ASK A TEACHER

DO!

-Set behavioral expectations clearly

-Consider using both tangible and intangible rewards. A class wide incentive system like class store can encourage good behavior as well as verbal praises.

 -Publicly praise your student!

-Explicitly communicate reasons for either reward or consequence for student

-Utilize PBIS and restorative justice practices.

Don’t!

-Publicly criticize your student

-Send the student out of class (if you must, use this as a last resort)

-Let a given correction or consequence affect other interactions with that student or other students in class

-Use a card/ranking system to display if a student is meeting behavioral expectations

ex:

Research has shown that chronic early stress associated with traumatic experiences can make school success difficult for students.

Some traumatic experiences include (but are not limited to) housing/food insecurity, child abuse or neglect, immigration status, mental illness, domestic or community violence, or family incarceration.

Teachers can definitely provide a lot of support for these students through the following tips:

Recognizing trauma in the classroom

Symptoms that may be indicative of a student directly or indirectly experiencing trauma can include excessive anger that may or may not evolve into verbal or physical aggression, clinginess, trouble making friends, perfectionistic, controlling, or anxious behavior, difficulty concentrating, regular tardiness of absence from class, or defiance.

Communicating with students with trauma

it is important that teachers remain a source of consistent positivity and support in students’ lives. It can be difficult to address the  negative behaviors of a student with trauma because these behaviors, but it is important that a student’s social and emotional safety at school is preserved because if a student does not feel safe, they will be unable to learn. When trying to support a student with trauma, make sure to outweigh negative interactions with positive ones. For example, before you correct a students behavior, you should connect with them. You can ask them why they behaved in that manner, ask them to explain the situation before you come to any conclusions, or you can even try to praise them for positive behaviors first. If you do need to correct a student’s behavior, criticize them privately, rather than in front of the class. Most importantly, remember to praise these students publicly when it is deserved. Look for reasons to have positive interactions with these students.   

Seeking additional supports

It is so important to get to know your students! Establishing caring relationships with students can make learning more enjoyable for students and can even help create safe environments and boundaries without having to be stern or punitive. Ice breakers are a great way to start to get to know your students! Make sure to get involved and participate if you can. Students want to get to know their teachers just as much as teachers want to know their students. 

Here are some icebreaker ideas: 

- Skittle/starburst questions: Have each student pick a starburst/skittle. Each color should correspond to a question (i.e. If you could have any super power, what would it be?, Who is someone you look up to? If you could make any law, what would it be?). Once every student has a piece of candy, go around the room and have each student answer the question that corresponds to their piece of candy. 

- Fun fact scavenger hunt: Give each student a piece of paper with a list or grid of common fun facts (i.e. I am an only child, I have a pet dog, I play a sport). Have students try to find at least one person who that fact is true for. Have at least one different person for each fact. This gives students a chance to get to know each other more. 

Classroom organization is a great place to start if you haven’t gotten to know your students yet. Rules and routines established through effective classroom management should be supported by the physical environment of the classroom. Having an organized classroom allows you to better anticipate the needs of your students and be present with them during actual class time because you spend minimal time looking for materials and hopefully, your set up will allow you to physically move through your classroom as easily as possible. 

Here are some things to consider when setting up the physical environment of your classroom: 

Where will students turn in their work? Do they turn in work by subject? Will you get color-coded bins and folders for your students if you separate by subject? 

How and when will you return student work? Will you use mailboxes? Will you pass back work during free time? How often will you have students collect their work? Everyday? Once a week?

How will you arrange the desks? In pods? Rows? What kind of formation can you use so that elements necessary to effective classroom environments, like collaboration or communication can be fostered? Can you ensure that all students can see the teacher when direct instruction is given? Will you be able to walk through and around desk formation when you need to observe your students? 

Will you have a fixed location, or even several fixed locations for office supplies and/or art supplies? If so, where will you place them so that all students can access these supplies easily? How can you place them so that presence of clutter is minimized? 

The Universal Design for Learning is a framework to improve and optimize both teaching and learning. It provides guidelines on how to engage students in a lesson, how to represent information for students, and how to assess your students. A significant part of UDL is providing your students with choice, letting them decide how they want to sit during instruction, how they want to retain information, and how they want to show their understanding of a certain subject.

