Reflection on Webinar with Mr. Ben Shifrin

-

    On April 1st we had the privilege to attend yet another webinar, this time with Mr. Ben Shifrin, who works at the Jemicy School in the US. Even though the talk wasn't as long as a lot of the other ones, it was filled with so much wisdom and new ideas. In this blog I will discuss my thoughts and opinions on this experience and what exactly we were able to learn.  

    This webinar centered around the idea of neuroscience in education, especially dyslexia. We discussed a lot about executive functions, which are the 'management team' of the brain. I especially loved hearing about creating a risk-free and comfortable environment for the best results in learning, since this is the aspect of education I've always been most interested in. We also discussed the factors that disable such an atmosphere, like anxiety, or how dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence, but rather the ability to decode language. One of my favorite parts of the talk was also hearing about the practical tips we can use for students with dyslexia, such as allowing them to use fidgets or considering standing desks. There was much more that was discussed, but it was hard to take everything in due to the overbearing amount of content, which brings me to my overall thoughts about the talk. To be honest, I felt like I was not qualified to be there and make the most of the occasion. As someone with not a lot of experience on the topic of special needs yet, I found this presentation quite advanced and hard to comprehend at times. The speaker was going through the material quite fast and talking about a lot of complex concepts. I'm sure the 2nd year students present and people with more experience were probably able to take more away from the webinar than me, but I still appreciated the opportunity to learn and get to know this topic better. It made me excited to take courses on special needs next semester, as I am always looking for ways to better myself as an educator.

    While I had issues comprehending some of the information presented to us in the webinar, I felt like I was still able to learn a lot and start understanding the concept of dyslexia or special needs more. This talk was a great introduction to the topic and made me excited to learn more. I'm excited to see what the next webinar will bring and which aspect of education we will explore next.



Comments

  1. ErikJune 8, 2022 at 9:24 AM

    I honestly enjoyed the discussion. Dyslexia is something interesting that unfortunately we rarely talk about due to time constraints so getting more discussion is important. We are going to be dealing with students of various needs, students that need different attention, simply labeling them won't do any good and we need to address what the students need.

    ReplyDelete
  2. _NaaN_June 15, 2022 at 7:48 AM

    Just like you, since I don't know much about dyslexia, I hope to have more discussions about those students with learning difficulties next semester. Dyslexia and dyscalculia are two very topics for students' learning development. It also can be challenging for the learner and the teacher when dealing with a learning difference.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflection on “Authentic Materials in Education” Webinar

-
Image
      On May 16th we attended our last seminar of the first year of studies, which was on the topic of 'Authentic Materials' . It was conducted by Ms. Paulina Andruszkiewicz-Glińska, who we previously had the pleasure of meeting during a different webinar. The experience lasted an hour and a half, consisted of a presentation, as well as practical activities, and inspired me a lot to include this topic in my own teaching. In my post I wanted to summarize the knowledge from the seminar, as well as provide my opinions on the topic and the overall experience.     Authentic materials are ones that were not created for the purpose of teaching English - they were created by the native speakers of the language for other native speakers and everyday use.  Many things can count as authentic materials - from songs and movies, through magazines and books, to even receipts or food labels. There's many ways to use authentic materials to teach different topics. A tube of ...
Read more

Student Practice Reflection - Day 2 (Classroom Routines)

-
Image
      On January 27th I was finally able to come back for day 2 of my student practice. Being familiar with the environment now, I was able to feel much more relaxed and focus on observations. However, it was a day filled with realizations and hardships, but I am grateful to have been able to experience it and start working on bettering myself.     Today I realized that I still lack a lot of confidence as a teacher. One of my tasks was to check the students' written assignments, a story, and I did not feel good doing it. I was so scared that I would make a mistake correcting their works, that I would miss something, or correct something that wasn't an error. It depended on the students' level, but when the learner had a high level of English for a 4th grader, I felt very vulnerable and awkward trying to correct them. I realized that I need to gain more confidence. Maybe I am being harsh on myself and didn't actually do a bad job, but because I didn't feel confid...
Read more