Tag: students

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End of the School Year Wrap-Up

Person writing thoughts in a notebook or journal Reflecting on the school year

The end of the school year came at me fast! Grades, progress reports, and packing up my room were all at the top of the list as my 2023-2024 school year came to an end. This was quite the school year, and I figured it would be fitting to write about the good and the bad that occurred during the year. I know it is almost August. I ended my school year on June 7th when I started working as a behavior specialist for a summer camp. Not to mention, I’m still working on my dissertation and preparing for an upcoming presentation at a conference later this month. I have been busy!

I must start with a disclaimer, especially if this is your first time reading my blog. This year was probably one of the most difficult years I have had since I started teaching. I’m used to working with students who display aggressive behaviors. This means these students may exhibit behaviors that impact their ability to be successful by initiating arguments or fights with their peers or school staff. Hey, it could also be defiant or disrespectful for any number of reasons. I’m big on establishing relationships with my students and families that create an environment where problems may arise, but students are still learning. My kiddos showed some of the same behaviors, but due to added trauma in their lives, it was difficult to work through those behaviors and focus on learning, which brings me to the first thing I learned this school year.

1

The year really made me lean into my research about Trauma-Informed Education. I made it a point to read and study anything I could get my hands on that talked about Trauma-Informed Education. So much so that I created a presentation that I’m sharing with anyone willing to listen. In education, we are given so many new buzz words ALL.THE.TIME. Educators never know what is going to stick and what will fade, like the ink from your favorite stamp pad. Taking the time to analyze what your students are communicating to you through their behaviors is crucial to establishing a safe and supportive learning environment. It takes time, consistency, and dedication, but it is well worth it. Click here to get a free checklist for starting your own trauma-informed classroom.

2

Being able to loop with your students for a second year adds to their success. I usually work with my students for at least 2 years. I always see major progress in the second year. In previous years, I have had students totally reintegrate back into the general education classroom from the self-contained setting with success. This year was no different. My 6th graders were leaps and bounds ahead of where they were in 5th grade. They were more independent and able to advocate for themselves. But don’t just take my word for it; research has shown having a repeat teacher increases students’ test scores while also improving attendance and discipline for lower-performing students and male students of color (Wedenoja et al., 2022). Unfortunately, intentional looping, where districts plan for teachers to progress with their students, is not a “thing” everywhere.

3

Self-reflection is key. According to philosopher and educator John Dewey, “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” Taking the time each day to think about what went right or wrong was helpful to making improvements in my teaching. Being honest with myself about my shortcomings. This post on Edutopia provides tips on how educators can make self-reflection a consistent habit.

4

Practice gratitude even when things are not going well. Reflecting on the negative is not a good way to start or end the day. Having a daily practice of thinking about what you are thankful for can be encouraging. It can also help you focus on what is going well and how to make improvements. Use of a gratitude journal can help get you on the path of being thankful even when it has been a tough day. Check out this gratitude journal for teachers that I created, which is available on Amazon. If you are not a fan of journaling, take a look at this blog post about refueling your gratitude on Edutopia.

All in all, looking back on some of my highs and lows from the past school year has gotten me fired up for the new year ahead. There will be new challenges, including a new school building, classroom, and colleagues. There will also be familiar things, like my students from last year. I’m excited about the new adventures that await us.

References

Wedenoja, L., Papay, J., and Kraft, M.A. (2022). Second time's the charm? How sustained relationships from repeat student-teacher matches build academic and behavioral skills. (EdWorkingPaper: 22-590). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/sddw-ag22 

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How to Have Difficult Conversations with Parents or Guardians

How to Have Difficult Conversations with Parents or Guardians
How to Have Difficult Conversations with Parents or Guardians

The other day, I had an unusual (for me) experience with one of my students and their parents. This student struggled throughout the school day, so much so that I grew concerned and wanted to have a face-to-face conversation with the parent at pick-up. Due to the nature of my room, for those new here, I’m the lead teacher of a behaviorally focused classroom so I communicate daily with families in many ways: email, text, and/or phone. I’ve even done social media if any of the above didn’t work. My point is that I don’t shy away from communicating with families even when it can be a difficult and serious situation, and you can imagine that as the lead teacher of a behaviorally focused classroom, difficult conversations are somewhat of the norm.

COVID-19 changed the game for many educators as we were welcomed into the homes of our students through online teaching. We either experienced a spike in communication or radio silence (Fox, 2023). During my preservice years, I don’t remember taking any courses focused totally on parental communication.  This is interesting because research shows that addressing academic and behavioral issues with a proactive outlook builds a positive bridge of communication between school and home (Freytag, 2001). Over the years, I feel that I have learned how to effectively build that bridge with every family I have served. Some bridges started out dotted with potholes from previous teacher relationships and/or feelings of mistrust of the school district. With consistent and honest communication on my end, I have always been able to chart a smooth clear path across the bridge.

