Frustration

A few weeks ago I started tutoring a boy! His father contacted me through Craigslist as I had put out an ad saying that I help with one-on-one tutoring. This adolescent has been classified with autism. 

Today in our session we were talking about theme within the short story he is reading and I pryed and probed a little more based on the theme he had suggested for the story. I asked him "who" - which character in the story feels this/that way based on the theme he proposed. 

I asked the question maybe five times and there were a lot of pauses,  perhaps breaks in his thinking and shutting down. In the end he hit his head on his table obviously resigning himself to his frustration of not being able to answer the question in that moment. He is a very capable boy and so extremely clever - I am not just saying this! He brings up topics and takes our conversations to some very interesting and unique places. I believe strongly he could answer the question and in the end he did with more prompting and encouragement from his father. 

I feel led to write about this experience, however as my mind is stayed on this whole concept/idea of frustration. I understand that this boy has been labeled as having autism thus there are some types of developmental differences that perhaps make it more challenging to process information and think on his feet and thus shut down, but I am still led to explore the idea of frustration on more of a social level. 

Typically we become frustrated I think due to pressures - perhaps we feel that we are not meeting a certain expectation we have placed on ourselves, somebody or something around us is not measuring up to a type of standard - we have an idea of what we think should happen and that thing is just not happening. In the case of Uriah, he perhaps wanted to express his thoughts quickly and just could not put A and B together, maybe he was having breaks in his thinking, distracted by other thoughts or perhaps and very likely so, he was thinking about the label of having Autism coupled with the ideas that have been flying around that he is not "so great" in English - all of these pressures were perhaps barriers that made him shut down in the end. He had to take a break in our session and went to talk with his father. 

I am reminded in this session of what I learned in the teaching program called "growth mindset" - a type of mentality that is encouraged in children where they celebrate the process, the step by step successes rather than just the outcome. I feel that there is too little of this right now in our education system or perhaps in trying to make this transition we are still focused on the older system which is very much results driven and oriented. Even though Uriah has been classified as having autism, I still believe that there are some aspects of his behaviour which were learned or he was conditioned to believe. 

For example, why is it that when he could not answer the question, he became frustrated? Where did all this pressure come from? His father was with Uriah and myself on the call for a bit after this happened and was encouraging him to pinpoint or pick out the causes for his frustration. I feel that this is a good strategy and a good step towards being the master over one's emotions. When we are able to understand the root causes for our anger/frustrations then we can actually address the underlying problem and not the symptom (the emotion) that results from the issue. I was also encouraging Uriah to be patient with himself. I think it is so important and necessary to be kind towards ourselves, slow down, take a step back, breathe, and start again. Frustraton like every other emotion, will come and go, it is how you handle the emotion that makes all the difference in the world and knowing that you can move forward, that there is a possibility to move forward and knowing the right steps of how to do so is paramount.   

Aujourd'hui, j'ai eu le privilège avoir la séance avec T. Il est un garçon qui j'ai rencontré à travers de Craiglist. J'ai affiché un pub parce que j'ai voulu commençer ma carrière en enseignement et j'ai eu l'idée á commençer les choses á travers de en ligne. T est un garçon trés intelligent. Il aime les nombres, mathématiques, art, l'histoire et géographie. J'apprecie et respect l'amour que son pere J a pour son fils. J'ai une sentiment chaleureuse dans mon coeur. 

Je me sens que beaucoup des les temps, on ne passe pas les temps á apprecier les uns les autres. On rejete les gens avant on a la chance pour les connaitre et les gens n'ont pas la chance d'exprimer eux-mêmes. C'est très triste. J'espere que Dieu benira ce relation et que je peux vraiment l'aider. 

Slowing Down Pace

I found today's two classes a bit challenging for me - why? All the students in the class are at different levels of output. Some students - no problem are able to produce what I ask of them - write 2-3 examples, etc - while other students can only complete one and some students do not seem to understand the directions at all and have to ask several times what we are doing. There are also several students when I go up to them - cannot formulate any ideas - it is hard for them to write anything down on a piece of paper and when I probe them for ideas - they say....hmmm, I dont know...I'll ask...what about this, or what about that? And they'll say again....I dont know. I really dont know how I am to assess this type of output. It shouldn't be the case that these students get left behind.

