Motivation in Education

  Many of times I hear teachers that think the teaching of critical thinking can not be done for younger students. However, I would argue that teaching critical thinking skills is especially important for the youngest learners.   Elementary school sets the tone for how many students view school. From an early age, it should be a top priority for students to learn the foundational skills for critical thinking, as they learn the foundational skills for other aspects of knowledge and education.   Additionally, many teachers already use strategies that are effective to teach critical thinking skills, but may not recognize it. Each teacher, school and district has their own strategies, but what I found impressive was that the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia has their own critical and creative thinking strategies on their website.  Their strategies align with what researchers, such as Ennis have found to be productive ways to teach 21st century skills. What a...

  Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as a teacher, it was interesting to see the aspects of education that changed, and the aspects that did not. One thing that did not change that I continuously struggled with was the use of rater scales used by school psychologists to qualify students for social-emotional special education services. In special education, when students are considered for social emotional services, a rater scale is to be filled out by parents and teachers, and then the student’s rating on this is compared to kids the student’s age. During the school year, this method is effective enough, but some of the measures had become very unreliable with the situation the COVID school closure put us in, and it leaves many parents and teachers in a pickle.  At the end of the year, it was time for one of my kindergarteners to be reevaluated for his special education services. Though he had not previously qualified for social emotional services, he was on the autism ...

  As an elementary special education teacher, a belief that I firmly hold is that moral (or character) education is very important from a young age. I also had recently listened to a great TED talk that really stuck with me on why moral education is important for younger student.   I am almost positive that all teachers have worked with students that have experienced trauma.  For me what really opened my eyes to the effect of trauma was when I moved to the school I am currently at.  The school houses the special education program for students with more significant social-emotional disabilities.  What really took me by surprise was that all of these students had experienced some sort of abuse as a child. For reference, these were all kindergarten through second graders. Another thing that really stood out to me was something their teacher told me: many of these students act out in violent or inappropriate ways because that is the only thing they have ever...