Poorly rolled out tech purchases have really struck a nerve within our class. Most of us have a story about a "new thing" which was supposed to solve a big problem but didn't. Some educators are so jaded by this whole process that they have given up on any kind of change or growth, tech based or otherwise. They feel so overwhelmed and undervalued that they can not find good in any Pro-D opportunity or new idea for teaching. It is a shame that improper implementation has so negatively impacted some of us that we have not found a way to recover. In the end misspent money and over hyped products negatively impact teachers and students. School leaders need to do better, be more, and have a stronger focus on helping students by supporting and challenging (in healthy ways) teachers.

Excellent advice. Too often, time is wasted, jumping from one initiative to another. A lot of pain and suffering could be avoided if one develops a vision and sticks to it. I can't count the number of resources my board has bought in an attempt to close the reading gap. I can't help but wonder where we would be if the money were spent investing in teachers and providing relevant training and not resources collecting dust.

Totally agree with this. If the technology does not enhance the learning in some capacity then it doesn't really belong in the classroom. It should always improve learning, not distract or just be a different way to do the exact same thing.

Integrating technology in teaching, however, is still not a promising idea in my working environment. My students are around three to six years old. Considering parents' rigid opinion that digital devices can make negative effects on eyesight, our school promise that we will not use digital tools over 15 minutes in the an-hour teaching.

I agree completely that a lot of success is related to a schools professional development before implementation. However, I think it's also good to seek training and opportunities for staff to learn from technology companies themselves many which now offer bespoke educational training. Google, Microsoft, and Apple all offer different levels of educator training. Having "technology champions" in school who can model best practice is another way to deepen understanding and integration.

A few years ago I had a very small English 9 class and our school had just purchased a class set of laptops available for sign out. My department head wanted to see students more mindfully engaged in vocabulary development. Just as he was presenting his vision to me, I discovered Vocaulary.com. My students loved it. A couple of my boys got into the competition aspect of the website and worked on vocabulary outside of class even when it was not assigned for homework. I was very pleased with how engaged they were, but after reading these guiding questions I am wondering if the site was as effective as I thought. I am including my answers in relation to the site below.

1. The competition aspect and the slowness or other loading glitches were possible distractions.
2. It did motivate students to work on vocabulary but I am not sure it placed the words in context or helped them be more useful/used in everyday speech.
3. I think the site did help them become more active.
4. I think it was a lot about playing the game and not very creative.
5. It was designed to scaffold but it was too easy for students to bypass the scaffold on the way to completion or competition points.
6. Other than quizzing with the computer it was a lot of the traditional methods transferred to the screen.
7. It did draw students into optional participation outside of class. There was no bridge fro the activities to non-class usage. Somewhat if they choose to transfer the words to daily use but otherwise no. I hope these answers show ho theses questions are very helpful when evaluating a certain tech option for class.

This whole process shows how intentional we need to be with our technology integration. Every step needs to be carefully thought out and taken in order to make sure students are able to use the program to its full capabilities. Showing them once at the front of the class and handing them devices is not good enough. I also really appreciate the personal responsibility component. I think then when dealing with a screen there is a sense of responsibility that is sometimes lost due to the novelty of the program or activity. We as teachers need to make sure our students are still held accountable for their actions and learning.

Therefore, showing students when to use technology for learning and for playing and helping them develop self-discipline and time-management skill is of great importance. Maybe, it should be more important than teaching students how to use technology tools.

When teaching the word "pyramid" to my students, I played a short video about Egypt on youtube and showed it to children instead of using the traditional teaching practice, such as a flashcard. They were curious and really excited after the video was over. I let them share what they saw and liked in that video, and it turned out they learned many more words than I had expected. I believe that the most essential value of adopting technology methods in teaching children is that we could tap on children's curiosity and motivate them to learn more.

I think this method would work! The plan of action written by students is similar to a promise, and children take promises seriously. Also, children, without learning pressures, are prone to learn at their will and link the knowledge with what they like and how they feel. A personal learning goal decided by themselves can be internalized to they will, along with keeping the promises of their actions.

Getting distracted soon is the biggest problem in my teaching as my students are very young, especially when using technology tools. If it takes too long, children will get distracted or be affected easily by other children who are doing something else. Generally, their attention span is 10 to 15 minutes, and using technology tools will excite them immediately. It always takes me several minutes to calm them down first and let them sit quietly to listen to the instructions. I think the tricky part is how to set proper goals and length for children to use technology.

