teen mental health sites

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/teenmentalhealth.html

http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/allpubs/CA-0004/default.asp

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinformation/childrenandyoungpeople/adolescence.aspx

http://www.apahelpcenter.org/featuredtopics/feature.php?id=39

http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr07/teenage.html

http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/ (database I don't have access to)

Teenage Brain: A work in progress:

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/teenage-brain-a-work-in-progress.shtml

http://www.psychology.org/links/Environment_Behavior_Relationships/Adolescent/

At what point do you lose rapport?

As a teacher who wants to be cool, I worry about this sort of thing. Negative feedback kills me, causes me to stew for days. One kid recently wrote on a reflection that I "talk in circles." Of course, it was on a final that he was taking early because he was on his way to Florida. His mindset again vs. mine: he wants to get the thing done and get out of there and I'm asking him a self-serving question on the final, asking him to rate me as a teacher. He doesn't care about rating me. He wants to get his points on the final and get out. Bad rapport move, but I paid for it with a jab at my skills. Fact is my skills probably had little to do with his response. Adolescent spych again. What motivates them? Themselves. They motivate themselves. Mostly, their immediate needs motivate them

How would this need for immediate gratification manifest itself in the classroom? Eating. texting. socializing while they should be focused on something else. Getting excited about the girl or guy next to them...Are these impressions corroborated by research in adolescent psych?

I may need to take a class, or at least read a textbook.

Brain rearach will have to be a part of the book.

Interview psychologists.

research ideas

• adolescent psych
• pull research on motivation
• surveys: 1,000 students across demographics--anecdotal evidence about what students look for in a teacher
• what students want vs. what they need: is there a difference? Would students admit it?
• teacher evidence: what do teachers think about who has great rapport with students. Why do they think so?
• Who are the current gurus in this field?
• This book has to be serious piece of research. It can't just be anecdotal, and it can't be self-serving. My impressions are my impressions--must be research and sata-based for legitimacy.
• Not expecting to have great rapport all the time: At what point does rapport go beyond being liked and wanting to be liked. WE all start that way, don't we? We watch Robin Williams in DPS. We observe teachers who are revered in our building. When we start, we thinkrapport = being liked. We confuse leadership with friendship. We come from a place of inscurity, a place that maybe developed when we were in high school ourselves. The fact is that for teachers to gain legitimacy they must move beyond this phase. They must see themselevs as professionals who, if they are methodical and develop a set of skills that work in real time, can build rapport with students in a way that transcends friendliness, openness, and "coolness."
• Kids and teachers want different things. It comes down to giving kids what thye need and what they want. Kids and adults see things differently. For example, kids want feedback. If you fail to give kids timely feedback, you'll lose rapport. Kides want to feel comfortable. If you fail to provide an environment that makes kids comfortable, you'll lose rapport.
• Every teacher starts the year at "zero" rapport, plus or minus a few points for reputation and repeat students. That is, there are a few kids who have been in your class before who spread the word about you before day one. Those factors are easily swayed, however, positively or negatively. Students have short memories. They forgive--much more readily than we do.

Taking Part in Pep Rallies

Other rapport ideas

Forgiveness: getting mad at kids but then forgiving them the next time you see them. Not holding grudges. I called out a sophomore girl for being rude, talked to her after class and all that. The next class, the students were coming up with words to describe themselves and writing about them in a computer lab. She came up with "cheeky" and said, "Yeah, that's totally me." We joked about it, abnd the relationship was back. We must discipline, but we must not tie it to personal things.

Listening: I just spent eight extra minutes listening to a girl talk about a horrible thing that had happened to her several months ago. It was a horribly sad story, but something I probably only needed about three minutes to hear. Standing there listening for the next five minutes was an investment of time that made the girl feel like I cared. Sounds very cynical now that I write it, but teachers need to be patient and realize that kids are learning how to connect. They don't always have the body language gauge that adults have. Bear with them, and it might pay off in yuor classroom down the road with a more engaged student.

Helping Kids through big moments in their careers

It may seem obvious, but there are moments when students need our support, and moments when they're pretty much okay on their own. A simple show of support for them during a big moment in their lives is both the right thing to do and a way to build rapport. College essay advice, a quick referral to a counselor when a student is struggling (if they want it!) or a glance the other way when it's obvious a student is drowsy because of a bad night can all pay dividends when down the road you need ot teach these students. Watch out for the students who will take advantage of your willingness to help them, but it won't happen very often. Most teenagers want to be independent and feel awkward about asking for help.

