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How To Create A Successful Learning Environment For Students With Challenging Behaviors
Get PDFAs an experienced special education teacher working with a range of school districts, I have observed the need for further training on how to manage challenging behaviors within our schools. Though there are many researched based strategies available for helping educators manage challenging behaviors, there are very few trainings that guide educators to program for students with challenging behaviors. With teacher shortages at all-time high in the state of Minnesota, and schools working hard to provide inclusive classrooms, the need for further training for educators appears to be at the forefront. This project on: How to create successful learning environments for students with challenging behaviors, will help educators set up classrooms, special education rooms, or specialized programs for students who struggle with challenging behaviors. This project trains educators on 6 key components needed to create a successful learning environment for students with challenging behaviors. These components are supported by research-based methods like PBIS, Restorative Justice, and Token Based Economy Systems
Teachers Describe Their Confidence in Teaching Secondary Students with Low Literacy Skills
Get PDFFor some students, grasping the concept of literacy is completed with ease. For others, the challenges of developing literacy skills to aid in their ability to move from learning to read to reading to learn proves challenging. These challenges cause a gap in literacy growth and have shown to increase as students get older preventing them from fully accessing the concepts found in the secondary setting. As such, secondary educators are being called upon with the assumption that all teachers are teachers of reading. With this in mind, this qualitative research study aimed to uncover secondary social studies teachers’ understanding of literacy and their confidence in implementing literacy in their disciplinary course instruction. More specifically, this research gleaned to answer the primary research question: How do secondary social studies teachers describe their confidence in teaching disciplinary literacy within their courses to students with low literacy skills? In addition to answering the following secondary questions: What factors do secondary social studies teachers describe as influencing confidence/skill levels in teaching these students? How do secondary social studies teachers describe the support systems available to them in their setting as impacting their level of confidence/skills for working with these students? Participants in this study were gathered from the state’s Council for Social Studies and through the participants\u27 willingness to pass the research on to colleagues. Participants in this study completed an online survey (part one and two) and qualitative interviews. Through an analysis of the survey results of this small study, the data indicated secondary social studies teachers’ acknowledged an increase in confidence but also highlighted areas for continued growth. In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted and a system of coding was used to aid in the analysis of the transcribed interview to answer the research questions. Secondary social studies teachers believed the inclusion of literacy was important and have gained confidence in using literacy strategies in the classroom. Furthermore, the participants highlighted areas of continuous improvement as they worked toward the inclusion of literacy strategies in their classrooms. And lastly, the participants suggested several key factors and support systems that help in building confidence in working with students with low literacy skills: quality professional development, time, collaboration, materials, research, and relationships. Keywords: disciplinary literacy, literac
Preparing Trauma Informed Teachers and Utilizing Trauma Responsive Systems to Increase Educational Success For Elementary Age Students
Get PDFResearch suggests that trauma informed teaching practices benefit all students, regardless of whether or not they have experienced trauma. The professional development created for this project is informed by the work of Danielle Theis’ Teach to Heal and Performing Tracking System (2022), Nicholas Long’s Life Space Crisis Intervention (2021), the scholarship of Ross Greene (2014), and the educational framework Universal Design for Learning (2022). Trauma informed teaching practices include at its core: role definition for adults, common language, and explicit teaching of social emotional skills. The professional development will help teachers create a trauma responsive classroom which will be beneficial to all students. Along with the professional development, which is designed as a two part course with room for expansion and year long mentoring for teachers, a google classroom of resources has been created, including sample lessons for teaching the eight skills in the performance tracking system, information on how trauma impacts the brain, and ideas for creating a sense of community well-being in the classroom. The primary audience for the professional development and google classroom resources is elementary teachers, but everything would be adaptable for higher or lower grades. The goal of the project is to help teachers create a trauma responsive classroom, so that all students, even those who have not experienced trauma, will find school to be a place where they can experience their own individual successes
Developing an Outdoor Learning Area and Guidebook for the Elementary Grades
Get PDFResearch has shown that outdoor education has major benefits for school-age children (Yildirim & Akamca, 2017). These benefits include increased academic success, better social-emotional development, better physical development, and better mental and physical health (Suttie, 2018). The guidebook designed for this project focuses on how to increase those five things in children across the country. The goal of the guidebook is to increase outdoor education within classrooms throughout the United States and eventually, the world. The guidebook is geared towards elementary school teachers but can be adapted to fit any grade, time frame, and experience level of the teacher. The activities and lessons are diverse and engaging for students. Teachers who have little science background will be able to easily follow this guidebook to implement outdoor education within their own classrooms on a daily basis.This project is intended to help elementary school students increase their time spent outdoors while still meeting their standards and goals, and eventually turning these students into healthy knowledgeable humans who care about the environment
Cultivating Student Agency Through the Use of Authentic Science Practices
Get PDFThis paper examines a needed shift in teaching secondary science students as more states and school districts adopt the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for assessing student skills and knowledge. The eight practices identified by the NGSS offer an opportunity to incorporate authentic science instruction into the classroom. Research supports that students who gain confidence in authentic science practices have a broader and deeper understanding of the nature of science. Research also supports that students who improve authentic practices are more likely to trust scientific findings and be more apt to take action on social and environmental issues. This shift in behavior represents real student agency and is more likely to develop when practiced in student-centered classrooms. Studies show that teachers who exhibit personal agency have a more significant positive impact on developing agency in their students. In response to the literature review, a professional development seminar was created to foster teacher agency by assisting those wanting to incorporate authentic science practices into student-centered classrooms. Following the seminar, teachers will be part of a professional learning community to allow them a support network as they develop authentic science experiences that align with their skills and interests as science educators
