Day 2
Class 2
“Never
stress over something that you'll forget about next week. And if it's not
something you'll forget, then you can't change it anyway” (p. 3,
poemofquotes.com).
Stress,
stress, stress is all I felt the night before and the morning before class started.
I was anxious and worried because it seemed like every time I tried to upload
something I had created on one of the apps, it wouldn’t work. I was extremely
frustrated and stressed to the hilt. Watching and talking to a lot of the
people in class before class started, I realized mostly everyone felt the same
way. This made me feel a little better and a little less alone. Usually when I
am feeling this stressed out, I don’t say anything to the instructor. I just
continue to feel stressed until the assignment eventually gets finished. Today,
I thought to myself, if I was the instructor, I would want to know how my
students were feeling. So I explained to Barbara that I was feeling stressed
out about the App Smash assignment. A lot of the times in elementary school we “take
the temperature” of the students to see how they are feeling at particular
times throughout the school day as a way to regulate feelings and to let teachers know whether students are
feeling stressed. I find as students get older, we forget to “take the
temperature”. This is something I will take back into the classroom setting
with the older students I deal with. I want to know how they are feeling and
how I can help elevate some of that stress. I know my stress level dropped as
soon as I spoke to Barbara and explained how I was feeling coming into class
that day.
Mindsets
were another aspect of the day on my mind. In another class I am currently
taking, we are learning about fixed mindsets and growth mindsets and how
students thrive in the classroom when they have a growth mindset. I have to
admit, I always thought certain capabilities were “fixed” at birth that we are
born with them. After reading about fixed and growth mindsets, I know realize
that abilities grow through hard work and perseverance. It would have been easy
for me to remain fixed in the mindset that I am not a computer person and I
will never understand certain apps or computer lingo, after working hard today
and believing I could conquer the App Smash assignment, I did. I may not have
been the best in the class, but the assignment got finished. It was an great
example for me of how we can succeed at different areas we didn’t think we
could when we have a growth mindset. An
item I would like to share with the class is the TEDx Talks - The
Power of Belief – Mindset and Success.
After finishing the App Smash
assignment today, we watched each other’s projects. I have to admit feeling a
little jealous of other people’s work and wished I had more time to work on
mine after finally understanding more about some of the different aspects of
each app. While I won’t go into everyone’s presentations, I will mention a
couple of things that stood out for me. I really enjoyed watching what people
did with the app Kids Doodle. It was one I didn’t try but could really see
students enjoying using this app in the classroom. I loved presentation that
used iMovie to create a trailer. I can imagine students really loving this app
for different projects. I was also interested in how one group put music into
their presentation with the app Videoscribe. It was not something I had done,
but I think students would enjoy adding music to their presentations as well.
Finally, I was glad to hear other people had trouble with Paper 53, it de me
feel a little better about not being able to master this app.
Next, Barbara gave a
PowerPoint presentation on the Assistive Technology in the SSRSB and how it has
been helping their students. She explained what it takes to match a student
with assistive technology, who is involved and why we use assistive. She then
gave several student examples of students successfully using assistive
technology with the SSRSB. While it is not the same process we use in our board
– it was interesting to see how things are done in another board in Nova
Scotia.
We ended the day with an
activity that involved us thinking about what it takes to read a paragraph. We
were to look at the introductory paragraph of Bram Stroker’s Dracula and list
everything it took to read it. Of course, I started writing all the obvious
down: letter recognition; word recognition; blending of sounds; comprehension;
reading left to right; starting at the top of the paper; etc. Barbara opened my
eyes though in my thinking when she started stating more items that were less
obvious in what it took to read the paragraph. Things such as: how do I
self-regulate (know where my body is in space, no good breakfast); how do I
redirect when I get off task; and how do I put away feelings of the day
(emotionally engaged in the process) to name a few.
Poem of
Quotes (2017). Funny quotes about stress. Retrieved May 14, 2017 from:
TEDx Talks - The Power of Belief – Mindset and
Success. Retrieved May 7, 2017
from:
Susan thank you for your thoughtful reflection about how you felt and sharing the phrase "checking students temperatures" in regards to where they are not only emotionally as I occasionally think about but not too often do I think about their feeling in relationship to the task. I myself tried to work on the overwhelming feeling of the Appsmashing assignment by trying to do some of it at home, however that did not happen. When I returned to class I had mixed emotions about getting the assignment complete. Not sure if you also felt you had to refresh your memory on some of the apps you learned and used on the first day. Thank you for sharing what you are learning in another class about mindsets as well as sharing a link to a Tedtalk about belief with our mind and success.
ReplyDeleteSue sorry for typing Susan. I should've double checked before publishing. Once I figure out how to edit I will fix my mistake.
DeleteHI Sue
ReplyDeleteI struggle with the fixed mindset of feeling I am not always competent in the required tasks asked of me, and I can tell you the time restraint and expectations I put on myself really took a toll on my thinking for the first assignment. As usual, I over though the process and put undue pressure on myself... and it looks lime you did as well;). You blog looks great! keep up the awesome job of working with the growth mindset. PS. I will use the "checking students temperature" with my high school students.:)