beyondchips

Students getting up from their seats seems to be a thing these days, and many struggle when students get up and leave with or without permission. Rather than react, consider a more fundamental and proactive approach. When was the last time the classroom looked transformed communicating a shift in mindset?  Some say, offering students agency over their seating arrangements, promotes students thinking about the learning environment and the freedom to make their own positive decisions. This, of course, can be seen as a difficult departure from the control of the seating chart and not everyone is ready. The seating arrangement impacts the dynamics and flow of instruction. Lessons in a U- or circle-shaped classroom encourage greater student participation and interaction than those taught in rows. Standing desks, exercise balls, and beanbag chairs are just a few of the flexible seating alternatives that provide kids the freedom to learn in the most productive setting for them. Each learn...

  In the book How Children Fail, the author likens students belonging either to a group of hopeful travelers on a journey with wonderful thoughts of an eventual arrival at a destination, or prisoners in a chain gang forced to work under threats of punishments with no knowledge of where they are at the moment, or will be down the line. Here’s the book: http://www.schoolofeducators.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/HOW-CHILDREN-FAIL-JOHN-HOLT.pdf   Many students perceive schools as a place where they are forced to go, where they are told what to do, and where their lives become miserable if they don't comply. For these students, the primary goal of school is not learning. Rather it is a place where mundane activities are performed with minimum effort and unpleasantness. They are often labeled as those who don't care.   Here’s a way forward for your consideration…   https://ace.edu/blog/new-kids-on-the-block-reaching-and-teaching-generation-alpha/   Key points of the ...

  Once in a while articles find me and I am compelled to share. This one is about how to deal with people who may be hostile. We perceive them to be angry, antagonistic, abrasive, harsh, etc. and we are often times called to engage similarly thereby increasing the propensity for an escalation.   The brief article allows for a brief reflection on how we deal with hostility. The best part is, there is a way out. The answer starts with the person in the mirror… I invite you to read on.   https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-at-any-age/202307/understanding-the-abrasive-individual