of the situation, and promote a negative message as well.  “Even though [the] teacher’s statement is intentional and intended to motivate the student to behave properly, the student receives it as punitive, unfair and disinviting,” (Jones & Jones p. 95, 2007).  In order to avoid creating this idea, I intend to employ the idea of “Praise, Prompt and Leave” in my classroom. 

Dr. Fred Jones, spoke at my school’s professional development workshop this past summer, and he spent some time promoting the “Praise, Prompt and Leave” method from his book “Tools of Learning” to us.  In order to promote a positive learning environment for students, the teacher spends 20-30 seconds with students that need help finding something good that they have done, steering them towards the next step, and leaving quietly so that they do not disrupt the thought process.  It builds on a student’s sense of self-worth and also uses constructive criticism to guide them to the right answer.

 

Eating Lunch with Students

Another way to promote positive teacher-student relationships is to get to know them outside of the classroom setting.  One of the easiest ways to do this is by spending time eating lunch with the students.  Most teachers in my school use their lunch break to complain about their day, or about something that is bothering them, mainly a student or two in the class, and I often avoid sitting with them at lunch as a result, I often spend my lunch at my desk checking my email, or doing work.  Occasionally I do travel to the lunchroom, but when I do, it is only to buy my lunch.  Several weeks ago, I was walking back to my room, when a student stopped me and asked if I wanted to join their game of Uno, which I agreed to, and sat down.  Although it felt strange at first, I had a lot of fun, and the students did too.  Later that day, the students I played cards with, were very attentive to the lesson, and were bragging to others that I sat with them at lunch.  The effect I had on them was quite positive, and I will employ this more frequently in the future.

This can be an effective method to reach those students that do not always participate in class because you are inviting them to talk to you outside of class, in an informal setting.  “Most teacher-student contact occurs in the presence of twenty-five to thirty other children.  Unless they take the initiative by staying after school, students may never have individual private time with their teacher,” (Jones & Jones, p. 89, 2007). 

 

Listening to students

Something that goes hand in hand with eating lunch with the students is actually listening to them and hearing what they have to say.  It instills in them the idea that their ideas and views are being valued and appreciated, and ultimately makes them feel more respected in your class.  At some point or another in a teacher’s career, at least one student will come to them with a problem or concern that they would like help with, regardless of whether or not it is school related or not.  Often times, the teacher does not listen, or give them a quick answer.  A study reported by Jones and Jones (p. 105, 2007), states that roughly 95% of all behavior problems result from a student’s attempt to have someone listen to them.  One has to wonder what this number would be if students had the attention and help they desired. 

One of the things that I thought of when reading about this idea, was a student that was in my class my first year of teaching.  By far, she was not the best student in the class, often times acting out and turning in little to no work.  One day after school, she came to me before her basketball game and started complaining about a guy she liked and how she was frustrated with him during the day and how she spent most of the day texting him during class.  After letting her vent her frustration for a while, I gave her some feedback on what I thought she should do, and told her that although she should have focusing on school, that what she did was understandable, and that she should think about why she liked him.  By listening to her, and not judging her, she grew to respect me, and to this day stops by every few months just to say hi and to get advice.

The district in which I teach in has quite a large portion of the students who come from broken homes, often times not having someone they can turn to for advice.  Having someone to talk to in this manner is quite beneficial for them because it gives them the support they need.  “Students learn that their feelings are acceptable, which reduces the tension and anxiety associated with having to hide one’s true feelings.  This act in turn makes students feel more accepted,”  (Jones & Jones, p. 106, 2007). 

 

Students do not always respect each other, and ultimately struggle to work cooperatively together during class time.  In order to build on their peer relationships in my room, I will use the following strategies:

 

Cooperative Group Competitions

In one of my classes, I constantly see students putting each other down, often disrespecting each other through rude comments, throwing things at each other or even name calling.  The past few weeks, I have been building a plan to teach these students how to work together as a group to accomplish a common goal.  In order to initiate this idea of teamwork, I have created a program where students are competing in a sticker race.  Teams are rewarded stickers for working well on class assignments as a group, for completing their homework everyday, having the highest group average on tests, and other basic activities we complete in the course of the day.  Although I brought the idea up at the beginning of this past week, I will use some team building activities for warm-up activities in the coming weeks. 

One of the activities that I plan on using is having each team create their own sense of identity by creating their own “flag” to be displayed on their desks every class.  This will allow them to create a sense of team unity, as well as to demonstrate their artisitic side.  Other activities I plan on using I found at the site “Teaching Tips: Team Building Activities for Middle School Students” published by emints.org http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001825.shtml?prnfriendly.  This website has links to a variety of activities that can be used in the classroom to build on teamwork skills.

