Energy Transfer Between Trophic Levels

This is a digital story on nutrientenergy that transfers between animals, trophic levels. This story is an activity I would like to use in my furture classroom. This digital story aligns with the Tennessee State Standard:_4.LS2:Ecosystems:Interactions, Energy,and Dynamics. This is a fourth grade standard that focuses on:Developing models ofterrestrial and aquatic food chains to describe the movement of energy among producers, herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.

Educational Blogging

 Educational blogging is usually done with a specific subject or educational topic in mind. Most blogs are done by teachers, students, and researchers. There is a vast range of blogs to be found from educators on the internet. Which blogging educationally has become very beneficial for teachers. The benefits include building communication skills, writing skills, and even social skills. A blog can connect many through opinions and data found from personal research. As educators it is important to find a method to communicate to other educators or individuals knowledgeable about education. Blogging adds the creativeness to methods of teaching, and can help broaden perspectives on methods as well.  Students blogging for educational purposes is also important, because it also aids in building  skills for them to grow with peers. Blogging is just a way to connect with others and find out more on a certain  subject or method. It is a way of finding a community that may support you as well, with today's new technology  finding that is easier than ever.

Through, examining the blogs of my peers I was able to learn more on different issues that might effect students in the classroom. Also those that must be taught in an effort to better relationships among peers and their future communities. The first one comes from Anna Loy, Good Grief: An Introduction to Bereavement. Many educators do not understand how to address grief for students, and many educators do not see the best methods to help students overcome their grief. There are many resources available for students to use when grieving so it is important as educators to learn how to connect students to them.Also be empathetic to their situation and figure out a way to help them continue to learn  despite their situation. The second blog, gave me insight over classroom management skills, Classroom Management: Practical Strategies for Your Classroom by Ms. Willard, it is important to be able to control the classroom. Control over the classroom leads to a stable learning environment that will help students learning progress smoothly. My classmate does a good job in explaining the best methods to use classroom management with.I know I lack knowledge on how to control the classroom ,so this is useful. The final blog that expanded my knowledge, was Cyber Bullying Prevention Saves Lives by Bailey Timmer. This blog emphasize the importance of teaching students how to navigate the internet safely and respectfully. My classmates points out  a good point that with more technology being integrated into the classroom it is important to teach professional social norms for technology. It is important to keep others safe so practicing good methods for online is vital, especially preventing on what is cyber bullying. All my classmates did a great job in expressing their own personal take on the topic and expanding on the topic they did. I learned a a lot on new topics I had never really thought of.

Individual on their Laptop

Throughout my blogging experience I learned that blogging can be beneficial. Personally, I like the idea of having a platform where I can share ideas with other educators or students/parents can learn more on the background of certain methods. Blogging is also a way to show professional character in what you want to do in your classroom. Through blogging I have learned more on what I want to do in my classroom and what I want to experiment with it. Examining other’s blogs has also allowed me to see how to conduct new methods or what has/ has not worked for others. I like blogging because it is a platform where you can build a community of other educators and not only educators. Input from students also allows for an increase in productivity. With today's advanced technological features, blogging is a great idea to keep track and become more personal in a formal way with others. It also allows for an easier way to express your ideas on certain things. A community can be built through those ideas. Aiding in expanding perspectives for others is also very important and seeing my peers blogs showed me that was possible. Blogging has allowed me to realize some of my own opinions as well. I think putting your words in a format that you know will help others or others will see really helps develop character. Again, blogging helps keep all individuals intertwined into your classroom, your mindset, or even your research. It is so versatile to work with and that is why I enjoy blogging. I hope to continue to grow my writing skills with blogging and grow my mindset about different teaching methods. 

Class Size

For years now class size has been growing tremendously, the population has grown and that leads to be for more kids in the classroom. Not to mention, since the Covid-19 pandemic teacher burnout and resignation has been incredibly common. This is because teachers have many issues that inhibit them from wanting to continue within the educational field. Which leads to a teacher shortage and that leaves multiple students without a teacher. Funding is also a problem that causes class sizes to be larger or smaller; and is a factor of teacher resignation. A large class size is not only a problem for teachers, but for students as well. Having a class full of students has an effect on a child, as they may not form strong bonds with the teacher or have the assistance they need. Teachers cannot be expected to be able to have close bonds with 27 students at once, so an educator may not be able to connect as much as a student may want. Not to mention,  having to assist all the children at once is an impossible task that may leave a child feeling left out. Children may also feel disconnected from their peers, so it is not advised to have such large classrooms. Recently the state of Tennessee has tried to pass a new bill that would allow school districts to set the maximum of how many students could be in their class. This can be either beneficial or harmful to the students because again class sizes is important in creating a  stable environment for learning. Experiencing a smaller classrooms setting can be beneficial in the sense that research has shown that it can lead to students advancing more on material, peers are better acquainted, and teachers can be more hand on. Students would benefit a lot, however, smaller class size could increase student anxiety because they are practically on the spot all the time. Not to mention having smaller classrooms are more expensive to have and impractical with the current teacher shortage. Many would argue that class size does not matter as long as the teacher has a technique to control the classroom, and is able to provide students with all their needs. Which is true for some individuals but not true for other. A stable class size that is not to large or too small is essential to creating a stable learning environment.  A stable learning environment is needed for students to reach their academic goal and overcome their issues concerning education. Not to mention, the ability to interact with others is essential and class size is important for that reason. There are a lot of limitations with class size, but the number of students in a classroom matters.

