Blog Number Five

1. What chat did you participate in?

• I participated in Student Affairs Chat (#sachat)

2. Was there a theme to the chat?

• The theme of #sachat was supporting students with mental health concerns. 

3. What did you learn from the chat? Give specifics and cite examples.

• There were many issues that were addressed in this chat that I thought were important to relate to my life at this age, but also as a way to relate to my students. Question two of the chat was how professionals in the education world can be better prepared to deal with mental health concerns of students that are beyond "normal" stress/anxiety. A few participants in the chat discussed knowing when to refer a student, how to address behaviors that are a result of stress/anxiety, including self-harming behaviors and eating behaviors. One participant also discussed professionals understanding and being able to educate other about Asperger's Syndrome. In regards to college students, I think that self-destructive behaviors are witnessed through over-use of alcohol, experimental drugs, and self-destructive behavior, like an eating disorder. In regards to elementary school and my future, I believe that students, no matter what age, can suffer from a form of stress and anxiety. Teachers need to be able to address these issues and deal with them appropriately. 

4. Did anyone post links that you found helpful? List one or two and explain why you found them useful. Use bitly to shorten and share.

• There were not many helpful links that were posted throughout this chat. There was a lot of insight that was provided from professionals or those with experience. There was a title of a book that is the "Guide to Students with Asperger's Syndrome" that I think would be beneficial to have in order to further understand how students suffer. It is important, especially at the elementary level, to understand and accept students who may have Asperger's because they struggle socially but usually succeed educationally - especially in one subject or topic. 

5. Choose at least three people to follow from the chat. 

• I honestly did not follow three people from this chat. I found that this chat was really focused on college life, and therefore they were educational professionals that I did not think would benefit my PLN. I did search twitter and the tweets that came on my home page and decided to follow Education Week (@educationweek) because I think they post some beneficial articles reading education today. 

Blog Number Four

1. What chat did you participate in?

• I did not participate in an organized chat because I wanted to participate in the teacher to teacher chat but the chat was not up when I signed in throughout the hour. I did, however, look at new teacher chat #ntchat, and read through the tweets that were sent today and found some good resources, and am now following some educators that are focused on twenty-first century teaching.

2. Was there a theme to the chat?

• There was not a theme to #ntchat because I only looked at the tweets that were posted today, but there seemed to be a lot of posts focused around finding educational videos that could be implemented in the classroom. This made me think about Universal Streaming, and how many resources are really at educators fingertips. 

3. What did you learn from the chat? Provide specific examples and cite. 

• After looking through the tweets from today, I realized how many educators want to help one another in order to ensure that the students of today will be the leaders of tomorrow. One professional that I am now following from today's tweets, The Therapy Group @Thetherapygroup, who are speech and occupational therapists provided a quote that I thought was interesting. The quote said, "Must reward imagination as well as memory". I think this quote is important at any age level because the more students have the freedom to create without structure, the happier students will be, which will lead to students being academically successful. 

4. Did anyone post any links that you found helpful? Please share a few. 

• Eyeoneducation posted a link for more #hashtags that would lead to more education chats. The link is attached in this post: http://www.teachthought.com/social-media/50-important-education-twitter-hashtags-with-meeting-times/. Also, after asking for educational videos, one educator tweeted that Teacher Tube would be a good place to find resources. 

5. Pick three people to follow. 

• I chose to follow Jill Bromenschenkes (@JillBromen) who is a professional educator interested in 21st century teaching, and is an education consultant. I am now following The Therapy Group (@Thetherapygroup) who is a group of speech and occupational therapists; my last new follower is HP Teacher Exchange (@HPteachexchange) and it is a professional group of educational leaders. 

I will be doing my personal interest project on iPads in the classroom. I will present it through a separate blog, and will post all resources found with an annotated bibliography.