Provost Wickert discusses construction, classroom improvements on ...

Classroom | Kulbir Jhinjer | feat. Desi Crew | Punjabi Songs | 2013

Provost Jonathan Wickert sat down with the Iowa State Daily on Friday afternoon to discuss goals, initiatives and recent news from the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost. One of the topics discussed was recent and future classroom renovations on campus.

In order to accommodate continued growth in student enrollment, his office has taken a series of steps to improve classrooms on campus.

The first step was to use the full capacity of current spaces, using them as responsibly and efficiently as possible, Wickert said. He and his office use data to look at how classrooms are being used throughout the course of the day, focusing on both the instructional periods of the day and time outside of those periods, such as in the evenings when the classrooms are often used for study groups, clubs and lectures.

Being conscious about space usage has allowed the school to become more efficient over the last eight years.

"We are [now] using our existing classrooms about as efficiently as we can," Wickert said.

The second step was to be systematic about renovating and improving current classrooms.

About two years ago, an initiative was implemented on campus called the "Classroom Improvement Initiative." To start this initiative, an external architect graded all 214 of the centrally controlled classrooms on campus based on the quality of the space, the ventilation, the technology, the seating, etc., and gave advice on how to use the spaces better.

"We looked at all those classrooms and prioritized some projects, so every year we"re going to work on the highest priority projects and improve the quality of these classrooms," Wickert said.

Pearson Hall is the first building in this series that will see renovations.

An example of one of these major renovations is Marston Hall, home of the College of Engineering.

This summer, the 110-year-old building named after Anson Marston, the first dean of the College of Engineering, went through a complete renovation process.

The building is rich in ISU history, but its outdated infrastructure had started causing tangible facility issues, and the overall design of the building was not meeting the needs of students with student growth and changes in technology.

"[We said], lets keep the historic part of the building, which is wonderful. We want to keep that feel, but we want to update it," Wickert said. "Make it a more modern kind of place that you would want for a college of engineering."

During the renovation process, construction crews completely gutted the entire inside of the building, and removed all of the walls on the inside of the building to put in two new elevators, move the stairwells, etc.

"Saying renovation is almost not doing the project full credit," Wickert said.

The new design highlights improved offices, added classroom capacity, increased technology capabilities and more.

"What we"ve accomplished with [this renovation] is to make it a more student-focused kind of building," Wickert said.

The construction on the hall was finished this summer, and an official rededication of the building will be on Sept. 29.

The last step in accommodating student growth that Wickert discussed is constructing new buildings.

A large addition to Bessey Hall is being added this fall, and a new teaching/research building for the biosciences programs is being constructed near the horse barn on campus. These projects are supported by state appropriations and private funds and will add classrooms, office space and more.

Construction for a new Student Innovation Center, a more than 100,000-square-foot four-story building, will begin this winter, starting with the demolition of a few buildings on campus. The new center will be located between the College of Engineering and the College of Design on Central Campus, Wickert said.

The combination of these steps using space efficiently, doing renovations and building new facilities mixed with new, improved teaching methods has allowed Iowa State to better accommodate the growing number of enrolled students.

Source: http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/academics/article_8da9b7a8-679b-11e6-899c-c7a440aef07b.html

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ADHD in classroom is struggle for teachers, students

Classroom - Cyanide & Happiness Shorts

MIAMI Hudson Dunn has always been an active boy.

His daycare teachers called him demanding and independent. In preschool, he preferred singing and daydreaming to learning the ABCs. By the time he was in kindergarten in Broward County, Hudson was banned from class field trips unless his mother came along to keep track of him. He often came home crying.

It created an environment in the classroom where he was labeled a bad kid, said his mom, Jenine Dunn.

Emily Michot

Teacher Herbert McArthur Jr. gives a little extra encouragement to Jesus G. to keep him on track during a special summer camp for children with ADHD run by FIU. (Emily Michot/Miami Herald/TNS)

Hudson has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD one of the most commonly diagnosed mental health disorders in children. The Centers for Disease Control estimates 11 percent of American kids have ADHD.

