Intelligent BehaviorsAngela Jenkins

MED/560

June 6, 2015

HumorDEFINITION TEACHER’S ROLE

Humor develops creativity and opens the door to higher level thinking skills.

Young students may find humor in the wrong things but as they get older they use humor to release their creativity during problem solving.

I love to bring humor into the classroom and do so as often as I can. I find that humor allows the student to relax so they can think and enjoy the assignment.

At the beginning of the year I teach students to laugh at their mistakes and try again. I show that mistakes and not something to get upset at but something you can learn from.

An example of humor is from my self portrait lesson. I am not good at drawing at all but have to demonstrate our drawing software to the students. While demonstrating the software I made a self portrait that looked like an alien. Of course my students loved it and laughed. As a result, of alien Mrs. Jenkins they were more relaxed with their drawings.

Creativity, Imagination and InnovationDEFINITION TEACHER’S ROLE

Creativity, imagination and innovation come from a student believing that they can instead of they can’t.

Creativity means not giving up when the assignment is hard.

Creativity, imagination and innovation come when a student has pushed through a hard task until the end. The process of working to the end is when creativity takes place.

In my classroom students are not allowed to say the words “I can’t”. I make them restate the phrase as an “I can” statement.

Students are also not allowed to quit, even if they can’t solve the problem or don’t like their work they have to keep trying.

An example of creativity in the form of “I can” comes from a Kindergarten student. My sweet student did not know how to use the mouse but I would not drive it for her during our lesson. She cried for half of the class before mastering the mouse skill necessary to complete the lesson. Once she gained the skill she quickly caught up with the class and finished the lesson. I asked her if she was glad that I didn’t allow her to quit. Her response was “yes” and “thank you for making me do it.”

Listening with Understanding and EmpathyDEFINITION TEACHER’S ROLE

Listening to others requires the student to empathize with the speaker and understand their point of view.

Students demonstrate their listening skills best when paraphrasing, giving examples of ideas or building on someone else’s idea.

I find that students listen best when they work in groups or pairs. Therefore I require my students to complete group work at least once a quarter.

I also model listening to my students. I use empathy and understanding in our teacher-student relationship so students know what the correct behavior looks like.

An example of listening is when students participate in Think Pair Share. Another example is when students participate in project based learning where the teacher is only a facilitator and not an instructor.

PersistenceDEFINITION TEACHER’S RESPONSE

Persistence, developed by students, is not quitting or giving up on a solution to a problem.

It’s the act of continually trying until a solution is found.

When students persist they develop strategies for thinking outside of the box for solutions.

As a teacher I encounter this everyday in every class. Inevitably a student sees the assignment as monumental and decides to quit.

Students aren’t allowed to quit in my class. I require that they work the entire period trying different solutions. I also ask higher thinking questions as I direct students to the different solutions.

Persistence is when a child with cerebral palsy, who can’t control their movements, decides to not quit the drawing lesson until all elements are located within their project. Their solution? Use both hands to draw. At the end of the class the child exclaims “See, I never quit.”

Managing ImpulsivityDEFINITION TEACHER’S ROLE

Students need to learn the art of controlling themselves, in emotions and actions. They need to develop impulse control.

As students develop impulse control they learn how to create goals, plan projects, find new ways to solve problems and review consequences of their actions.

To help students with impulsivity I require that hands are raised and students are addressed before an answer is given.

Another way I assist students with impulse control is having students plan a project before they begin.

An example of managing impulsivity is when a student does not talk back when in trouble. The opposite of managing impulse control is when a student is in trouble and they add to the trouble by talking back.

Taking Responsible RisksDEFINITION TEACHER’S ROLE

Taking responsible risks means the student is willing to go outside their comfort zone to explore new ideas.

These new ideas require planning and would in no way harm the student physically or psychologically.

I try to model taking risks in the classroom.

I require my students to try new things during their lessons. If a student has previously solve a similar problem the same way I ask them to try a new way.

I often throw new software into project without explaining how to use it. That’s my favorite and is quickly becoming theirs.

I am moving more to facilitator roles instead of teaching role. That means that students are required to take risks because they are the ones coming up with the answers.

An example of students taking risks in my class was the Pecha Kucha assignment. Students do not like presentations so asking them to complete one was a difficult task. I upped the ante by asking students to complete a Japanese style of presentations called Pecha Kucha. They struggled but rose to the challenge and loved the results.

Resources Costa, A. (2011, September 16). Teaching For Intelligence. Retrieved June 6,

2015, from http://www.context.org/iclib/ic18/costa/

Kellough, R., & Kellough, N. (2011). Secondary school teaching: A guide to methods and resources (4th ed., pp. 77-89). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education.