Inspire with the environment!

Ohhhhhhh classroom decorations, a pain for some teachers, a therapy for others... a MUST for me! Students spend most of their time in a classroom... teachers can influence in students desire to learn by making decisions about the classroom layout. A classroom can say a lot to students and parents about us as teachers. We can let students know what we expect from them, let them know how exciting learning can be, and get them inspired on great things! That special place where students learn, that’s my classroom... And I think it’s very important to put an effort into preparing it because at the end it will always be worth it.

Desk organization also influences in students motivation and speaks about your teaching style. For example, depending on the grade level, if you organize desks by two they will know they’ll work in pairs, as a team with others, or if they will work by themselves. The traditional organization of rows of individual desks is boring, they get really excited when they get to the classroom and chairs are already fixed in a different way as it was before. Of course it all depends on the class you’ll be teaching and what works they will be doing during that day.

So this is what I’m doing this school year, and my students are very happy!

I’ve been planning in decorating my class with Dr. Seuss theme for a long time... I finally did it! Here are some pictures of my classroom.

A walk through students with learning disabilities head...

There are several indicators of disabilities presented in early childhood. Starting with coordination problems, unaware of physical surroundings, difficulty in learning new skills, or memorizing class, remembering things that happened, confusing basic words, lack of concentration, troubles with phonetics, reading errors such as inversions, transpositions, substitutions and letter reversals, problem solving simple math problems, impulsive behavior, and so on.

Disabilities are qualified in different types:

Dyslexia: The student has difficulty learning to read.

Dysgraphia: Is a deficiency in the ability to write primarily in terms of handwriting, but also in terms of coherence.

Dyscalcula: Students have problems reasoning and solving math problems.

These disabilities affect students learning skills directly, through study skills, reading and writing skills, oral and social skills, and math skills. They are unable to finish assignments on time, and they have frequently grammatical errors. They might have impulsive behavior and disoriented in time. Teachers need to be patient. There is also ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), which is the behavioral condition also associated with learning disabilities because kids with this condition present difficulties concentrating enough to learn and study. They are easily distracted and have problems focusing. They are very active and can’t control their impulses.

Lets put our selves in this student shoe. First of all they know that they are different than the others and they cannot control their situation. “Learning disabilities are problems that affect the brain’s ability to receive, process, analyze, or store information” according to The Nemours Foundation. These problems don’t let students with these disabilities learn at the same rhythm as a regular student. These students get frustrated because friends are playing while they have to read over and over again being unsuccessful in learning, understanding, or memorizing what they are reading. They think is unfair, and they get appointments with the psychologist, teachers, and parents, not understanding why they can’t be like the others. Once they know that they have a problem they will probably feel worried, and they are going to ask themselves if they are going to be that way forever, and if they will always be unsuccessful in life.

Now days, there are a LOT of students affected by many kinds of learning disabilities, some of the students have more than one kind. Researchers have some theories, but we’re not exactly sure of what causes it. The theories they developed are basically three: Genetic influences (it runs in the family), brain development (brain development before and after birth, with low birth weight problems, lack of oxygen, head injuries and so on), and environmental impacts (environmental toxins, poor nutrition).

Guess what? Learning disability can be controlled! 

Once we diagnostic a student with these kind of problems, we implement strategies and they get some medicine treatment to help them cope with the disability. While going through the process, students are going to restore their self-esteem and confidence.

Lets give it a try! 

Put yourself in those children shoes!

A grieving student in the classroom...

Not everything in the classroom is about happy moments. As teachers, we try to fix things, we try to mold and guide our children through the correct path. Well, sometimes there are moments when teachers don’t know what to do or how to react. During this school year, there’ve been a lot of challenges in the classroom: students with different situations, different personalities, and of course different problems. We all have problems, but what happens when you are young and you cannot understand certain things?

A grieving student in the classroom... made me let go of my own expectations and make an effort to understand what my student thinks. I haven’t ask her how she feels, but she approaches me and tells me things, such as how she misses her mother and asking me why her mother left. I’ve been trying to be as honest, simple and direct as I can, but once she starts crying is when things get a little difficult. I had to seek assistance from the psychology department, counselors and fellow teachers to deal with this situation.