History as a Catalyst for Effective Activism: A Project Based Curriculum
Get PDFMany history classes lack ways to link content to actions or skills that students can use. At the same time research suggests that activist practices are skills that are underutilized in classrooms because teachers don’t have the resources or time to teach them. Therefore this project demonstrates how history can be used to teach effective activist practices. It identifies four elements of activism that improve efficacy. They include: selecting the government as a target, strategic use of framing, utilizing physical space in addition to digital space and participating in organizations characterized by strong structures. By combining the Case Study, Texts as Tactics and Project Based learning approaches of pedagogy development, this project includes a supplementary history curriculum which inform students about the Labor Movement that occurred at the turn of the 20th century, links that historical content to the four identified elements of effective activism, and creates opportunities for students to turn their effective activism knowledge into practicable skills by taking part in a project based portion where students research, plan and implement their own activism. This curriculum accomplishes the goal of using history to teach effective activism
Empathy for Self and Others: An SEL Curriculum for a Catholic Middle School
Get PDFThis project explores the importance of an easy to use social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum that can be implemented immediately. While it is aimed specifically at a middle school audience in a Catholic school setting, it is intended for use in any advisory, homeroom, or unstructured time when teachers want to easily incorporate SEL activities. Focused on mental health and empathy, activities such as Role Playing, Naming Emotions, and many others are designed to be implemented with students right away. The goal of the curriculum is to serve as a resource for teachers as they begin teaching SEL skills explicitly or as they look to add skill-building activities to their classroom practice. Research was conducted into the best SEL practices to foster positive student outcomes, specific strategies were identified as being particularly helpful, and an effort was made to utilize cultural responsiveness. In addition to immediately implementable strategies and steps, teachers will be directed to curated resources designed to build their knowledge of and comfort with SEL. Each activity in the curriculum is sorted by the time required to implement it and directions are included on how best to use it. Many activities can be used as stand alone lessons or can be used in conjunction with academic content. Educators who are unsure of first steps to take with SEL in their schools can start here for an easily implementable curriculum. It is vitally important to practice these skills with students in middle school especially. This curriculum means to make it easier and more accessible to do so
Renewable Energy Education at Residential Environmental Learning Centers
Get PDFThis capstone project sought to answer the question, what are effective methods for teaching middle school students about renewable energy at residential environmental learning centers? Research shows that participation in a residential learning experience helps students retain knowledge and learn in a more hands-on and real world context. However, research connecting a residential environmental learning experience and renewable energy education is limited. This project involved creating a curriculum that utilizes effective methods for teaching and learning about renewable energy with the goal to help grow students energy and environmental literacy. The lesson targets middle school students but can be adapted for both older and younger students. The curriculum will primarily be used at McDowell Environmental Center, but could be used at other environmental education programs with slight modifications. The research into effective methods and strategies for teaching included: experiential learning, inquiry-based learning, hands-on experiences, place-based education, journaling, use of models and teaching aids, and utilizing role models. All of these methods are additionally viewed through the lens of utilizing the outdoors as the main teaching space. The goal of this project is to help students better understand renewable energy topics, while connecting those ideas to the outdoors and natural world
A Sense of Place in Environmental Education: A Forest Ecology Curriculum
Get PDFThis project discusses the definition of a sense of place as it pertains to environmental education to present the influence of people-to-place relationships in developing environmental stewardship and pro-environmental behavior. Researchers across the fields of geography, environmentalism, and psychology have long identified places as being important to how people see the world and how they act in different places. Fostering place attachment and place meaning within environmental curricula can advance environmental understanding and responsibility through the use of local ecology and problem solving of environmental issues. The curriculum unit within this project focuses on invasive species and uses this environmental issue to achieve the learning goals outlined in the Minnesota Academic Standards in Science – 2019 while also fostering a positive sense of place for forest ecosystems. Place-based educational frameworks in environmental education can be the gateway to developing critical problem solving skills and promoting environmental stewardship while making the learning process relevant and empowering to students and teachers. Overall, this project answers the question “How can a sense of place help environmental education create stewards of the environment?
Training English Language Teachers to Help Adult General English Students with Complex Noun Phrases for Business Writing
Get PDFAn overwhelming number of English Learners (ELs) are motivated to learn English because it can act as a tool to help them achieve career success. However, textbooks, which form the backbone of many General English (GE) courses, do not provide enough information in a number of areas related to success at work. Notably, few textbooks offer models for the language needed in job searching, including complex noun phrases. Since textbooks are not providing this material, teachers have to fill that gap themselves. In order to help teachers fulfill this task, my capstone project investigates the following research question: “How can teacher trainers instruct teachers on how to narrow the gap between noun phrases adult ELs are typically able to produce in GE classes and types of noun phrases necessary for ELs to produce effective resumes and cover letters in English?” The project includes a formal paper that contains a review of related literature, and a website that contains all of the information necessary to run three two-hour teacher professional development sessions that equip instructors to teach about noun phrases for cover letters and resumes. This paper explores the noun phrases that ELs need for writing effective and professional resumes and cover letters. The paper introduces research on the connection between EL needs and complex noun phrases, and documents the creation of a series of professional development workshops for teachers. The workshops are aimed at raising teachers\u27 awareness of noun phrases, and helping teachers integrate more noun phrase work into their courses. The workshops offer teachers support in supplementing curricula and textbooks that may not address noun phrases, and provides material and activities to help learners write effective resumes and cover letters