Engagement should stimulate interest and motivation for learning

If a student is not engaged, they cannot retain information because they will not try to.

Examples: 

Alternative seating: Having different types of seating equipment available to students in the classroom like seat cushions, therapy balls, or beanbag chairs supports students’ need for movement or body sensation. If students have the ability to choose how they sit when they learn, they will feel more engaged in the lesson since the need for constant stimulation is addressed. 

Brain breaks: When a student can complete physical, mental, or breathing exercises for 1-3 minutes during a break in instruction. This relieves stress, combats feelings of being overwhelmed, and helps the student refocus and help them process more information. 

Equity Sticks: Put a set of popsicle sticks in a can and have each student’s name written on a stick. When the teacher asks a question, they should pull a name from the sticks at random to ensure an equal chance of participation from all students. This encourages students to stay aware and alert during a lesson. 

Rubrics: Providing students with a rubric containing the criteria or learning targets for an assignment can be helpful when keeping students engaged because it explicitly describes what is expected of a student, minimizing any confusion in that area. Students can look back and forth at the rubric as much as they need in order to stay on task.

Representation is how a teachers present information and content to their students. This is very lesson-based. 

Examples: 

Thinking beyond the text: This strategy involves students connecting a text to their lives. Basically, before discussing a specific reading the teacher will facilitate a class discussion, small group discussion, or journaling activity that poses questions about topics relevant to their reading. Students will feel more engaged and connected to a lesson if they feel the subject relates to their lives. They will better comprehend material that they feel connected to, as well. 

Chunking: This strategy involves grouping content into smaller units in order to make information easier to retain and recall for students. This can be utilized in many ways. For example, teachers can chunk information together in any presentation they are using during direct instruction. 

Offering alternatives for auditory or visual information: This strategy involves providing information on multiple mediums so that all kinds of learners have access to information. For example, if you are showing a video to teach a lesson, you can also provide a transcript for students to follow so that more visual learners can retain info as well. If you assigned a reading, on the other hand, you could provide text-to-speech technology for students who need to retain information audially.

Action and Expression requires that teachers differentiate how students can express what they know. 

Examples: 

Station Rotation: Students rotate in either heterogeneous or homogenous groups to different activities connected to what was taught in a lesson. This keeps students engaged as it challenges them to show understanding in different ways and encourages collaboration and communication within a small group. 

IEP stands for Individualized Education Program. Think of it as a blueprint that lays out the program of special education, instruction, and services for students with learning difficulties. IEPs are a part of public education.  Students who receive an IEP after being evaluated can require that either accommodations or modifications be made for them depending on what their needs are.

Here is an example: A class is assigned to read a book. Christopher has dyslexia and is struggling with reading at the same pace as the class. Depending on what his IEP requires, he could be provided with an accommodation or modification to reduce his struggle and frustration and encourage more effective learning. An example of an accommodation would be to let Christopher use text-to-speech technology to read the book aloud. An example of a modification would be to assign Christopher a simpler book to read or to assign him only a part of the book.

A 504 is similar to an IEP in that is a specialized plan for how schools can provide supports and remove barriers for a student with either disability. Also like an IEP, the end goal of a 504 plan is to help students be successful in school and give students equitable access to curriculum. 504 plans are not, however, a part of special education so they typically do not provide individualized instruction. 

In order to provide that equitable access to education, 504s will often provide accommodations like extended time on tests or other services.

504s rarely provide modifications, but when they do, it can be in the form of fewer homework assignments or graded in a different way than their peers.

Accommodations are alterations in how instruction is delivered to students. These students are expected to learn the same curriculum as their peers with no required accommodations.

PBIS is a three-tiered framework schools can follow in order to encourage good behavior. With PBIS, schools teach behavior just as they would teach any other subject like reading or math. Similar to Restorative Justice, PBIS aims to reduce punishment as a consequence, but PBIS focuses entirely on prevention. 

Tier 1 interventions impacts all members of the school community—administrators, students, families, and teachers.  It is in this tier that appropriate behavior is taught to all students.

