Mirror Books for Mental Health Disorders

Statistically, 1 in 5 people show signs of mental health disorders. Some examples of mental health disorders are depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorders. What surprised me about talk therapy was it can also make things work for someone with a mental health disorder. It can make things worse because children don't want to remember past memories of their disorders or talk about it. It can cause them to get more frustrated, anxious, or depressed. However, a teacher can use activities like art to reveal what the student wants to share, since art isn't in oral communication. This can help a teacher create that teacher student relationship and help the teacher understand what the student is going through with their disorder. A great way a teacher can help students like this is to have mirror books. Mirror Books are books on real life events that student go through, it is books that students can see themselves in. For example, a book can be on a boy who joins a gang becoming a bully, his father dies, and he wants to get out of the gang and re-shape his life. Mirror books can help students see a resolve or a way to get out of tough situations.

Collaborative/Inquiry Lessons

Just like every lesson you must have an overview. For an inquiry lesson you should say what you are doing and how this lesson is an inquiry instruction. For your goals you should have three: Academic, Information Processing, and Performance objectives. Remember to put your materials and also add your technology materials. Put in any of your vocabulary words that will be use in the lesson, underneath academic vocabulary. Then begin your introduction procedure. The introduction should be how you will greet the class, what they will be learning, and how they will review the steps of inquiry. It is very important to review the steps of inquiry so students can use it for any problem they face. Next is the explore procedure, where the teacher should break the students up into groups and provide a good explanation on what the activity is and how the students will do it. Elaborate is when you write the students independent practice. For evaluate you should put down three of your assessments: Diagnostic, Formative, and Summative. Don't forget to write about your modifications/accommodations. Then finally write some reflective questions that you would like to ask yourself at the completion of the inquiry lesson.

Mental illnesses in the Classroom

If teacher's come across a child that has a mental illness, they should NEVER get mad at the child. Let's say a child has Bipolar Disorder, and one second the child is nice and kind, and the next he is driving the teacher crazy. The teacher should never alter there voice or get mad at this child, it is not there fault. It does not help the child by getting mad at him or her. Things you shouldn't do is be judgmental, this can crush a student instantly. Another is to never tell the student to change, the student is fine who he or she is. If a teacher says that, then the truth is the teacher is the one to change.

What if there are problems at home, and school is the child's safe place? Well the teacher that got mad and was judgmental to the child just destroyed that safe place. Things to do when a child has a mental illness is maybe talk to the student about the behavior at the end of the class. If teachers sense something off they should talk to the student and ask if they can do anything to accommodate them. Teachers should reach a conclusion with the child that is fair for both parties. An example would be to take a break. That Bipolar student can feel when he or she starts getting angry, and a simple way to reach a conclusion is for the student to take a break and maybe walk to the water fountain and come back when he or she is ready.