That is until the other day. Now as I said before, my student had had a particularly challenging day. There was an incident in the morning stemming from a sick friend and after contacting home, I found out he hadn’t slept well the night before. Immediately, I sprinkled myself with an extra helping of my special patience sauce (one day, I might share the recipe), knowing I was going to need it. The day forged ahead. Recess arrived, and my student smacked a student and pushed a couple of others. We worked through those issues only to have him go to PE and intentionally throw a volleyball at a student’s head. Did I mention this was the same student he smacked during recess?! At this point, we are at the end of the school day, and I know that I have to talk to Mom at pick up at the end of the day in addition to the phone calls I’ve already made to her earlier in the day. And I’m torn because no matter what I do (positive calls and/or text messages home) a majority of my communication is about her son’s negative behavior. She has shared with me how frustrated she has gotten over the years dealing with the aftermath of his outbursts. I was worried about continuing to add to this and possibly make her question her capabilities as a parent which influences the development of her child (Ma et al., 2024). 

I went out with my student, who ran ahead to hop in the car, trying to leave before I made it there. He locked the door, Mom started to let the window down, and he put it back up. I was able to open the door and start to talk to Mom when my student began yelling that I was a liar, among other things. I gave a short description of the day along with my concerns. Mom, instead of addressing today’s incidents begins talking about an encounter with one of my colleagues from two weeks ago. Apparently, my colleague had told this student to move when he was blocking the exit door. Mind you this was my first time being told this. Realizing the conversation was going nowhere, I politely excused myself after apologizing for the actions of another teacher. I was upset as I walked away. But I also began thinking about how I could navigate these types of discussions in the future, especially if my student is around and mom may not be willing to hear it.

Difficult conversations with parents
Families and education

My mind began to work overtime on how to have difficult conversations with parents. In addition to this situation, I work with another student whose mother refuses to talk to teachers, principals, or support staff. Right now, she only speaks with one of the social workers. Daily, there are issues that need to be addressed, but they are not due to a lack of parent-teacher communication. After thinking about it, doing some research, and interviewing others, this is what I came up with:

1. Remember the factors that influence child behaviors also influence the teacher-child relationship which greatly impacts the parent-teacher relationship. SO WATCH WHAT YOU SAY AND CHOOSE YOUR WORDS WISELY!!! 

2. Make sure you are communicating positive messages home as well. Do not allow all of your communication to be about negative things. Even if you call to voice a concern, like maybe the student is ill or the student is having an off day, keep it positive! Make the parent feel as though you are all part of the team to support their child because you actually are.

3. Serve a wrap instead of a sandwich. We have all heard of the positive feedback sandwich. We have all heard of the positive feedback sandwich. You give your negative or critical feedback but it is sandwiched between doses of positive feedback. The wrap approach allows you to ask what the parent may feel about their child’s current performance. You can then add your thoughts and have a discussion about it. It is more of a proactive approach to finding common ground and moving forward with a plan of support. I like this approach because it gives us educators an opportunity to validate parents’ thoughts and feelings by simply asking for it.

4. Finally, use the Golden Rule. Treat others how you want to be treated. Practice empathy. I always try to put myself in the mindset of my families. Think about the feelings of overwhelm and powerlessness that may be present and how I would want someone to treat and speak to me if those feelings were present in me.

Remember, you and the families of your students have the same goal in mind: ensure the student is making progress on their academic and behavioral goals. You are a team and there will be some problems along the way, but with respect and empathy, there can be success! 

References

Fox, K. (2023). Building an understanding of family literacy: Changing practices regarding homework and other forms of school-home engagement and school community, 33(1).

Freytag, C. (2001). Teacher-parent communication: Starting the year off right.

Ma, T., Tellegen, C., and Sanders, M. (2024). The role of parenting self-efficacy on teacher-child relationship and parent-teacher communication: Evidence from an Australian national longitudinal study, Journal of School Psychology

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TikTok Made Me Do It

So I recently became a fan of TikTok. My daughters were always sharing different videos with me so I broke down and created an account. I had an account back in 2020 when COVID closed down the schools. It came in handy when I couldn’t locate my students through the traditional ways. I made a few videos and started messaging my students through the platform. Guess what, it worked! I was able to get them to attend their online classes. 

