Lesson 9, Chapter 9

This week we had two groups of peers teach us. The first groups taught us about emotional and behavioral disorders. This includes things such as: anxiety, depression, bipolar, OCD, and schizophrenia. I really liked the activity they had to go along with what they were teaching. They gave each small group a handful of M&M's and each person was given a role with a disability. The goal was to be able to count the total numbers of candies that we had. This task was basically impossible to complete because each person had their own personality and issue and without working together we couldn't do it. It was easy to see how a person with these disorders can easily lose interest and become frustrated and distracted. As a future educator I will have the responsibility to help these students learn to the best of their abilities, despite the struggles they may have.

The second group to teach us taught about ADD and ADHD. In one of my other classes this week we also discussed ADD/ADHD. I thought it was great to be on the same page in both classes because both were able to give me a deeper understanding of what this disorder entails and both gave me new insights as to how I as a teacher can help students who have ADD or ADHD. In my future classroom I will be able to use things such as fidget tools, classroom organization, and clear learning expectations to help these students succeed to the best of their abilities. One thing I thought was a great idea is having fidget tools for these students. There are many different typed of fidget tools you can use to help kids let out energy without being a disruption to the learning environment. This group had us watch a video that helped demonstrate how a student who had ADD or ADHD functioned. There was so many things going on in that the brain couldn't hardly focus on just one thing. Everything going on was too much to handle and I kind of just shut down.

I have a sister who suffers from depression and bipolar disorder. There are times when she cannot handle being around crowds and she will go from being really happy and excited to being upset and depressed in a short amount of time. There are some times when she doesn't want to get out of bed. She will lay there and either watch movies/tv shows or just sleep. I can't fully comprehend what she is going through but the more I learn about these disorders the better able I am to help her and motivate her to get up and moving. We all have struggles and sometimes feel depressed or anxious, but if this is a common thing in students that we teach, it is important that we know how to help these students.

We also learned about differentiation this week. What stood out to me the most this week was when our heterogeneous groups taught each other a skill. We, as a group, had to come up with a skill to teach the other group and we had to talk about differentiation and how we could apply that to our skills being taught. My group taught a game; we had beanbags that the students had to toss into a crate in the center of the room from various paper plates placed on the floor. We first assessed the students to see if they knew different throwing techniques and followed up the game with a discussion about which throws worked the best and things like that. We also discussed different ways that this game could be differentiated for students who couldn't see. We decided that partners could be used in various ways to work together so that all students could participate.

The group that taught me, taught us how to make origami boxes. The small group I was separated in, had very good teachers that took time showing us how to do each step and explaining it very well. One of the students being taught in the other group said she had a hard time trying to follow the directions from her teachers. She said that they just kinda did the steps without explaining what they were doing. We decided that while some students may need minimal instruction and can do things by sight, others may be slower learners and need specific instructions to complete their box. I thought that if each group had a sheet with specific instructions as well as pictures of each step, it would be easier for the students to do the task.

Overall, as a teacher it is so important to know that differentiation in teaching is necessary to help all students learn to the best of their abilities. Sometimes increasing time limits, reducing quantity of the assignments, or just explaining in greater detail can be all the differentiation needed to have all students learning in our classrooms.