Here was a break down of my lesson today -

(1) Students will assess their neighborhoods in three areas - outlook/perspective, opportunities/choice, belonging, making sure to account for their physical and digital spheres.

(2) I asked each student to write down examples of each and gave them a chart and a venn diagram to start comparing their neighborhoods to that of the main character in the novel.

I found that it was hard mobilizing students in both classes. It seemed in a way that I needed to hold their hand through the entire process and many students did not seem to understand.

Ways I can improve
* I could include more labels on the venn diagram or even do modeling on the computer that they can follow along
*I am breaking things down....okay well break things down even more into tiny little bits that they can process and I mean tiny. Maybe dont make them think about the physical and digital, but make them thinking about only one or the other.
*Everything needs to be structured bit by bit  - instead of introducing PEA - Point, Evidence, Analysis all at once I need to introduce P - point, thats it and then E - evidence, and then A - analysis. The templates I give them need to be very much broken down.
*How I organize the handout MATTERS - labels need to be clearly defined, did I mention that everything needs to be broken down? (lol)

Success for today:

-they got their ideas onto a venn diagram - albeit slowly but the ideas were there

Teaching to students with emotional problems

One question that has consistently been on my mind is how to teach students who are going through emotional problems. I think oftentimes we can forget that the children / youth we are teaching come from complex and often painful backgrounds. Some students come from troubled and broken homes - absentee, strict, harsh or abusive parents or family members that make life for them unbearable at home. The classroom, therefore, or high school environment is their own safe place or respite from the difficulties at home. It can be very challenging thus for teachers to teach with these difficulties in mind. We see in the classroom how these challenges in students' living environments manifest in behavioral problems in students - students who are distracted, unable to stay on task, disruptive and attention seeking, angry, etc (the list goes on).

Last week during my volunteering one student disclosed to me that she has difficult family problems that she faces at home - her father tends to be quite strict and does not understand her. This student is also dealing with friendship problems in the school - not fitting in and not feeling safe with the current friends that she has. She explained that she suffers from depression and has self-harmed in the form of cutting and suicidal attempts. Another student, I learned this week lives with her mother, but her mother is ill and in and out of hospital. She has other siblings but they do not live with her. She lives only with her mother. My guess then is that she is home alone a lot. This student also has a boyfriend. Both students are only 13 years old. 

I question to myself how a teacher teaches students who are going through such unbearable circumstances in their living environments. I was reading a few articles online that offered good points to consider.

1) Making curriculum relevant to students' lives - I already hold to the importance in making sure that curriculum and in classroom material has a personal connection to students' lives or that the teacher works to create a personal connection to material. Oftentimes resources in the school system are scant, so in the English classroom teachers must use novels, etc that could be rather outdated. Teachers then must endeavour to create and draw personal connections to the text. For example, a novel study on the book Coraline by Neil Gaiman could have students explore their own personal fears and the virtue of courage - areas in their own lives where they must demonstrate courage, why courage is necessary in life, how courage can impact not only their own personal lives but the lives of others. I think the goal is to make their learning in one area transferable to other areas, not only in the field of academics (essay writing, etc), but their own personal growth and development. One article suggested giving students a survey of their own personal interests and how they use their spare time and developing lessons that are geared to student interests.

2) Create positive peer interactions and relationships - developing a sense of classroom community. One article explained that peer relationships are second to impact in a student's life - group learning, peer tutoring/editing, classroom meetings.

3) Relaxation Techniques
4) Teaching students how to cope with stress
5) Developing & encouraging student strengths
6) Keeping classroom rules and instructions simple
7) Using texts (novels, short stories, poems) to help children navigate through their emotions (what was the character feeling, why do you think she was feeling that way, how would you feel in the same situation, how could she deal with this emotion, how would you deal with it?)


http://www.ascd.org/publications/classroom-leadership/nov2003/Helping-Students-with-Emotional-Problems-Succeed.aspx

https://developingminds.net.au/articles-for-professionals/2017/5/21/helping-kids-deal-with-negative-emotions-in-the-classroom

Goal Setting & Teaching Constant Self-Reflection

I am blogging about this as it has come up again. During my time in the classroom this week I noticed that a lot of the students in the classes are constantly on their cell phones. The teacher will tell them to put it away but it will find its way back out again, until she decides to confiscate it.