- Coming up with classroom rules as a class 

- Examples of behaviors that meet expectations are explicitly taught 

- Consistent, fair, and evidence-based consequences for when behavioral expectations are not met 

Tier 2 practices are reserved for students requiring targeted prevention when Tier 1 practices do not succeed. These practices are more intense than Tier 1 and may require more resources 

- Small group intervention with a counselor for a specific problem 

- Assignment of an in-class adult mentor 

- Regular behavior monitoring and extra reinforcement for appropriate behavior. For example, having the student check-in/checkout with a teacher or administrator to more closely monitor progress and provide feedback and opportunity for reinforcement. 

Tier 3 interventions are the most intensive and resource dependent of all the tiers. 

- Individualized counseling for a specific problem 

- Family group conferencing 

I totally sense your frustration, 3rd graders can drive you crazy! But this question is a bit vague. Before you can expect your students to “just behave”, you have to be clear with what those behavioral expectations are. Setting expectations for behavior should always come before any sort of instruction. 

Sometimes teachers will tell their students “Be responsible”, “Be safe”, or “Be respectful” when setting behavioral expectations, and while those are great descriptors of a good student, there is little in those expectations that actually tell a student how to “behave”

See, a behavior is an action, and when you tell a student to “be safe” or “responsible” there is no clear outline for what a student should be doing in order show the teacher they are being safe or responsible. o Instead of those general descriptors of good behavior (safe, responsible, respectful), give students explicit behavioral expectations to follow. Here’s an example:

Many schools have even adopted and implemented school-wide behavioral expectations in order to promote consistency in classrooms. 

Understanding how you learn best is a good indicator of how you may be inclined to teach. While some students may learn the same way you do, the chances of your entire classroom having your same learning style is essentially impossible.

Here are some examples of different learning styles:

Having an implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes we hold about the world that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. Accepting that you have implicit biases does not make you a bad person, as we all hold certain perceptions about race, ability, gender, or sexuality that affect our interactions with people. These implicit biases often stem from the communities and family we were brought up in and the culture and media. 

When teaching, it is imperative to confront your implicit biases in order to ensure that you are treating all students with the same level of care and respect. 

Here’s an example of how implicit bias can effect a classroom:

Restorative justice is an alternative to punitive means of consequence, focusing on mediation, agreement, and rebuilding relationships as a way to repair harm caused by an offense. Restorative justice can be used to support students going through trauma or any other kind of difficulty. 

There are three tiers of practicing restorative justice in classrooms:

Tier 1: community building 

Schools should always be practicing restorative justice techniques as a preventative measure. A way to do this is through restorative justice circles of sharing that allow students to talk about their feelings and experiences. This helps teachers get to know their students and encourages a caring community throughout the school. In this tier, students should be communicating their needs while teachers should be empowering their students to take responsibility for themselves and keep themselves accountable. 

Tier 2: harm and healing 

Tier 2 practices should be put into action when a student has broken a rule and harmed someone else. Normally in these situations, students would be punished, but in restorative justice practices, the student would be given the opportunity to make things right by meeting with the people they hurt and a mediator. Basically, a discussion about the situation would take place, and hopefully both parties would exit the discussion with a better understanding of why and how the event took place and what they can do to improve their relationships. 

Tier 3: re-integration 

You’re off to a great start. It is so important to communicate with parents in order to foster an effective learning experience for your students. Students’ learning should not just be happening in school, but at home as well. Parents should be reinforcing what their child learns at school. Maintaining a positive relationship with parents can be done in a multitude of ways. 

First, I would suggest creating a positive first impression between you and the parents. Since it is right before the school year starts, this can be done through a “Welcome Letter” to parents in which you introduce yourself through some fun facts and then express how excited you are for the school year to start. In the welcome letter, you should also provide a means to contact you—a professional email would be preferable. 

Another way to maintain a positive relationship between you, the teacher, and parents is through positive updates about a student through either a phone call or email. This is a great method because it shows that you pay attention to their child individually and that you can recognize their strengths. Be sure to send positive emails about a variety of students, not just the same ones every week. This positive relationship will also assist any issues that a student may have in class, whether that be because of difficulty learning or behavioral problems. 

A good ratio to follow when interacting with parents is four positives to one negative. Beginning with the positives, especially before an issue with a student arises, shows parents that you are a proponent of their learning and truly want them to succeed.