What kind of learner am I?

I have struggled my way through school. It has always been hard for me to focus, even now being an adult student. I need to talk a lot of breaks during homework....okay I'm back... I need fidget throughout classes, and I just have a hard time sitting still. I never officially got diagnosed with ADD but I have the textbook definitely of it. Often times during a lesson, I would zone out and forget what was being taught. I even struggle with that today. One of the advantages of being an adult student is I have really come to know my strengths and weaknesses. I have learned that I am a hand out learner, I prefer to learn through actively doing the work and moving around the classroom to discuss what the class is learning. When it comes to studying and homework, I need a quiet space with no distractions.  I cannot have my phone by me or the tv on and when using my computer I get easily distracted by opening other browsers. My goal when doing homework will be to work in increments. I complete part of a task and then move on to something else otherwise I get too unfocused and bored with it. It is easier for me to shuffle around. As I have gotten older and more motivated with school, it has been easier to organize my tasks and stay more on task but I still need small breaks throughout.

Educator Burn Out

Ending last week at work was a difficult one. I work in a behavioral school for children with Autism and some days can be extremely exhausting. I felt like every student in the building at one point was experiencing a crisis. I was going from one behavior to the next to the next and the days felt like they would honestly never end. My students were having really hard days and I did my best to leave my exhaustion at the doors. By the end of the week, the staff couldn't wait for the weekend for two days to relax. I remember sitting in my classroom with some staff talking about staff appreciation and how to boost morale. We talked about how low morale can lead to educators burn out and ultimately a higher turn over rate. I explained that a book I read in my Introduction To Education class called School Culture Rewired wrote that most jobs focus on increasing morale once the morale has been lowered instead of making it a constant priority. Managing stress, communicate with coworkers, and indulging in personal time are great ideas to prevent burn out. My job did a professional development day a few weeks back where we did yoga, wrote positive affirmations about ourselves and learned how to handle anxiety/stress. We also learned a few cool apps to use for us and our students. Although, what staff doesn't love donuts and coffee every once and a while?

Positive and Negative Effects of Technology

Technology is something I use daily, whether I am checking my email, answering text messages, or showing my students something on the computer. It is something I am constantly surrounded by. There is a range of positive and negative effects of technology. As an educator, I see my students quite dependent on tablets and computers. This is often a positive and negative because technology can often be a positive reinforcement to encourage and redirect students back to work but students can often get distracted and focus only on the end result of getting the Ipad. I work in a school with very intense behaviors. Many of my students work on reward systems and the majority of them work for technology items. This can be a great thing because it can encourage my students to stay on track, have positive behaviors, and finish their work. My students can be motivated by Ipads, computers, and laptops. They often will pick something they want to watch or listen to and I will continue to remind them what they are working for. My job is to motivate them, keep them on track, and redirect them so they can earn their reward at the end of the activity. By having technology so accessible it allows my students to earn their rewards more easily and ultimately their behaviors will lessen. Some of the negatives of technology that I see at work on a daily basis in the same aspect are that my students often obsess/perseverate over these items and will prolong doing work in order to gain access to these items immediately. My students, a lot of the time, only want to work for technological items rather than going for walks or art therapy. This can be a negative thing because students only want to be on the Ipad and computer. They often become reliant on this item. Overall, technology is a great advancement in the education system. I am able to share a lot with my students with a click of a mouse. There are many positives to technology but a few negatives as well.