Personally, I feel it is a good idea to confiscate cell phones for the entire lesson. Students have their phones before and after school and during breaks, so for them to go a few hours without them is actually a good idea for student self development - character development (self regulation and control).

I think it is so important in life and such a valuable skill to go without the thing that you really desire just so that you can realize that you really do not need it and that there is more to life than that thing...whether it be a person, or object, etc. I also feel that there is a lot of self development to be had in letting go of the thing that is consuming the majority of time or is transitioning into, if not already, an addiction. There is so much of ourselves to be discovered that unfortunately remains hidden or locked up or does not have a chance to grow or develop because something else, of lesser importance, is competing for us - our time, our potential. In many cases, unfortunately, that addiction, temptation, etc robs and sadly destroys parts of us that we may not ever get back.

I fear that a lot of these students are addicted to their cell phones and I worry about how these addictions will play out for the rest of their lives. Also, how addictions are transferable - for example, continued cell phone use during times or moments of the day where it is inappropriate teaches children addictive behavior and encourages addictive thought patterns which may be transferable to other situations in life.

As educators, I do feel it is our responsibility to teach our students how to place regulations or restrictions over these things and develop a pathway of cultivating self control. These skills are transferable and do not only have impact within the classroom. The other day I stumbled upon an activity where at the beginning of the year students have to do goal setting and have to choose one or two goals that they wish to accomplish during the course of the year. I feel that this could be a good community building activity to have in the class as the teacher and others students can keep their classmates accountable and it can also be a topic of discussion through the year. Goals can and should be worked on smaller and larger scales. For example, setting a quick daily goal at the beginning of the class or the teacher can even put up a class goal on the board that s/he can continually refer back to during the class.  Goals can be something like: no cell phone use, not talking when others are talking, making sure to encourage one's peers, challenging oneself more, etc. I feel that implementing goal setting in the classroom will turn into an invaluable lifelong skill for each student.

Narrative Writing Lesson & Purpose - Having Students Ask WHY

Today I was privileged to take part in leading a lesson on narrative writing and it went really well. As usual I was nervous beforehand but I think when I take the stage....the teaching stage, I just have this voice in my soul telling me to give it everything I have.

The teacher wanted me to read some examples of narrative writing with the students and something that has been continually coming back to me is talking to students about WHY we are teaching them the things we are. I almost feel sometimes that we are raising up mindless students and I want my students specifically to question WHY they are learning the things they are, basically to have a questioning, critical mind and to engage with curriculum first on this level. I feel, somehow, if students understand WHY they are doing or learning something it will help them to do it with more motivation and purpose.

I asked the class why it was important to learn or write narrative paragraphs and a few of them noted the importance of being able to explain information. I also added in our discussions and wanted to explicitly state that they all had voices and it is important for all of them to utilize their voices to encourage, support and help others. They just listened on. Sometimes I wonder when teachers say things like this, if students are really listening or if it just goes in one ear and out the other, but I think it is important to repeat these important "take home" points - for students to hear them over and over again until they understand them. I know even for me, I have to hear something over and over again before I understand it and even then I still forget.

Carrying on, I explained that narrative writing allows us to write about a story from our personal experiences clearly in such a way that our readers can understand and learn from it. The students basically had to write about an experience from the past where they experienced personal growth or learned a lesson.

By God's grace, I was able to find some examples of narrative writing online that my teacher really enjoyed and related to the teaching she was doing, as the examples I found online each stated a moral or lesson that the narrator learned. As a class, we each read one of these samples and after we read each one, I tried to lead a conversation about it. The first narrative was about a person who was impulsive with his friend and ran out into the street and his friend was hit by a car, the second one about a person who was afraid of meeting people from different countries, and the last one was about sharing sacrficially. I found that each narrative allowed me to engage in deeper conversations with the students and even share about my own struggles and difficulties in my own life. From there, the students brainstormed in groups some of the stories/experiences that have happened in their own lives that they can write about and had a worksheet where they had to plan out the paragraphs they were going to write.

I found that a lot of students had problems thinking about certain things they had learned over the years and chose to use examples that we a bit more shallow or on the surface. Perhaps it is challenging for students but they also need to learn the skill of self reflection, growth, knowing how far they have come. It is such an important quality for students to have and certainly something that should also be taught in schools.

Overall I really enjoyed my time in the classroom that day.