Teaching Minimalism in Grammar

Were you weaned on grammar worksheets? Have you spent hours dumbfounded in front of giant, photocopied lists of sentences, scouring those mine fields of blandness for appositives, conjunctive adverbs, and introductory dependent clauses? The worksheet approach may have over-trained you, creating an uncertain and slightly anxious overpunctuator. You may have, as is the case with many adults and children alike, come to view punctuation the way hunt-and-peck typists view a computer keyboard: as a tiresome process of searching for the right spot for something. More than anything, you want to get enough little marks in there, as though the sky might fall if you leave a bracketed phrase unbracketed or, (Gulp!) a “dashed” phrase dashless!

By beating you over the head with worksheets, your teachers may have inadvertently led you away from one of the most effective policies of punctuation: simplicity. Punctuation marks aren’t there to decorate your sentence, they’re there to clarify, and extra punctuation distorts meaning. The less you punctuate, the better! This chapter helps you conquer the confusion that surrounds the foreboding comma, the intimidating colon, and the ever-scary dash by learning to minimize the madness. By adopting a minimalist approach to punctuation, you will finally see these pesky marks for what they are: a useful and simple way to clarify your thinking to a reader, nothing more.

Using Issues Kids Care About

This year--it's hard to believe--I have multitudinous seniors who envy their 18-year-old friends. Why? No, it's not because they can finally buy cigarettes without worrying that the Conoco guy's going to card them. It's not because they can now shop for porn at Fascinations. It's because they're old enough to vote in November. I have other students who, realizing they can't make a difference by voting, have chosen to become activists. One of my 17-year-old students has registered 250 people to vote and in doing so multiplied her "would-be" vote exponentially.

And it's not just the Obama kids. My conservative students (God help them) have also become vocal. I had a student the other day voice her support for McCain because she wants to go to med school and thinks a more universalized health care system would victimize doctors. Another student questioned (rightly, I think) Obama's promise to cut taxes on "95% of the middle class." It's the same textual analysis I teach in AP Lit., but they're applying it to the, gulp, real world? Don't look now, but kids are talking about something other than beer bongs and Insane Clown Posse.

So why wouldn't I use this energy in my classroom? Last week, I discussed the speech with my AP students. I had to cut them off or they would have gone all period. I'm having my sophomores study both of the major party's acceptance speeches. If you can find an educational opportunity imbedded in an issue kids are emotional about, you gotta use it.

Working Harder than the Kids

It is 3:53 AM. I just had an anxiety dream about my family's finances, woke up, couldn't sleep. Tomorrow, or really today, I will teach and then head to Invesco Field to watch Barack Obama deliver a historic acceptance speech to 70,000 people who would go nuts if he read the phone book. This should be a great day.

Except for the 45 or so letters and 100 journals and 100 reading assessments in piles on my desk and filing my web site in boxes. They are mostly all the sincere work of young people. After all, it's week one, and many of them are giving the best effort they will give all year in order to impress me. I must look at them, comment and give them back, or else I risk being labeled "the lazy grader," which I don't want--at least not at this point in the year.

So I work harder. I guess this is one of those days I get up at four to grade.

Things I did in the first three days to build rapport

1. Have students introduce themselves, give us a story to remember them by, and name their favorite gas station food. The next day, I brought up some of the ideas again to soidify them and to build rapport with individual kids. Example: chile button @ 7/11 (David Brewster)
2. Be up front about how being in AP is a choice and that the expectations will be high--in a tone that doesn't scare kids but lets them know I'm serious about what I do.
3. Made students read Huck Finn without apologizing.
4. Made good on my promise to collect summer reading journals.
5. Normed the classroom with sophomores by having them come up with rules based on the following questions: What should you expect of your teacher? What should your teacher expect of you? What should you expect of each other? How should conflict be resolved? What are fair consequences for breaking rules?
6. Asked them to sign the document they created and then posted it.
7. Had them write an introductory letter to me explaining (among other things) their history as a reader/writer. I showed them slides of my family and talked about a person in my life who has changed me (Sam) and then asked them to do the same thing.
8. Introduced my web site as a place to upload assignments and post feedback for me. Showed them a picture of the fish I caught this summer.