Once we moved on to hybrid classes, I didn’t see the need for TikTok, so my account just there collecting virtual dust until 6 months ago. I realized some of my fellow educators were creating followings displaying the comic relief that being an educator can be. There are days we need as much laughter as possible. You just need to laugh to keep from crying. I’m not an actress and sometimes it takes me a million years to get things accomplished on technology. Even after creating my own website, an online course, and trying to keep up with this blog I still struggle at times. 

I enlisted the assistance of my middle child who was more than happy to teach me the ropes. It was all fun and games until last week. I posted a video using audio from the platform not from my classroom of a student clearly yelling in distress. Not a fight, just a student yelling. I did so to show what educators are dealing with during the month of May or some of us for the entire school year. I teach a self-contained behaviorally focused classroom so there are often days when a student is yelling in distress. 

@spedteacherkb

When the month of May hits, even your star students start acting out!! 🤣🤣 #itstimeforschooltoend #summerbreak #teachersoftiktok #specialeducation #specialeducationteacher #educationtiktok #teacherlife #teacherfunny #teacherfunnymoments #teacherfunnyvideos #teacherfunnyteachertok

♬ original sound – BodyDysmorphiaBros

Well, I ruffled a few feathers because I got some negative comments on my post. I was told I suck and some profanity was used. I’m an empath so I felt really bad and after consulting my daughter aka social media manager, she thought I should comment. So I did and the person continued to berate me. Now, I was feeling like I should delete the post, but saw supportive comments from those in the education field. They shared their understanding of what was happening in the video. That is when I decided to leave the post there, but make it into a teaching moment. Hence this post and an upcoming new TikTok and how to deal with a student who is in distress especially for my newbie self-contained teachers.

What to Do When a Student is in Distress

Evacuation Plan

At the beginning of the school year, you should create your evacuation plan. This has nothing to do lockdowns, fire drills, or tornado drills. Your evacuation plan details where you take a student in distress to calm down. There will need to 2 parts to this plan because if the student in distress is refusing to leave the area, then you may need to evacuate your other students. It is also good practice to conduct practice evacuation drills as with other drills so students know what to do and where to go. Make sure you have a point person they will go with if it is not you. If your class needs to leave, then the area needs to be big enough for them to be comfortable and have adult supervision. You may need to stay behind with the student in distress.

Consistently Teach Skills

Now I’m going to get on my soapbox. You should be teaching social emotional skills daily. If you need SEL curriculum suggestions, drop me an email. Students should be taught how to identify their emotions and ways they can self-regulate. We all know that this does not always happen but most students make considerable improvement in their behavior when replacement behaviors are taught on a regular basis. 

Be Supportive

If the student in distress is at the point of the student in the audio, there is not much talking or reasoning they want to hear. You can drop gems like, “When you are ready, I’m here “ or “When you are ready, I want you to know how I can support you.” Then walk away but keep the student in your proximity and line of sight. Give them the time and space to calm down. 

Keep Them Safe

In my video the student in distress is yelling and I’m sitting at my desk looking from the “student” to the camera, not saying a word. I’m not making any comments, yelling back, or trying to come in contact with the student at this time. I’m watching to make sure they are safe and not trying to harm themselves or anyone else. That is why it is also important to have an evacuation plan in place. Remove others so they do not try to provoke the student or make matters worse. You may even have a crisis team at your school. If so, follow the protocol.

Follow Up

Make sure to take time to follow up with the student when they have calmed down completely and are ready to talk. This may even be the next day, but make sure you follow up! Talk about what happened, why, what they could have or should do differently, and what you can do to support them in the future. Depending on the severity, frequency, and duration of the situation you may also need to call home, especially if the student has a goal on their IEP tied to self-regulation or behavior. Keep parents in the loop as much as possible or to the extent they would like to be included. 

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How You Can Build Community in a Self-Contained Classroom

A self-contained classroom educates students with disabilities in all of their academic subjects. Students with disabilities make up 14% of the student population nationally (Hirsch et al, 2022). Many of these students are educated in self-contained classroom if their Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team has agreed that is their least restrictive environment (LRE). Students with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) are most often educated in self-contained due to their specialized needs in social emotional learning, social skills, and self regulation. Due to their disability, it can be difficult for teachers to develop relationships with students with EBD, let alone assist them in developing friendships with their peers. As a teacher of a self contained classroom for students with EBD for over ten years, I have compiled a list of ways you can build community in a self contained classroom.

Believe that your class is a community

A quote that is often attributed to Henry Ford is “Those that believe they can and those that believe they can’t are often both correct.” If we hold a strong belief in one way or the other, it can impact the outcome of any plan of acton we choose to implement. If you have a strong belief in something that is unwavering, you can also help others to believe as well. When your students see you believing that they can be successful at being apart of a classroom community, it can help make that belief a reality.