Descriptive Writing Lesson & Cultivating Student Wonder

A few weeks ago a had a chance to lead a lesson on descriptive writing in the classroom I volunteer in.

As per my usual style, I like to make lessons a little bit different and exciting for the students by including different forms of learning and stimuli.

The teacher wanted me to lead the students in brainstorming creative ways to express their thoughts as they were starting a unit on how to write different types of paragraphs: persuasive, expository, narrative and descriptive. For this lesson, they were brainstorming to write descriptive paragraphs.

I thought it would be a good idea, thus, to introduce sounds as a foundation to get their thoughts going. I produced 4 different soundscapes: forest ambiance, waves crashing on a beach, "space noises,"and children on a playground. As the students listened to each soundscape they had to write down what they imagined and I also provided a guided description to get their thoughts going. During each soundscape, the students had to write down what they could visualize with their minds eye.

I felt that the students were quite engaged. It took some students a bit of time to fully immerse themselves in the activity, but once they did, they seemed to really get going. After each soundscape, we discussed as a class the types of descriptions they came up with. For example, with the beach soundscape, students said things like they envisioned ice-cream, squishy sand, water, etc.

Before the activity, I advised them to tap into their five senses...what do you smell, what do you see, what do you hear, what can you touch?

I did find that students had a bit of trouble making their sentences very descriptive, creative and a thought does cross my mind that perhaps this technological era has aided in stifling the creative minds of our younger generations.

I feel in a way, perhaps it is hard for all of us to be still and really take in our surroundings and lose ourselves to the beauty of what we see and experience everyday and just appreciate this beauty for what it is: beauty. Why have we lost this wonder for life and why is it hard for youth to cultivate this wonder? Would it have something to do with the fact that a lot of teaching these days is stuck in the classroom or maybe that learning is heavily based in worksheets, handouts and textbooks, rather than perhaps going outside, fieldtrips and creating experiences.

I think in many ways I may have lost some wonder I once had, or perhaps never had a chance to cultivate wonder for certain things. My mom has a hummingbird feeder that she keeps in our back patio. She fills it with nectar water and hummingbirds come to feed and while I think it is really wonderful that she does this, I feel that I do not have the awe and wonder in seeing these beautiful creatures that she has. My best friend, when she came over, was so enamoured by the fact that we own one of these that her family bought one for themselves, and it was really nice hearing from her and her excitement when she saw hummingbirds coming to her feeder that it created in me a type of shared joy. Certainly this reflects God's glory.

Today as well, on my way to volunteering, I noticed that there was snow on the mountains and it was stunningly pretty and another day driving to work, the moon was a juicy yellow-orange and so penetratingly huge that it frightened me in awe. I feel that it is very important to create and cultivate wonder in students. A lot of them have lost this wonder for the world or perhaps never really created it. What makes us lose our wonder when the world is so full of it? If wonder is not the thought that runs through our minds when we experience this world, what other thoughts are replacing it. I am finding that a lot of the students in the classrooms I enter seem very tired, disconnected, disinterested or distracted. How do we ground them into the things that will activate them and make them feel alive and why do they always seem to be so tired? How can we ground them? How can we ground them? I keep asking myself this question and I keep toying with different answers.

I think if I was to make any alterations to this lesson, I would want to take the students to these different soundscapes so that they could actually hear, touch and see with their own eyes, and write descriptions of what they are actually experiencing in that moment.

Overall it was a good experience. At the end of the lesson, I had the students try their best to make this sentence more descriptive: the car stopped at the sign.

--------

I saw this posting below from a page I follow on Facebook: Youth Launch Initiative: Helping Parents Navigate Through School and Beyond

If we can agree that education is not simply the filling of an empty vessel but the ignition of a flame inside a vibrant soul, full of its own potential...

Then where do we start?

We start with intrigue, curiosity.

WONDER.

At the world around us. At nature. At numbers. At connections...

What IS the moon? What is beyond it? Look at all those stars...
It is easy to get overwhelmed with program plans, homework and curricular requirements.
Don't forget to take as much time as you need with your kids to observe and admire all the beautiful and mysterious things around us.
Wonder and awe are not experiences relegated to the forest or the night sky, but an attitude with which we approach ALL of life.
All kids start out with this amazing appreciation for curiosity and intrigue... it's our job as parents to help them treasure and keep it ❤