Classroom with Students

 

I believe class size is very essential in the way a student succeeds in class. There are multiple factors that class size affects and having an unstable class size can lead to issues with students. I know when I was a student I went to a low resource school so classes were usually very full. They were so full some of the kids had to sit on the floor. This led me to feel unconnected to my teacher and peers. Group work was chaotic and it was hard to communicate ideas/needs within the classroom. That is why I think classes should have a small maximum amount of students. I am not saying super small class size but more of an average, such as 20 students. An average size class would allow for both better participation and connection within the classroom. I know when I experienced this in high school, I really enjoyed being in class and participating. Though, there are a lot of issues inhibiting class size from being perfect I think as educators we should strive on making future class size average and workable so both parties benefit.

Parental Involvement

The educational system often puts the work load on teachers to do everything, but it is impossible for teachers to complete everything in class and by themselves. That is why parental involvement  is crucial for students. Students will feel both supported and confident about their studies if they have a well built support group. Although this could be hard to offer to some students. There are multiple  reasons why parental involvement cannot be met, some of these include: being single parents, low income, familiar issues, language barrier, etc. With these type of issues it is important as an Educator to find methods to get parents involved somehow. Some parents actually want to take part in their child's educational development, but may not have the option to in order to make ends meet. Some others may not care, but there are multiple ways to find what works for the student, parent, and school. Some of these programs go beyond just parent teacher conferences,  they include having platforms for parents, creating an inviting environment, social media boards, and parent survey.  Of course, there are always parents that maybe too involved. This can cause conflict with communicating with the parents. Though there is always conversations one could communicate with these parents in order to work out for the children. Again, these types of programs are important for students to feel full filled and supported. Having students confidence can help in the classroom setting by helping with behavioral issues and communication. When the at home environment is stable this really helps. It also helps students develop their skills more, an advance as needed throughout their courses. Overall, parental involvement is very important for both the mindset and achievements of students. That is why any type of involvement is important and teachers should learn to find a way to get in touch with parents when they cannot be as involved.

Parent helping child navigate the web

Educators and parents should be more concerned on how involvement influences a child's schooling experience. Often time parents who are not involved have valid reasons to not be able to put more time in their child's education. The parents are often judged as to not caring or preferring work over their children, which is simply not true. Their are many parents that do care they just cannot afford to put the time in, they have more responsibilities for the child. My mother was one of them, she couldn't afford to help me with my homework because she had to work overtime. Times are really tough when your a single parent, so it isn't feasible to have the possibility to work with your child. She also did not understand the language and what I was doing. However, one of my elementary school teacher took the initiative to find a system that worked for my mom to help me. Which was really helpful, I progressed more because I had practice at home and felt better supported. My mom also felt nice because she was able to help me in some way. That is why I think it is really important for parents to be involved in some way, it does not have to be anything grand. Though, it really is appreciated by both parents and students it eventually helps teachers in the classroom as well.

English Language Learners

 Throughout the school system there are several students with different needs. One of them are English Language Learners, these are individuals that have very minimal knowledge of the English language. These students require more time and thought out lessons.This is mainly because without the language they have issues with the material is being taught in. Many of these students have culturally diverse backgrounds where English is not their first language. So, many skills are needed to be developed as an educator to help these students succeed. One of the main reasons these type of communication and lesson skills need to be developed, is because many of  the students cannot learn if they do understand the language. Communication is key for educational skills and if you cannot have that with a student it can lead to a lot of issues. Another reason, is because these students need to be supported and not left out. A lot of times it is also frustrating for the student to not be able to communicate and in order to build a relationship with a student it is important to have these extra steps. English Language Learners are a diverse group of students that will be found in the classroom and as educators one must be prepared to assist them in the best way possible.

Teacher teaching English to ELL Student

I believe teachers should be more supportive of English Language Learners, and empathize more with their needs. It is difficult to accomplish when you already have several students, but as someone who was in ELL I felt left out. The program I was in was severally lacking, because both the teachers felt as if their effort was not worth putting into me learning the language. A lot of educators do not realize that most of the time for the students, this is there only method of support that would help them learn the language. My parents could not help me because they did not know the language themselves. Another issue, as to why ELL students need more attention is because a lot of the time ELL programs were more like programs for problematic kids in my experiences. Teachers in general just need to be able to incorporate their english language learners more it would really benefit them to practice the language in class and not just outside of class. Most of these kids in the program are eager to learn, I know I was, and they just need that extra push of help.