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This is an amazing classroom management system to promote positive behavior. Each student in the class is given an avatar. Simply click on the student's name and give/take dojo points for the behaviors you've programmed in. All of the data is logged into the site and saved for the duration of the year. Use the class feature daily or weekly to identify classroom strengths and areas for improvement. Individual student reports are also available and serve as a powerful tool for parent conferences and grade level meetings. Teachers can choose to reward students based on their positive behaviors by points or percentage. I have used the site extensively in my classroom (5th grade) and have found it to be the most effective positive behavior strategy I've ever tried.

A great free online tool for tracking student behavior. This site allows teachers to instantly record student behavior and participation in class. It also graphs students weekly behaviors and allows students to set goals. Teachers can link class dojo up to parents' email and cell phones so parents can recieve daily updates on their childs behaviors and choices in school.

I have a few teachers who have used this tool in their own classrooms and absolutely love this technology. In order to stay organized, Class Dojo allows teachers to keep track of students behavior. Then, teachers could have a simple way of tracking data in order to allow for positive incentives. Displaying data for the class shows how behavior is effecting classroom lessons and keeps students accountable for their actions. Behavior reports are also good printouts to bring to parent-teacher conferences.

Week 7 This reading is discussing the use of rewards in teaching and education. It discusses the effects on motivation and if the behavior being rewarded will continue if the reward is removed. Depending on how you interpret this article, you can use rewards in the most effective way to change the targeted behavior or remind yourself that that you can aid students in discovering self motivation by rewarding them with praise.

Teachers often offer rewards for good work, but Willingham speaks of their potential dangers. Rewards must be used with care, only if necessary, for a specific reason, not as a constant. In an attempt to encourage desired behaviors, they could produce the opposite effect if an expected reward is outside of reach. Rewarding a student for the act of producing rather than for producing a quality product, can also lead to lack of motivation and interest in learning. The system can also backfire is the offered incentive is not a desired reward. Though it seems intuitive and effective short term to offer rewards, this article presents some great points for the thoughtful educator in pointing out that rewards can be used effectively, but may also be more trouble than they are worth.

I like the idea presented in the article that grades can be construed as rewards for students. At first I sort of rolled my eyes (internally) at the idea, but the way the article described rewards actually made it meaningful to me. The article says that rewards (when used) should be "Desirable, Certain, and Prompt" to be effective. For grades to motivate students, they should be desirable (i.e. the intrinsic reward of good grades should already be ingrained), the grades need to be Certain (that is, the students need to have clear ideas of what it takes to earn an "A" or "B" etc) and must be Prompt (students tend to fail to see the correlation between effort and grades if they are given feedback on work days or weeks after the assignment is performed). The idea of promptness really stood out to me because contractually, I am required to update grades for students every 2 weeks. I always found that to be woefully inadequate for students to learn from their assessed work. I want students to be able to learn from mistakes they make on their assignments, but often seeing a grade value weeks after the attempt is made is similar to the 'ice cream' example in the article. Having a grade with feedback a day after they make an attempt will make the student feel more 'attached' to that grade and be more likely to fix it. For a graded assignment that was done long ago, students may see it as a more detached product and less likely to care about making corrections.

This is an awesome resource for teachers, parents or anyone working with students with Autism. It provides helpful tips, challenges, and treatment and therapy options for these students. I like to reference it as it covers a lot of information on behaviors and how to handle them. It is applicable for any age pre-k though adulthood. -I am a special Educator serving students in the Autism Program.

Today's state-of-the-art health education curricula reflect the growing body of research that emphasizes Teaching functional health information (essential knowledge) Shaping personal values and beliefs that support healthy behaviors Shaping group norms that value a healthy lifestyle Developing the essential health skills necessary to adopt, practice, and maintain health-enhancing behaviors. Health teachers are able to use this to develop strategies and use best practice strategies in their own classrooms to assist with teaching in the classroom.

Temple Grandin is a renown icon in the Autism Field. She has a PHD in Animal Science and was diagnosed with Autism as a very young child. In this specific video she discusses how many students diagnosed with Autism think and view the world. She is an extremely helpful resource as she understands what its like to be in my students shoes. Its important to grasp how students might be thinking or viewing something to better understand their reactions to their environment. In Hopes to better understand why we might see certain behaviors spike at certain points. Furthermore how to address or prevent them from happening. -I am a Special Educator Serving students with Autism

(Week 7: Michelle and Tolu) http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=537ab470-df86-45e4-b0e1-6a514e8ff2f5%40pdc-v-sessmgr05 This journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC library. This article reviews the literature relevant to games and simulation pedagogy in higher education. Two researchers collaborate to apply a qualitative method, coding and synthesizing the results using multiple criteria. The main objective is to study the impact of games and simulations with regard to achieving specific learning objectives. The article indicates that simulations have a positive impact on learning goals. The researchers identify three learning outcomes when integrating games into the learning process: cognitive, behavioral, and affective. This article can further instructional practices by providing g rationale for integrating simulations in academic curricula. Among the many reasons for including simulations in the classroom: they facilitate the transfer of knowledge, stimulate greater student engagement, and strengthen social development of students (Vlachopoulos & Makri, 2017). The article helps to ensure that the simulation is thoughtfully and deliberately introduced to minimize confusion and demonstrate how the simulation will reinforce course goals or objectives. References Vlachopoulos, D., & Makri, A. (2017). The effect of games and simulations on higher education: a systematic literature review [Entire issue]. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0062-1

