Academic Creativity and Excellence Day
The semi-annual research colloquium at Bushnell founded by Dr. Tim Bergquist.
Poverty and School: It does make a difference!
In this presentation I will examine the effects of poverty on student learning, specifically at the high school level. I will discuss things like parental, support, mental health, graduation/college rates, and more! Lastly, I will present ways to address those challenges in the classroom.
EDUC321- Classroom Relations & Management
Dr. Brian Kaelin
Poster Juding Contest (L203: 10am – Noon)
How does Color affect Student’s learning
Different colors can influence people’s moods and reactions. Different types of colors and shades can make people feel safe or afraid. Putting calming and welcoming colors in a classroom is more effective at creating a healthy learning environment than blank walls or bright colors.
EDUC321- Classroom Relations & Management
Dr. Brian Kaelin
Poster Judging Contest (L203: 10am – Noon)
Best Classroom Discipline strategies that stay IN the class
The question at hand is, “what are the most efficient ways to discipline students in the classroom?” During my 2nd semester of observing my cooperating teacher this year, I noticed that her go-to discipline action was to send students either to the “office” or the “reset room”. This is in the PE setting, and I believe that students need a daily period of PE, so this seems harsh and lazy on the teacher’s POV. Her reasoning for not wanting to deal with the students is that “I’ve given them too many choices”, or “they don’t deserve another chance”. These are excuses, and I believe that my CT is being on the lazy side and doesn’t want to interact with these troubling students. Some methods that I have seen work are: having a conversation with the troubled student, putting them in a temporary “timeout”, give them a choice between different discipline actions, and last, positive discipline. Some findings that I have found include; Students lose retention, skills, and social opportunities when they are sent out of the classroom. This is an old-fashioned discipline action, and often this is what students are looking for. Also, Giving PE students physical engaging punishments as discipline works at a higher clip than sending students to the office or reset room, when measuring retention rates and overall participation. Lastly, Tinto’s model of student attrition and Knowle’s theory of adulting both support in-class discipline, and having student leave class does not benefit anyone.
EDUC321- Classroom Relations & Management
Dr. Brian Kaelin
Poster Judging Contest (L203: 10am – Noon)
How to get students more engaged in Physical Education?
This presentation serves to answer the research question, “How to get students more engaged in physical education?” I have experienced students within my high school practicum where students do not participate in physical education because they are not interested in the activity, its boring, they are scared they aren’t good enough, and they fear being judged. The methods used for this study were examining existing literature for research on engagement strategies for students in physical education and what causes students to not be as engaged. In this presentation, three studies were proved to answer the research question of how to get more students engaged in physical education. A study that was used for the research was a survey done by students based on their perceived physical competence of physical activity. Another study that was used for the research was a study of factors that influence participation in physical activity. Overall, the purpose of this presentation serves to provide practical strategies for high school teachers to use to get more students engaged in physical education. The limitation of this study was that the presenters did not have the opportunity to test each of these strategies within their own classroom.
EDUC321- Classroom Relations and Management
Dr. Brian Kaelin
Poster Judging Contest (L203: 10am – Noon)
Effective Ways to Handle Behavioral Students
How do we address behavioral students who are non compliant in the classroom and how do we motivate them? This research question is based on a student who was struggling behaviorally in my practicum classroom. Often she doesn’t want to do her work, throws extreme tantrums if she doesn’t get her way, etc. What I have found through the research, it’s best to incentivize this student particularly or work closely one on one with this student to succeed. What I’ve found to work, is working one on one with her closely, not giving in to the meltdowns she has, and using incentives. The most effective for me was personally sitting down with her and doing the worksheet together. She was more engaged, focused, and not throwing tantrums.
EDUC321- Education Classroom Management
Dr. Brian Kaelin
Poster Judging Contest (L203: 10am – Noon)
How can teachers effectively get through a transitional period in the classroom?
When transitioning from one subject to another, or when students come in from break, there can be large disruptions that eat away at class time. Students are being too loud or not on task, to them it almost seems like its all over when they transition in the classroom. The question that I focused my research around is “How can teachers effectively get through a transitional period in the classroom?” There are three types of transitions: entering class and taking a seat, switching from one activity to another, and exiting class. Just like with any academic procedure, these transitions require clear expectations, rehearsal, and review. In this project, I looked at how students act during transitional periods, how teachers get through a transition, and what could get teachers through the transitional period easier.
EDUC321- Classroom Management
Dr. Brian Kaelin
Poster Judging Contest (L203: 10am – Noon)
Communication in the Classroom
For a Classroom Management class, I observed a problem in my field placement. A student in my classroom, after beginning to answer a question that connected to prior knowledge, had a panic attack which caused her to emotionally shut down for the rest of the period. With silent tears streaming down her face, she had an experience that is common to many students.
EDUC321- Classroom Management
Dr. Brian Kaelin
Poster Judging Contest (L203: 10am-Noon)
Engaging strategies for advanced learners
A second grade student is not classified as a TAG student, but he is an advanced learner. Specifically, he gets done with his math assignments faster than anybody else, he can do the addition and subtraction problems in his head in less than a minute, he can already solve some double digit multiplication and is starting to understand division. He often sits at his desk waiting for everyone to finish their work. My plan is to research strategies to help him stay busy and expand his mathematical knowledge.
EDUC321- Classroom Relations & Management
Dr. Brian Kaelin
Poster Juding Contest (L203: 10am – Noon)
Technology and Behavior Management
For a relations and management classroom class, I performed a six-week case study research project in order to identify successful ways to help maintain classroom order. The goal is to improve the development of classroom behavior issues with the use of visual technology noise level tools in a fourth-grade class. I got the opportunity to observe and assess the behavioral issues with 3 main tools and a few additional methods too. After seeing students continuously interrupt classroom time due to behavioral issues throughout my practicum, I realized how big of a theme this is in classrooms all around. After doing research on behavioral issues like blurting out, getting distracted, being loud and disrupting I found some instructional tools that I could use. The method I attempted for data collection was incorporated into my practicum with this fourth-grade class. The tools I used in this experiment include visual noise level meters like bouncy balls.org, classroom noise-o-meter, class craft volume meter, and additional methods like a classroom doorbell and verbal attention getters. Although there were some bumps in the experiment, according to my data overall these technology tools were a great method when attacking the classroom behavioral issues I was experiencing, and the majority of the class reacted in a positive way. This was an important experiment to me because my entire life I have seen this issue across all classrooms of all grade levels, and I plan for it to not be a problem in my future classroom.
EDUC321- Classroom Relations & Management
Dr. Brian Kaelin
Poster Judging Contest (L203: 10am-Noon)