Lightness and Focus

Oscar Wilde said, "Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." It's a good quote to use if you want to teach paradox, and it alse serves as a reminder that rapport in the classroom involves the seemingly paradoxical balance between lightness and focus. Too much focus, you lose them. Too much lightness, you also lose them.

Profiles of Teachers who Lose Rapport

There are so many ways to fail in the eyes of students. I work in a high school, which means I work with a group of critics. Below is a list of criticisms I've either heard from teenagers or come up with myself. We must take our students' criticism with a grain of salt. On the other hand, we should sort through that criticism for ways to improve.

We all begin the year with the potential for rapport, meaning that every student arrives in our classrooms hoping to enjoy their time with us. Can you picture yourself walking into a classroom thinking, "Man, I hope I hate this teacher this year! That way I can sit here for 180 days bored, angry, and disillusioned!"

Profiles of teachers without rapport:

1. The "Mean" Teacher
2. The "Rigid" Teacher
3. The "Lazy" Teacher
4. The "Too Fun (cool)" Teacher
5. The "Too Close" Teacher
6. The "Distant" Teacher
7. The "Unavailable" Teacher
8. The "Repetitive" Teacher
9. The "All Business" Teacher
10, The "Phony, Insincere" Teacher
11. The "Weak" Teacher

Rapport and Day One

You hear teachers say this all the time: "Don't smile until second semester." I can't think of a bigger mistake a teacher could make. Conversely, I think the fact that I show enjoyment for my job on day one helps me more than anything, and, yes, this show of enthusiasm includes smiling--maybe even some (gulp) laughter!

This need to appear "tough" to students comes from a deep insecurity that we won't be able to control our classroom. Teachers are authority figures, therefore we should maintain authority at all times, right? No way. We facilitate. Our students are like valves in the pipeline of our instruction. If we allow too much pressure to build, our pipeline will eventualy explode and become useless. If we release pressure every now and then, we maintain our pipeline. Consider the kid who likes to joke around. Maybe he's showing off to the girl across the room, maybe he's masking his insecurity about learning, maybe he's simply testing the teacher because it's more fun than listening. We will eventually find out why he does this, because we will eventually get to know our students. But we don't need any time to release that--on day one--our student is fooling around. So release the valve a little. Diffuse the behavior by allowing a little of it. Yes you risk a little rapport with the student who likes a perfectly orderly classroom. Later on, you can release that student's valve by demanding order: "Hey, this is really important--I really need your attention here." The idea is not to allow anyone's valve to malfunction, and of course to avoid the ultimate rapport killer: the exploded pipe.

Rally Ideas

Rock Band Competition: One teacher team and a team from each class.


Steph,

Thank you so much for your help and your ideas. I’m so glad you’re into it!

I’m thinking all of your ideas could work. We could project gutar hero onto a big screen and maybe have the “best guitarist from each class compete: semifinals and final round or something.

I have a guitar and hundred watt amp that I can bring. I could work up a song or something.

Rock on!

From: Ortiz Stephanie Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 12:36 PMTo: Spare AlexSubject: RE: rally

Actually, I was serious about the air guitar thing. I would say something that doesn’t require the rest of the students to see the TV (I’m not sure how Guitar Hero works.) The “larger” the better-air guitar has large movements. We have some good (real) guitar players, too. An old-fashioned electric throw-down might be really cool.

What about some sort of costume contest they know about before each assembly? They know the theme (unless it’s a secret) and can try for best costume or group at the assembly. The kids would be excited beforehand, but the actual judging wouldn’t take long.

Another staff-type skit might be good. Starts with the staff, then staff plus kids, then maybe kids could take it over. The students would get used to expecting a short skit, and would probably be quieter for them.

Even small things such as planting kids to start a wave, or to get the classes chanting things at each other would be good, I think.

Fun

rally idea

Dog Show:

Have students and faculty bring their dogs and do a dog show

Possible problems: allergies and floor

Micheal Phelps and ADHD

Norming in sophomore class--use this article and then talk about the difficulties of handling the workload and stress of school.

Class Rules

1. Tell the truth.
2. Clean up your messes.
3. Hang On.
4. If you're going through hell, keep going.

wiki "how to"

Found this website. Among other things, it has a "how to" guide for every poetry form you can think of. Also a cool general idea: using wikis to make kids show mastery of certain topics. You could divide up a broad topic into segments and have each student or group upload a segment to the wiki and then present. YOu could also use wikihow to bolster student "how to" speeches. Kids love to show mastery. How to win at Doom. How to tumble. How to hit a nine iron.

