Social Media in our Unsocial World

Look at me, blogging on a social media outlet about social media. It's become such a huge staple of life today. I began my journey with AOL instant messenger and chat and progressed to MySpace, mommy forums, blogging, and of course Facebook and Twitter. But WHY? To communicate with others, obviously, but I think it has turned into much more than that, and not just for me. Attention. Yup, I said it! We are all seeking attention. Even right now as I am writing I am hoping someone will read this blog, find it interesting and post/reblog/share/pin it so more eyes can see. But I doubt it will happen... But hey you, yup, YOU are reading, right?

So I was prompted to evaluate my social media use a few days ago when a challenge to stay off Facebook for 5 days was posted and I was tagged.

"No way!"

"Impossible!"

"Uh... Nope"

 

Were just some of the responses that the challenge received. I postponed starting for a weekend thinking it would be easier to start when I was home spending time with my family and keeping busy. I realized that's actually the times I am on the most! 

In the car while my husband is driving? I'll just hop on Facebook and see what other people are doing. Why would I talk to the man I've been married to for 8 years?! LUDICROUS!

Outside watching my boys play? Oh, man are they cute! I better snap pictures and post them on Facebook! Oh look! Someone posted a funny cat video! Wait look at that obnoxious politically driven post!! I just HAVE to read all these idiotic comments from people I don't know that clearly have no life to sit and post on freaking Facebook all day. Why should I actually engage in playtime with my kids? Who has the time for that?!

I know I'm not alone in this. You see posts about it all the time, you know, while you are just going to check in on Facebook and you stumble across that heart wrenching video of the demise of our physical social networking skills. But that is just an exaggeration, right? Surely YOU aren't that bad... WE as a whole aren't REALLY like that! 

But aren't we? Don't we miss out on things all the time because we are caught behind a screen? And if it's not Facebook or Twitter maybe it's that important text or that completely unimportant game alert (candy crush it totally life or death, right?!).

It consumes us. If we are being honest, completely and truly honest, we all have to admit we are guilty more times than we like. 

So here I go, yet again, to put the screens aside and leave them aside. Leaving it in another room is usually the easiest way, sad but true. I am going to focus full on my kids. Will you join me in this attempt to rebuild relationships with those that really matter? Those all important people who are physically there, right over there in the very same room as you! Put the screen aside and look into their eyes when you talk to them. Touch their arm as you playfully push them when they make do or say something that LITERALLY makes you Laugh Out Loud and they are there to hear it! Make and build those connections in real life. It matters. It really does.

If you need me I'll be playing Uno with my kid. No pictures included . 

One Done

Wow! That's it ladies and gentlemen. I did it! I finished my first year of teaching.

Was it easy?
Heck no!

Am I going back for more?
Of course!

This first year was not with out bumps and bruises, emotionally and physically, but I definitely learned a lot. Sometimes I wonder how I made it through, and mostly I think it's because I'm stubborn (glad THAT finally came in handy!). But mostly it was because of support and encouragement. Of course my husband pulled me through, and the support of the staff and teachers I worked with made it easy to go to work most days. But truly the biggest reason I made it through was seeing the impact I made on the kids and the improvement in their behavior as the year progressed.

This year provided a lot of learning opportunities. I was so busy learning so much I didn't get to keep up with this blog the way I had hoped to. I did take some pictures and my goal this summer is to add some of those on here. There was a lot of things I created that worked, and others that didn't, but that is part of the process isn't it? Trial and error. That was the mantra this year.

But I made it and I'm going back for more. I've already started pinning more ideas and thinking about what I want to do differently next year. And school has only been out a week! Don't get me wrong, I am ready to embrace and love this vacation time, trust me, I definitely earned it, but I like to he prepared so it's never to early to start thinking!

My advice for redirection teachers? Don't give up! It's a tough job, NO DOUBT, but you really get to see the changes and growth in your students. You get to see your students grow and develop, not only in an educational way, in an emotional and social way that you don't always get to see too. It's amazing, it truly is. Maybe I was destine for this position. It seemed like so many things were pointing me to this even though I was so sure it wasn't what I wanted. I have a lot of room to grow, but I think I stood my ground and held my own and I am ready to rest up this summer and then hit the ground running again!

Valentine Social Skill Lesson

Ok so I am a sucker for cute theme bulletin boards. Even more so when they are filled with student work. My goal had been to try and get a fun social skills activity to do with my groups and have them proudly display them on. Board outside my room. 

