Excel

I have used Excel in the past but not extensively, and only in terms of using it as a spreadsheet. I never knew that you could  create something like a seating chart or a timeline using Excel. I liked creating the seating chart. It was relatively simple once I figured out all the tools and how to use them. This is a great use of the program! I work at a before and after school program and I have had to remake seating charts a few times, where I always have to redraw the layout which can be both annoying and time consuming. However, if I use Excel it does not take long to draw out the layout and I can print out a new layout without having to redraw it! This is one use of the program that I can foresee myself using often to help make my job easier!

Cyberbullying

For this research paper I choose a topic that is sadly increasing and a serious issue both in and out of our classrooms: cyberbullying. There have been countless instances where our children have gone as far as suicide as a direct result of the bullying they have received throughout school. But now with the increase in technology, the bullying does not stop when students leave school.  Although cyberbullying may not occur while our students are sitting through our class educators must work with society to take action against this dire issue before it results in the loss of more lives. In many schools some form of education about bullying occurs in hopes of discouraging students from taking an active role in it, but many times little is taught in terms of cyberbullying. Society has focused on teaching our children about how to stay away from predators but little is taught about how to treat or react to their own peers. 

Bullying needs to be eliminated in order to ensure the safety of our students! And now with the advancement in technology we must get ahead and help keep our students safe online as well as in the classroom!

This research has solidified for me the need for awareness among educators about all the technology available to our children; in addition, we need to be made aware of all the negative ways our children are using it. As educators we are focused on all the positive was that technology can help benefit our classrooms but what happens when our students walk out of our classrooms and schools and turn on all the technology they aren't using within our schools. Kids can be cruel to each other and now they are more connected to one another than ever before; therefore, allowing the cruelty to continue even when they are not together. 

With awareness and education we can end this unnecessary cruelty and loss of lives, but we must take action to do either!

How Difficult Can This Be

This video was a very informative one. I particularly like how it was as if we were able to watch as people could experience the learning disabilities that their students may or may not have been experiencing. I have always thought that it is one thing to study and read about learning disabilities in an attempt to better understand them so we as educators can help the students facing them. But to actually have an experience where it is as though you have a learning disability yourself and to be able to go through the same feelings that our students are faced with on a daily basis is something that brings an enlightenment to us that no amount of research and study could ever do. These individuals were able to understand on a deeper and more personal level what a student with a learning disability experiences on a daily basis in and outside the classroom. I wish more of these experiences were offered to people both in and out of the education field so that as a society we could better understand one another. 

There were many parts of the video that struck me as interesting, one of which was when the participants were asked to identify what the poor quality photo was of. This was a simple activity but has a wide variety of was that it could be applied to student learning. A student may be told the information but may not be able to make sense of it or understand it, just like the participants were confused and could not identify what the image was. Some of the participants began to get creative and try to come up with their own idea of what the image portrayed, despite their lack of understanding. This is similar to when students are try to learn and instead of actually understanding the content they make up their own understanding of it, which in many cases is misled and inaccurate. However, as soon as the professor used a visual aide and took the time to show each individual participant suddenly it was as though a light bulb went off in the participants head that allowed them to understand and comprehend what they were seeing. This is one way that we can help our learning disabled children, by simply providing them with the extra tools for them to use in order to help turn the light bulb in their minds on with the understanding of the content. 

It is important for all educators to have a understanding of their students, to know their strengths and weaknesses. With a clear understanding of our students we as educators can alter our instruction and use different tools that will help each of them as individuals to reach their full capabilities. When we have the knowledge of what may work best for one student we can alter our lessons to help that student, and in turn it may help other students as well. Learning disabilities are challenging , especially for the students who must live with them. So as educators we must try to help these students overcome their disabilities and continue to learn and grow, which can only be done if we understand what these students are going through.

Visual Learners

I have always considered myself a relatively visual learner. There are times when I can simply remember something based on seeing it and allowing myself to take a somewhat visual snapshot of it. This is particularly true when I am studying something and I am able to color code the information. In fact during one of my classes in undergrad at Naz I was learning about the different developmental psychologists and I remember all of my information for Piaget was purple, because they both started with "p", and Vygotsky I had all the information in green because verde is green in Spanish and both Vygotsky and verde start with "v". This is just one of the basic examples I remember clearly.

With my own experiences I think it is important to find ways for students to see how something is. This way they can create their own mental images that will help them remember the information. Whether the instruction simply uses pictures or images that help the students understand better, or it is more interactive. I have in the past combined the visual aspect of teaching with kinesthetic activity. A challenging difference for students to grasp is the difference between rotation and revolution of the earth, so I had the students take turns acting out the different actions as though they were the earth. This resulted in a drastic change of understanding with the majority of the class being able to explain the difference to me easily and correctly. The students not only were to see the difference but also acting it out themselves allowed them to grasp the information better. 

Also through math it is important for visual learners to be encouraged to use different strategies that may help them understand more. I have always been decently good at math and mastering the strategies I was taught. However, during my undergrad I took a class on how to teach math and it opened my eyes to how little I actually knew and understood. We used a wide variety of manipulatives to help us as teachers to understand the concepts the students are learning. It made even the most challenging topics become easy to understand and explain. I have always like manipulatives because students can use them to visually represent the very abstract concepts that we are teaching them. I feel as though one of the most challenging mathematical concept we are teaching our students is fractions, both in general and computing them. Fractions were always challenging for me although I did have an understanding of them, but once I used manipulatives to explain them and compute them it was like the fog had lifted and suddenly I understood and could easily compute fractions. Unfortunately in most schools I have been in they do not always use manipulatives to teach fractions but rather just paper and pencil and maybe fraction strips they cut from paper. I think if we gave our students manipulatives and had them play around and construct their own meaning of fractions it would more likely for them to become comfortable with fractions and not struggle in the same way they are now. 

Visual learners need to see what they are learning. It should be common sense to provide all students visual aides and representations to help them learn the materials. It has become easier through the use of technology and the internet to find visual representations associated with any topic you are teaching that could help support all our students and promote their learning.