This part resonates with two technology skills for 21st-century learners: Creative Communicators and Global Collaborators (OECD, 2018, p. 87). I find this topic interesting and believe it could be a chance for our next generation to form a globally shared language, which could enable people on every corner of the world to communicate with minimized understanding. It does not merely refer to a specific language, such as English or Franch; it is more like a global network language through which people can precisely express and receive the meaning of messages from others in the future.

The questions below offer us an instrumental evaluation to assess if the technology is used and adopted effectively and appropriately. Considering that this figure mostly draws our attention to the positive aspects brought by technology, we need to list questions concerning the adverse outcomes and add them to the evaluation as well.

I agree with Kolb. We live in the digital era, it is thus necessary for us, educators, to formally instruct and offer guidance to children for them to use digital devices properly. The overarching goal shared by educators all over the world is preparing our students for future needs with 21st century skills. Teaching them how to use digital tools, how to identify different categories of information, how to do research and play on the devices at the proper time should be officially added in teaching practices.

These are great questions for analyzing the purpose and usefulness of the tasks you may be planning. We are at a tipping point with technology where we all know it is here to stay, however, there is growing research and concern about students overusing technology and social media. Tasks with technology have to be purposeful otherwise the task should arguably continue to be delivered with more traditional methods. It is all about maintaining balance.

Without a framework for integration and accountability for use of the technology these mass purchases of devices are arguably useless. Ensuring teachers are adequately trained, passionate, and committed to integration first is vital to long term success. Often it requires a pedagogical shift for a teacher to move from simply adding technology to a task to planning with technology in mind from the start. Technology can often make teaching tasks easier but it requires a lot of planning at the front end.

Often technology is measured by the mere presence of the device. Models such as SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) help to actually measure the depth of technology integration. Is the device just substituting a traditional method e.g pen and paper. Or is the technology helping redefine the task? SAMR has been a great tool at our school for challenging teachers to deepen their understanding of tech integration.

There are all kinds of divides in society and school. One thing that fascinates me is the divide between teacher attitudes. Some teachers see tech as not helpful and do not want to learn and some teachers are the ones who embrace everything. I wonder how to get these two groups talking to each other? I wonder about the people caught in the middle who are neither doubters or enthusiasts, who wish they could do it all but just feel overwhelmed and inadequate. How do school leaders support their growth.

It seems to me like there are two major problems here that are compounding on each other. First being the access to new technology and the second being innovative use of this new technology. I see this exact issue when looking at different schools in my own school district. One high school that is in a more affluent area of town tends to draw students of higher socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Since majority of students who attend this school have access to the internet and personal laptops, they are able to spend funds on different types of technology and use these in a variety of innovative ways (ex. two virtual reality rooms). There are other schools where the students who own laptops are far and few between and some do not have access to internet at home. The focus of these schools is not as much enrichment but on simply getting students connected. My question is if it is more equitable to distribute funding for technology not by number of students in the school but the overall socioeconomic status of the neighborhoods surrounding. I understand this would be a complete headache to try and undergo but do not the smaller schools with more difficult students deserve more aid?

Very true. Our mindset surrounding an issue is the biggest barriers as teachers. I am a firm believer that there is always a way, we simply have to think outside of the box sometimes and be willing to go the extra mile to address these inequalities.

It makes sense that this would be the case. I imagine it like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs where in order to have innovative technology integration, you first need to have other needs previously met. There is also the problem of a steep learning curve for student who may not be as integrated with technology. If you spend half of the class trying to get set up with a particular program then you have less time for positive facilitation of that technology. I have attempted this year to integrate google classroom for my classes at it took almost 2 months to get every person in every class signed up. This was due to parents need to log into an online platform and grant permission and a wide variety of other problems. My wife who works in a grade 5 private school managed to get all of her students signed up and working within 20 minutes.

This step is even crucial for integrating technology in teaching in the beginning. Some parents in my classes are reluctant to let their kids use digital devices at home. One of them even sold their iPad. By surveying parents, we could understand if we could conduct a digital learning project and let some of the students participate in first. If the learning project succeeds, the results will affect those parents to open the chance for children to get access to technology.

Yes. Also, different adults have different opinions about kids playing around computers. For example, Once, some parents found me and asked if they should let their children use digital devices because we treated them differently. I like to encourage parents to let children play video games or use iPad, while another teacher at our school criticize kids when they are playing phones or computers. The entire school must commit to shared value and mission so that educators will not confuse students and parents.

I think this type of mapping is important to measure the quality of your program. Understanding where the best practice is means you can work out where best to invest your money in technology and devices. If budgets are particularly tight you want to get the most out of your resources.