We had recently been discussing compliments and saying nice things to others so I thought a perfect board would be to tell thinks we love about others at our school! It was tough to get ideas flowing but I think they enjoyed it once we found something they really wanted to say. Next year I want to get them to do more than just one or two. 

Here are some if their work with a sentence stem to get them going:

We love that...

Break Flip Cards

I needed a different spin on my break tickets for my younger kids and those that have a more difficult time verbalizing their need for a break. In the beginning of the year, I came up with this idea of a flip card. 

The concept is that you place a double sided card by the door or their safe spot/chill zone. When the student begins to feel anxious, frustrated, or upset, they remove themselves to their safe spot and flip the break flip card. This shows the teacher where the student went and they can then react accordingly.

I like this as more of a visual for the student as well. The face and the color convey the feelings so the students do not need to be able to read, however the words are there as well. You can see my first set on the bottom left of the picture before I had access to the color printer. I still wanted a difference in color so I used two different colors. Recently a bilingual student has begun to display aggression and frustration issues so I decided to translate the card into Spanish. I plan to also laminate them so they hold up longer. 

The goal is always to move them towards verbalization and break tickets if needed, but to begin they need to be able to find a safe spot where they can cool down. It will take some preteaching of the safe spot as well as calming techniques for the student to use while in their safe spot. Adding a timer and teaching them to set it themself would also be a good progression to assist the student in self calming. 

SAHM vs whatever else

Ok so I'm jumping on the bandwagon a bit here with this one. 

There is a lot of controversy going around over a blog where a "feminist", if we are so inclined to call her, very strongly states her opinions regarding women who are married young and have children. I refuse to even link her post here. I think the notion that anyone has to defend their choice to get married and have children is utterly ridiculous. 

I could go on and on here about how I started a family young, but really, it's irrelevant. 

What I want to talk about is the fact that this blogger feels that being a successful working adult and having a family are mutually exclusive. Why can't you get married young, have kids, and still pursue your dreams and ambitions? Where is there a rule that you must first go to school, get a degree, find a career before getting married, having children, and raising a family (if you choose to do that at all)?

The choice is that of the person living that life, and that person alone. Now, should you get married and have children decisions should then be made through the choice that best suits that family, but that's getting ahead of where this discussion is now. If you, yes, YOU, want to get married and have children then that is YOUR choice and no one else's. If YOU aren't sure that motherhood is the right path for you but you know the career you desire that will satisfy and sustain you, pursue that path! 

We are a nation of followers, looking to what others do and say is "right". In the end, when you take your final breath and reflect on the life you lead, does it matter if your neighbor looked down on the fact that your husband supported your family while you stayed home and raised your children? Are you going to care that some blogger posted how she looked down upon young women who got married and had children young? I'm quite sure the answer is "No." I know mine is. 

Ok so maybe now it's relevant how I started a family young... Only a little though...

I did the single working mom thing. I did the young married stay at home mom thing. I went to school while I stayed home and got my bachelors and then my masters. Now I work. I have to do what is best for me and my family. And what is the best for me and my family surely is not going to be the same as what is best for you and your family. 

It's a personal decision. You do you and I will do me.

Reward Punch Cards

I posted a little before when I talked about tickets but I'm really loving the reward punch cards right now! I had some I made for my reading group and have now extended them to my social skills groups! I made three different colors and let them choose their cards.

I also found a pocket chart so I could display them. I lined them up by grade levels and came up with the idea also if flipping the cards. If they aren't following directions I turn their card around and it it's backwards at the end of their time they can't earn a punch. BUT if they turn their behavior around then I can turn their card back around!

Tickets

I started an SRA reading group with two... Difficult... 5th graders and I needed a way to help get them motivated and on task. This was my initial idea. I like and, and I'm using them, but I need to alter the rewards. We changed to them earning computer time daily but I still want to keep them motivated to earn treasure box as well. It's a work in progress, as is everything I am doing it seems!

I also needed some different ways to help teachers monitor certain classroom behaviors, especially since I'm not in the classrooms with my students the majority of the day. So I created some different tickets for them to use. The teachers provide the student with the number of tickets they are able to use for a day for a task they want. The example below show a bathroom ticket, break pass, and a Lego talk ticket. The student must turn in a ticket to do the desires task and once they run out for the day they cannot do it anymore. They receive the tickets back again the following day and start over. So far these are working really well, even for one of my most difficult students, he is routinely using his break ticket and even waiting IN CLASS for me to come take him for his break!