Being firm and building rapport

Talk to Thom Uhl about how he does it.

Cell Phones in the classroom

Article on using cell phones in the classroom.

Incredible English Teacher Site

This guy's an animal!

Wii and the Impact of Technology

A Wii system is like a new family member that everyone has to adjust to. I know: I bought one this week. It arrived with fanfare, a little like a newborn. My kids had lightehartedly wowed at their cousin's system--much like kids expecting new brother sister spend a little extra time around a friend's baby brother--but had never owned their own game system, unless you count the hand-me-down Nintendo 64 we had when my oldest son was three.

No one could predict the effects buying our own system could have. After the initial joy of the set up (visiting the new baby and bringing it home from the hospital), we goit to playing. My oldest son took an immediate liking and got good at several sporst in a hurry. My middle child enjoyed it somewhat but mostly got frustrated. It's hard to ski jump in perfect balance when you're four. My youngest didn't really get it, except that he knew unplugging it pissed my other kids off.

Everything was fine until Lego Star Wars arrived. The first time I opened it I played for five hours...

Definitions and parameters of public domain lit.

definition and parameters of public domain

Using Project Playlist

I gave every student who gave a speech a theme song using Project Playlist, which is a file-sharing site linked to myspace. I did most of it off the top of my head--so it took no extra time--and they loved it. Really cuts down on the dragging, lots-of-down-time speech day. You can find anything, and it's all free.

As an ice breaker, you could also have your students create a playlist and share it, explaining an overriding theme or rationale for songs they choose.

Ten websites for students

Article about educational websites students can use

Encouraging kids to blog their studying

When kids post their thoughts while studying, they become more conscious of what they're doing. Even though nobody reads these things, there is nevertheless an assumed audience, which spurs kids to be more thoughtful. Kids will also go back over material more b/c they like seeing it on the internet. There is empowerment in watching yourself be published, no matter how easy it is. The other benefit is that a student may share information with others and create online study networks if she wants. Kids can make their blog sites their own, with art and pictures, links to facebook and myspace, their favorite youtube video, etc., which creates a comfortable environment for studying.

Another thought: kids love using hypertext. By using fonts, colors, and sizes, they can begin to categorize and think about the material. All around, it's better than rewriting notes or mindlessly making flashcards.

link to someone's good ideas about rapport

Cynthia Mee seems to get rapport. Her book is called 2,000 Voices. Not about technology, but she gets kids on a general level.

tech/rapport 6.7.08

idea for tech/rapport:

The message board: need to research the easiest ways on the internet for free message boards. Let students post comments about the class or your web site. Invite them to help you with the technological aspects of it, because they know more than you and it's an easy way to make them feel some mastery over something, which of course builds rapport. You could even sit them down in a lab and make them post something to your board. No note cards to got through. No kids feeling like you know what their handwriting is like. Myteacherpages has an option to post anonymously on a message board. I recommend doing it that way.

jokes I made up driving around

1. What do you call it when a meth addict has had too much? --Speed Limit

2. What does Denver Mattress put inside its beds? --Colorado Springs

3. What did the Front-end loader pimp say? --Backhoe!

vocab ideas

1. Total Physical Response (body movements for words)
2. Create your own sentence linking two of the words
3. Cartoon: quick drawing and describe what's there: Spanish
4. Google Notebook to go find sentences and cut/paste them
5. Spanish vocab about oral language dev.
Connect 2: list eight to ten words or brief phrases in a new unit, provide breif definitions, ask students to connect ant two of the words or phrases in a meaningful sentence, don't tell students whether connections are accurate, read the text, then ask students to confirm or revise their sentences
6. Relate vocab to your own experience
7. WRSC! for vocab: words reminds me of, etc.
8. classify words into categories
9. YOu need to encounter the words 6 to 20 times to "own it"
10. Linear arrays: have students sort similar words according to connotations: e.g. mist, rain, deluge
11. Syntactic clues: prefixes, suffixes, roots
12.

ideas for cell phones in the classroom

Ideas for cell phones:



1. Use the cell phone to poll students. Have them text you with a response.

2. Use cell phones as walkie talkies. One student goes somewhere else in the building and relays info to another one.

3. Have students being cells every day just to throw them off.

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