 

Building Student Self Esteem Through Peer Comments

In the course of the block, students in that same class make rude comments about others several times throughout a single class.  This has become quite a problem especially among my female students, sometimes resulting with students leaving the room to take a break or calling home to explain why they are serving a detention later that week.  In an attempt to create positive peer comments during a warm-up activity this week, I will use an activity called “A Fan of Validation” from Performance Learning System’s Teambuilding page. (2005).  In this activity, students construct a paper fan out of a sheet of paper, and write their name on the first fold.  Students then pass their fans around and under each flap, other students write positive comments about them.  This way, students must make positive comments about everyone in the class, and ultimately raise their self-esteem from what others have said about them. 

Group Decision Making

 

Part of having an effective learning environment is using students’ input as a motivational tool.  Often times, I see students not hand in work, never come prepared to class, or do a number of things that result in disrupting their learning process.  As part of the team-building problem in that second block class, I will have them create a consequence list for their peers so they feel a sense of ownership in the classroom setting.  This is something that has been done countless times throughout the educational system, but I have not employed it yet, but will soon.  Jones and Jones (p. 142, 2007) point out that this will build on their group cohesiveness and also act as a motivational tool to others brought on by positive peer pressure. 

 

Teachers deal with a variety of problems throughout the course of the year, and through flexibility, ingenuity, creativity and kindness they can solve almost all problems that arise.  In order to be an effective teacher, it is necessary to realize that students are people too, and they deserve to be shown respect, even though we as teachers do not always receive respect from them. 

 

References:

(2004, December 7). Teaching Tips: Team Building Activities for Middle School Students. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from eMints: http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001825.shtml

(2005, May 6). Team Building Activities. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from Performance Learning Systems: http://www.plsweb.com/resources/newsletters/enews_archives/44/2005/05/06

Jones, F. H. (2007). Tools For Learning. Santa Cruz, CA: Fredric H. Jones and Associates Inc.

Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2007). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom 8th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Final Thoughts.....

Taking this course, I have learned quite a lot of information, as well as tools I can use while teaching. I hate to say I have had a revelation, but rather that I was made more aware of ways to apply technology to teach skills students need and will use in their future. I have always thought technology was the “way of the future,” but I did not know a lot of ways to utilize it in the classroom. For example, I have used blogs in my class before, but they did not turn out as well as I had hoped. This class has taught me how to effectively use them in my classroom.

I learned a great deal about teaching 21st century skills to our students, as well as how to apply it while using technology. Since beginning this course, I have started to use more learning-centered activities, where students communicate and collaborate with each other on a variety of projects. These projects are more synthesis based activities geared towards the upper levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, which help to foster the use of the 21st century skills.

Taking this class has also piqued my interest in learning how to use technology in my classroom. I have been talking with my colleagues about other forms of technology that can be used in the classroom, and am amazed at how much I have yet to learn. There are a few programs that I would like to learn more about, such as Jing, where students can learn more about what we’re discussing on their own time as I walk them through an activity step by step. Regardless of the type of technology, it is vital that teachers learn how to implement its use within their classroom. I really thought the Department of Education (2000) put it best in their report saying:

“Teachers must be comfortable with technology, able to apply it
appropriately, and conversant with new technological tools, resources,
and approaches. If all the pieces are put into place, teachers should
find that they are empowered to advance their own professional skills
through these tools as well.”

I see this as being a strong case in driving the use of technology in the classroom as frequently and effectively as possible because it is necessary for teachers to prepare their students for their future. Unless some major catastrophe happens, technology is only going to get better, and more intrusive into our lives, so it is our job as educators to teach our students how to correctly and adequately use what we have to build well educated students.

Two long term goals that I would like to obtain at the end of two years deal with utilizing technology in my lessons more effectively. I would like to create a student-run blog that my students can turn to each day to know what we covered and to ask for help among their classmates. I would also like to create more activities that promote the use of 21st century skills, such as leadership, adaptability and communication skills. A prime example of a way I could foster the use of these skills would be through the continuous use of blogs, podcasts and wikis in more than just one or two units in my classes. Running a daily blog has been beneficial for some of my students, however, my current group of students has not responded too well to using them as often as I would like. In two years, I would like to have all of my classes blogging on a regular basis, which would act as a portfolio for my students showcasing their work and progress throughout science class.

References:

U.S. Department of Education. (2000). The power of the internet for learning: Final report of web-based education ommission. Retrieved May 24, 2006, from http://www.ed.gov/offices/AC/WBEC/FinalReport/index.html

Podcast

I had a tough time with my podcast this week because of having a computer crash halfway through, but I finally got the podcast to work, and all is well.  The link to it is:  feed://www.gcast.com/u/tjbower.main.xml