Fostering positive minds as teachers with technology! Saher Samnani - Taking better care of our mental health with the help of technology! - Towards fostering good mental health for students by embracing positive psychology. Do we look after our mental health as much as our physical health? Not so much, isn’t it! When in fact, without a healthy mind and positive thoughts we will be unable to do our best in achieving our goals! Let’s take a moment as educators to look at ways of improving our student's mental health by adopting a positive outlook on life and how mobile applications can help achieve this! Thus introducing you to ‘positive psychology’ which is the study of one’s strengths that enables an individual to thrive and grow!’ For this post, I've listed the- ‘5 tips for adopting positivity in our student's lives to overcome daily stressors and achieve success and how technology can help achieve this!’ Tip #1 – Embrace positive emotions! Embrace positive emotions such as peace, love, hope and inspiration! apps such as ‘Positive psychology’, ‘gratitude journal’ and ‘Free happiness’ will help students surround themselves with positive memories and help spend time doing activities that gives them joy and happiness which will inspire them to do better academically and in their social lives! Tip #2 – Constant engagement! Engaging in tasks we focus intensely and delve deep into for insights! While engaging in activities and hobbies, taking some time out to play, re- energies the child and refreshes them mentally. Apps such as ‘Flow magazine’, ‘Whil: well-being & mindfulness’ and ‘From gratitude to bliss’, will helps them stay active and in-sync with what we enjoy doing, thus leading a happier and fulfilling life. Tip #3 – Nurturing relationships. A lot of times, children get too busy with work and the competitive environment. They need to realize and value more family time and social situations. We need to spend more quality time with them and a lot of socializing apps help in achieving this goal! Apps such as ‘Positive Energy’, ‘Family fun’ and ‘Alive’ can help them surround their life with joy, positivity and positive interactions with close ones. Teachers can have parents foster such socializing skills among children. Tip #4- Creati meaningful existence. We always find a greater sense of happiness and value in helping others. When we serve others in need and have an attitude of generosity, which makes us humble and great citizens who serve the humanity. Apps that encourage group support and helping animal, community shelter and other community service apps will assist children in helping others to making a difference in this world and reinforce good moral values. Tip #5- Work towards achieving your dreams! Lastly, never quit or be disheartened by failures! Keep the stress and anxiety at bay by using apps such as ‘365 Days of Flow’, ‘Soulight- sleep, health and focus’ and ‘Happiness habits’. Parents and teachers as a community can help children to use an app which will influence their thoughts to believe in themselves and in their talents! Teacher's can thus spend sometime every week to foster the child's well-being, mental health and beliefs to make them confident, altruistic and good citizens of the future! The community at large such as teachers, parents, close one's can help the child in this mission.
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Hi everyone! I also love to explore new website and apps like you all! As an educator, I do find few websites very innovative, creative, and SO Engaging! They are free, Web-based sites that are user Friendly and encourage a community of learners explore and discover Movenote Media Sharing is one of the important tools for the 21st century learning .I love Move note is a one-of-a-kind video presentation tool online and on your portable devices. It helps technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use and assess. It give life to your video presentation. Movenote is here to change the way we communicate, join the move(note)ment.
Biteable Biteable, digital Storytelling website. is a three-step animated video maker that lets the user choose from animation styles, upload pictures, select and change font, colors and text, in an incredibly easy process. Final videos can be emailed and shared at the click of a button. With new video templates added frequently, Biteable makes for a great addition to your digital
Seesaw Have some fun with this Seesaw, a digital portfolio tool that helps K-12 students document their learning journey. Students can “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links. You can also import directly from most popular apps.
HAPPY EXPLORING BE INNOVATIVE ! Why I love Blogging for my ESL Classes!What are Online Blogs/ Forums?
Online forums are Apps/ websites that are easy to use, customizable, remotely hosted by the instructor, and they are environmentally friendly! Instructors can simply communicate with students, create a course calendar, and post an update using these forums. Another advantage is that forums and blogs make students love homework and assignments, and they get motivated to complete the assigned tasks in time. Where can forums be applied? Online forums/ blogs can be an excellent way to enhance learners’ ‘online’ communication skills. They work well within EAP programs and also ESL. I had used free forums when I was teaching a University Bridge program to International students. In that programs, the learners would regularly train for three months before going to a Canadian College/ University. During that time, I noticed the lack of online etiquettes and that the students had no past formal experience with online assignments. I was concerned as at most colleges and universities in Canada there are online platforms where course instructors would communicate with the students posting grades, announcements, assignments, deadlines, etc. I came up with the idea of initializing a form for our program so the students would get to go through this experience and train before having to go through this formally when they are overwhelmed with everything else. The forum was free and user-friendly, I set a private course forum atwww.freeforums.net and started from there. When I began to teach LINC/ ESL programs, I still used forums/ blogs as alternative ways of assigning homework and because I believe that each context is unique, I have assigned different types of and less complicated topics, and I would allow more time for the students to complete the tasks. With the implementation of Portfolio Based Assessment for Learning, I am now researching how forums and blogs would fit in this approach to assessment. Examples of free forums and blogs There are many free forums and blogs you could use for your students. I found the first two more user-friendly with more features and less complex to register and join. For these two, you can set your group privacy and choose a theme, as well as embed videos or audios in a very simple way. www.proboards.com www.freeforums.org www.wordpress.com www.padlets.com www.forumotion.com |