Having taught in both private and public school I fully understand the "digital divide" that is being spoken about here. One of the key actions I found which helped bridge the gap was being more flexible with students using their personal devices where necessary. To do this effectively requires a level trust being built. However, allowing students to bring out their personal devices for specific tasks or quizzes I found was sometimes quicker because of their familiarity with the device being used. I then ensured I had spare devices that could still be used to accomplish the task if the student didn't have a device that would work. This built capacity for technology integration in the classroom exponentially.

Like tom and matt, I was shocked to see so many types of anxieties. Matt, you make a good point about the term being thrown around. To often we label kids or their behaviours which can do more harm than good. Sometimes it is just students trying to figure it out or to be politically incorrect, "boys being boys."

What happens if the parent is the cause of the anxiety? I know in my context often the pressure from parents on students to succeed and secure good university places is extremely influential. In a recent student survey across our school district we found by far the most accurate indicator of students' social and emotional health was the quality of their relationship with parents.

I didn't realize there were eleven different types of anxiety. It appears from the list of occurring symptoms that some may be easier to spot than others. Physical and emotional responses are quite visual, whereas thoughts and behaviors may be harder to spot?

Astonishing to think this problem is so widespread. Does this correlate with your own personal experiences in education? My initial impression was that this is probably about correct. Providing opportunities for students to work through anxiety is vital to their longer term success.

I had a chuckle when I came across this article. It would be very hard to live in the north if you had a fear of flying. My daughter had her first flight when she was 2.5 days old.

I think everyone overlooks what they eat and how it can impact them. My wife noticed a huge difference when she cut out processed foods from her diet. This last week has been the longest of the year as students are living off their Halloween candy. On a good day, most of them don't eat a healthy balanced diet. Last year we spent over $80,000 on healthy food and snacks for our students. Right now, we only provide breakfast and afternoon snacks but would love to offer a lunch program. I am convinced we could eliminate many of our behaviour problems if we were able to provide two to three healthy meals a day for our students. It is not uncommon to see students have pop, chips, and candy for lunch and dinner.

Does anyone have experience with selective mutism? We have a student that was recently diagnosed with selective mutism, but she is 15. The best guess it stems from early childhood trauma and has never been treated. It breaks your heart, seeing a student suffer from it and know there is very little you can do.

This reminds me of the story happens on my son. Due to the long time he spends on watching TV and playing video games, we enrol a street dance class for him. He enjoys dancing and playing with other kids there, but he resists to step out of home and go to the class every week. My husband and I was confused as he really seems like the class and perform very well. I remembered that I might have the same feeling before accepting a huge job task or reading a hard book. However, that feeling disappeared immediately once we were engaged in. Now I could identify that feeling as the resistance to avoid situations that make us feel anxious rather than the feelings implying our true needs, and it is better not to reject it. This is profound for our family.

My mom has been suffering from Anxiety for more than 30 years. She deeply believes that anxiety is completely detrimental and is eager to get rid of her anxiety as soon as possible, which makes her feel even more anxious. Know that anxiety is normal and adaptive could greatly change her perspective towards anxiety, and maybe make anxiety her friend one day.

If anxiety were not identified, the side effects of our anxious behaviours would affect other people. For example, if the teacher fails to realize the kid is anxious, the kid could not receive the help he or she needs, and his or her anxious behaviours might also influence other children in the classroom.

Recognizing the signs of anxiety is also an important first step in identifying anxiety and offering help to students or other people to manage it.

Therefore, it is important for teachers to acknowledge the helpfulness of anxious feeling to students and children before an exam or a show. Also, teachers should offer practical help to help student manage anxiety, such as instructing students to schedule their time and energy properly and one-on-one mentoring.

I will have to keep reading related researches as my son seems to be with BFRBs. He keeps touch a part of his body no matter how many times we try to distract him to touch something else. It never occurs to me that it could be a kind of anxiety. This is really helpful.

I think this is a key step in curing anxiety. It could be extremely helpful. My concern is that separating from anxiety cannot go too far. Letting anxiety be the scapegoat for most of things could also result in an irresponsible attitude. Therefore, we have to also watch the ideas and be aware of them when the anxiety is cured.

This idea would be helpful for people to identify anxiety positively. It could be something fun, and that's not bad. Having experience with anxiety could also be a lifetime precious memory.

Gathering information, taking notes, analyzing data. These are all systematic methods involved in the process of conducting a research. Approaching to anxiety through these methods is a scientifically helpful.