The list of symptoms for kids who have ADHD reads like a recipe for problems in school: trouble paying attention and completing tasks. Being fidgety, talkative and impulsive. Difficulty following rules, making friends and keeping track of things - like homework or class materials.

Increasing academic demands have only made it harder for kids with ADHD, argues Dr. Jeffrey Brosco, professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. With kids spending more time preparing for standardized tests and less time playing at recess, Brosco says the rate of ADHD in children has doubled since the 1970s.

Emily Michot

Teacher Herbert McArthur Jr. works with Samantha N. as Jesus G. gets a little distracted from his studies during a special summer program for children with ADHD run by FIU. (Emily Michot/Miami Herald/TNS)

Weve increased the academic demands, but weve also reduced our demands for allowing children to figure out how to spend their time, Brosco said. Young children learn best by play and by creative kinds of pursuits, and not just practice with reading, writing and arithmetic.

Take, for example, the amount of time that kids spend doing homework. In a paper published in February in JAMA Pediatrics, Brosco and co-author Anna Bona point out that elementary-aged kids in 1997 spent more than two hours on homework, compared with kids in the 1980s who spent less than an hour.

Dunn said the academic rigor of kindergarten definitely contributed to the difficulties her son, Hudson, faced in school. Whereas she remembers hatching eggs and making maple syrup in kindergarten, Dunns son was expected to fill out worksheets and write book reports.

Theres very little free time for imagination. They want these kids in kindergarten sitting at a desk for seven hours a day, she said. It creates an incredible amount of stress.

There could be other causes for increasing ADHD rates. Dr. William Pelham is a world-renowned ADHD researcher at Florida International University. He credits two major developments with boosting the number of diagnoses: One, recognition by the federal government in 1991 that children with ADHD are entitled to special education services in school. Second, the development and marketing of new pharmaceutical drugs in the 2000s.

Whatever the cause, Pelham has focused on effective treatments over his decades-long career. Every summer, Pelham, who leads FIUs Center for Children and Families, runs a summer camp for children with ADHD at Paul W. Bell Middle near Sweetwater, Fla.

There are all the activities youd expect from a summer camp, like basketball and silly songs. But theres also a classroom component with a heavy dose of behavior therapy, where theres a consequence for every action good or bad.

The therapy is on display in Herbert McArthur, Jr.s class. During the school year, hes a Miami-Dade high school teacher. In the summertime, he teaches a roomful of younger students who have ADHD.

He weaves between their desks, offering nonstop praise.

I like the way youre raising your hand without calling out, he tells one.

Thank you for using your materials appropriately, he says to another.

It comes every 30 seconds or so, a pleasant reminder for every tiny thing done right. Because for McArthurs students, every moment spent sitting in class and following the rules is a monumental achievement.

Implementing behavior modification strategies in the classroom takes time - time that teachers dont often feel like they have. A recent survey by the American Federation of Teachers found that being pressed for time was a leading cause of stress among teachers.

Every moment spent fixing bad behavior, praising good behavior or redirecting a student to the task at hand is a moment of teaching that is lost.

The bell-to-bell instruction, it doesnt allow for the extra pat on the back, said McArthur, the summer camp teacher. Youre looking at the clock.

Pelham and his team focus on behavior modification because, he says, it works. Combined with parent training, Pelham has found that starting with behavior-based treatment rather than medication is more effective and costs less. His findings, released in February, led the CDC to change the recommended course of treatment for children with ADHD.

Still, children in Florida are far more likely to receive medicine over therapy. In a 2010 CDC survey, more than 70 percent of kids had taken medication in the past week, while only half had received behavior therapy in the past year.

The problem is that there is no pharmaceutical company for better classroom management practices. There is no pharmaceutical company for better parenting programs. So you dont have gigantic industries helping parents and helping teachers, Pelham said.

Ava Goldman, a director for Miami-Dades Exceptional Student Education, said the school district works with Pelham to train teachers to work with students who have ADHD. The district and Pelham also recently collaborated to revamp the accepted classroom accommodations students with ADHD can receive.

Source: http://www.ajc.com/news/lifestyles/parenting/adhd-in-classroom-is-struggle-for-teachers-student/nsGgm/

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