Week 8: Group 2- James Sweigert, Sabrina Carey, Jennifer Freburger

This is a journal article accessible via the UMUC Library. The focus of this article is on a three-year study in which a focus group consisting of middle-schoolers were targeted. More specifically, this target group consisted of 123 students, all with disabilities from 12 different schools in the mid-west. The focus of this study was to compare these students willingness to show empathy, caring, and a willingness to intervene to help a victim of bullying with their academic test scores and report cards grades. This target group was compared to schools without the intervention plan. In the 12 target schools, the selected students participated in intervention lessons through the program "Second Step-Student Success Through Prevention". Our group, Group Two felt strongly connected to this article as two of us teach students with disabilities while all three of us are employed in the public school system where character traits such as empathy, caring, and a willingness to intervene to help a victim of bullying are taught through advisory lessons to ALL students. However, within our schools and counties there are no programs tracking data on the effectiveness of such lessons. This article is highly useful to our team because our Smart Target Goals all relate to increasing specific scores or improving behavior types. We will be using information discussed in this article within our current implementation period. For example, by applying an emphasis on This is a journal article accessible via the UMUC Library. The focus of this article is on a three-year study in which a focus group consisting of middle-schoolers were targeted. More specifically, this target group consisted of 123 students, all with disabilities from 12 different schools in the midwest. The focus of this study was to compare these students willingness to show empathy, caring, and a willingness to intervene to help a victim of bullying with their academic test scores and re

Week 8: Dave and Kristina This article is found by searching "differentiation" in the MEd Program Diigo. This article is mainly about how teachers need to continue to observed and held accountable for their teaching methods in order to best educate high-ability learners. According to VanTassel Baska (2012), "teacher effectiveness has been shown to be the main determinant of student progress." The author is of the belief that if teachers are continually observed, sometimes in an unannounced situation, that they will continue to teach using complex higher order behaviors and that this is the way that gifted students will learn best. Teachers in our group can use this article to understand the reasoning behind continual professional development and observation. Both of us teach gifted students in our classes and we need to remember that these students need to provide extended activities for these students and that we need to consider if our lessons include the use of higher level skills. Often time as teachers, we tend to focus more on the students that struggle academically but, we need to remember that our gifted students also need extra support as well so that they are able to grow as learners. References VanTassel-Baska, J. (2012). Analyzing Differentiation in the Classroom: Using the COS-R. Gifted Child Today, 35(1), 42-48. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.1177/1076217511427431

This video describes how to effectively re-engage a disruptive student without shaming them--which could escalate the situation or lead the class off-task.

Students' middle grade attendance is a strong indicator of future high school performance. As such, middle teachers can use such attendance info to identify students who may tend to struggle in high school, and give those students needed support in advance of ninth grade. I have not been able to implement the strategies mentioned (its Summertime!) but I intend to try some this Fall with the 10 or 15 students that I know will be attendance issues in my 8th grade classes.

Like you mentioned, I already know a handful of students going into 8th grade (I teach 6th-8th grade computer technology as a creative arts course) that will be attendance, behavior, and/or low GPA's. I feel like while our schools try to support student learning, we too often push kids through from one grade to the next. I have students this past year who in the semester every other day that I instruct them (45 classes in all), they have missed more than half and yet they promote to the next grade. Each of the five areas highlighted raise good points and I actually find some of the statistics very alarming considering the small differences in percentages. For example, Figure 3 on page 8 depicts two identical students with exact achievement marks in 5th grade. By the time they reach 8th grade, one students attendance improves 2% and the other students attendance drops 4% to a 93% avg. attendance rate. While this doesn't sound like a terrible drop (at least to me), the possibility of these students being on track for 9th grade went from 93% for the student who improved attendance compared to 66% of this student being on track for 9th grade whose attendance dropped just a few percentage points. I think more needs to be done at the school level to improve performance and setup interventions that help our students succeed rather than worrying about the multiple standardized tests that students are required to complete throughout the year. Thank you for sharing! I'm definitely reading over this again as I prepare for the upcoming school year with my middle school students and may even share it with my staff.

(Week 8: Amber, Angela, and Kenneth) The journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC Library. The journal article discusses the draw on the accumulated research to provide a framework for differentiating instruction. REACH is used a mnemonic device and is the type of framework that two teachers have developed which includes a comprehensive inventory and several practical strategies for using it. Teacher can use differentiating instruction to fundamentally find different ways to teach students with diverse and behavioral needs. REACH is an acronym for a charted course of action for developing the use of differentiated instruction. It means and highlights each as follows: "(a) reflect on will and skill, (b) evaluate the curriculum, (c) analyze the learners, (d) craft research based lessons, and (e) hone in on the data." (Rock, Gregg, Ellis, & Gable, 2008). It literally gives you "a step by step approach to introducing strategies and procedures for student with disabilities or general student the cognitive access to achieve their educational outcomes." (Rock et al, 2008). Both participating teachers have various needs and both need different strategies to differentiate their lessons. References Rock, M. L., Gregg, M., Ellis, E., & Gable, R. A. (2008). REACH: A Framework for Differentiating Classroom Instruction. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 52(2), 31-47. doi:10.3200/psfl.52.2.31-47 Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=0161de11-17f9-4ba4-86d0-eff88604e5e5%40sessionmgr4009

Week 7: This is a journal article based on reading behaviors, which emphasizes Daniel Willingham's arguments in the importance of building content knowledge. In reference to that, this journal discusses the effect background knowledge plays on comprehension of texts read. "The present study was designed to assess the role that background knowledge plays in determining young children's ability to process relationships that are explicitly and fully specified in a text in comparison to those that are only partially specified by the same text" (Pearson, 1979, pg. 201). This journal article stresses the relationship and connection that is made between texts and the reader based on background knowledge that has been built. This gives a great lens to see the effect of building such knowledge and seeing the benefits of it play out on the students.