This might be the hardest step as people might not be willing to admit to other people that they are with anxiety. In my context, it could be even hard for people to admit they are have anxiety to themselves. Nobody likes to be defined as a patient.

Either fast or slow, finding the most comfortable pace for oneself is the most important. Sometimes moving so fast might not be instructive.

I let my son try all three methods. It seems that calm breathing is the most effective one to a 5-year-old. He got increasingly uncontrolled when trying muscle relaxation, and ran around the room when I tried to let him imagine. But after calm breathing practice, he could stay calm and finish his violin practice rather than larking about as usual. Maybe calm breathing could be adopted for helping children with anxiety.

There is a psychological practice in China, which is very similar to mindfulness, called "Zhengnian". It is about focusing on the right present moment. It requires people to do nothing, simply sit down with eyes closed, breath, and notice what is happening in mind. And the key is trying not to control any idea, just let them float, rise, and disappear. It is really helpful for me to calm down and stop thinking everything would go bad.

I believe writing them down would be particularly helpful in increasing confidence of dealing with anxious thoughts. Most of people will not bother to write them down most of time, and they will forget about them very soon and be anxious next time. Writing them down will be a period of "history" with anxiety and reminds us of the bad thoughts we have overcome. The list is delivering the message to us that we could manage our anxious thoughts.

Do not exaggerate effects of positive and neutral aspects. Having a friend or a family member to look at them together would be better at the beginning of using balanced thinking.

I remember the days I did the same things: obsessively checked my phones or walked in my office again and again. However, those anxious feelings and behaviours disappeared when I hugged my son in my arm. I believe it is critical for new moms or people with anxiety to find the moment that they could calm down. That can be helpful for diagnosing where the anxiety starts.

This sounds like a helpful advice. But I am concerned that what if this method causes more anxious feelings as the girl just does not enjoy the feelings of trying something unknown. Would trying something she already knows the end help cause she could gain reassurance?

The mindfulness exercise in the "Calming Strategies: Learning to Chill, Lesson 3" would be helpful in this situation.

Yes, and truly friends respect boundaries between you. I am the one who likes to focus on the quality of friendship rather than quantity of friends. I believe that people who respect boundaries in friendship are worth making friends with.

Not just teenagers, I think even adults need to acknowledge this fact. I felt the same way when my parents got divorced several years ago. I thought I could manage the situation well as I am already an adult. And more importantly, adults should not be embarrassed of feeling depressed during parents' divorce. There is nothing to do with our age, and we need to understand the parents made the choice for them to be happier, not abandon us.

This is what terrifies me about teaching but in a good way. I think it is a good concern because it is so easy to miss the important "stuff" as we focus on content. When I have a student who is not producing academically my first question is: what are the stressors? Is there something going on which is preventing or blocking or inhibiting learning? I work very hard to avoid assuming they are lazy or rebellious. Even if these are the presenting challenges, I still have to ask why. Living cross -culturally can be very challenging especially if the whole family is not on the same page about why they are there. I think remember the "hidden" possibilities seems to be an important part of the teacher's duty to care.

What is the common first question by staff in your school when a student appears to be struggling with completing tasks or following directions?

It's really important that staff feel confident to bring these types of topics to administration. It appears early intervention is critical. How does your school manage these types of referrals? At our school, our student services team (Nurse, Counselor, Student Services Director, Special Needs Teacher) meet on a weekly basis to discuss individual cases. They then bring situations to the attention of administration when they feel necessary.

I am so thankful for these suggestions. Being able to help and having tools to do so helps lower my anxiety levels. It is so easy to feel like I am hurting in my attempts to help. It is so important to know we are not alone and that sharing with a safe person can help.

How does one know someone is a safe person?

This is a really important section. I wish it was a bit more explicit about what exactly to look for. I am sure the information is in this website somewhere but I think it would be helpful to have fuller explanation embedded in this section. I am so thankful these tools exist.

This is one of the most useful lists I have seen to help describe when to be anxious about being anxious. I find the comparison of smoke detector going off for making toast a beautiful analogy. I believe the tone of this article would make it easy for young people to access it.

CBT is an awesome beginning point for support in addressing unhelpful thoughts. At one point in my healing process I was directed to https://moodgym.com.au/ for help. I found it an effective starting place. If the issues are broader or deeper than difficult thoughts, there does need to be follow up. One of my issues was having to get everything right and mood gym never tells the user that. I found it helpful to process that with a counselor. As I Christian, I see CBT as a way to "take every thought captive" (II Cor 10:5). I am thankful for the help moodgym and CBT provided at a critical point in my life.

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