Model the behaviors you want to see

As humans we learn most of our behaviors by watching those around us. Babies learn speech by repeating the sounds they hear around them. The same can be said of modeling positive behaviors in the classroom. You can create lessons where you break down the behaviors you would like students to use in the classroom. That means showing them how to perform the specific skill. You may also need to give them the reasoning behind exhibiting these behaviors. We need to realize that not everyone has had the opportunity to learn how to relate to others, especially based on their backgrounds.

Be consistent with your expectations

Classroom management is an important part of creating a community in your classroom. The classroom management style of the teacher sets the tone for the classroom and determines the effectiveness of the learning environment. Creating expectations with your students and making sure they understand the consequences if those expectations are not met helps with consistency. Students know what will happen if expectations are not met and will act accordingly.

Be aware of your social and emotional competency

According to the website, Positive Action, the five core social and emotional competencies are: 1) self-awareness, 2) self-management, 3) responsible decision making, 4) social awareness, and 5) relationship skills. In order to teach these skills to students, teachers must be aware of their own competencies. Having self-awareness will allow teachers to understand their strengths and weaknesses which can help with maintaining healthy relationships. Self-management focuses on helping to improve your stress management, organizational skills, goal setting, and self-discipline. That works hand in hand with responsible decision making in order to make important decisions. Social awareness involves your ability to emphasize with others. This also helps in establishing healthy relationships. Ultimately, all this helps with your relationship skills to, yes you guessed it, establish and maintain healthy relationships that add to your classroom community.

Encourage and/or create opportunities for positive peer interactions

According to the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning, positive peer interactions lead to the positive social and emotional development in children. Children who are given these opportunities are able to build stronger friendships and connections with others. Teachers are able to create these types of interactions in the classroom through group activities and role playing. Students with EBD may not develop these skills on their own and need more practice. Giving these students the opportunities for positive peer interactions can help improve their social behaviors.

Lead with positivity!

As a classroom teacher, you are the leader and set the tone for your learning environment. Your behavior and attitude can directly influence the behaviors of your students. Having an air of positivity in your classroom will create a supportive climate. A positive teacher leader is the unifier of healthy relationships in the classroom.

Educationally yours,

Kandice B. aka SPED Teacher KB

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Paraprofessionals – The Backbone of the Classroom

I could just as easily call this post my ode to the paraprofessional. When I made the decision to seriously pursue a career in education, I had no idea where to start. I knew that I had to go back to school in order to get my teaching license, but beyond that I had no clue what I was getting into. My first thoughts were to get a position at a school so that I could get some first hand knowledge of what goes on in a school. To be honest, I wanted to know what teaching was really like. I got hired as a substitute teacher and I loved it. Never mind that time a student cut his hair with scissors (LOL!) I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. After one year of subbing, I was hired as what was referred to then as a teacher’s aide. I had no idea what that meant! I just knew I had a full time position in education with medical benefits. I wasn’t the teacher so it shouldn’t be that difficult, right?!

What is a paraprofessional?
Paraprofessionals generally assist teachers in the classroom, supervise students inside and outside of the classroom, provide administrative support in the classroom.

Anyone who is or has been a paraprofessional before knows how difficult the job can be. Whether you are assigned to work one on one with one student, working in a general education classroom or assisting in a resource classroom, the responsibilities of a paraprofessional can be demanding. This is not to deter anyone looking to for a position as a para. It is definitely a very fulfilling position. Having a well trained and capable para by your side in the classroom can be the saving grace for a teacher. They can be the extra set of eyes and ears for the teacher. Sometimes able to stop issues between students getting out of hand before the teacher is even aware of it.

Paraprofessionals are helpful in the classroom

So what does a paraprofessional do exactly?

  1. Support students in the classroom: A para may work with one or more students depending on the needs. This may entail providing accommodations like scribing for a student or making sure students have all their materials for class.
  2. Support students outside of the classroom: A para may accompany students to their special area classes like physical education, music, art, etc. Depending on the level of need, they may also go on field trips as well to monitor behavior.
  3. Collect data: Para may need to monitor student behavior using a checklist or spreadsheet of some kind that needs to be reported back to an intervention specialist or teacher.
  4. Classroom administrative tasks: You may be called upon to make copies or correct student work.
  5. Assist students with class work: A para may work with small groups or even one student to assist them with class assignments. I’m always reminding people that this means reminding the students of strategies that they can use and not just giving the answers.
Paraprofessionals support students inside and outside the classroom

What are some qualities that are important in a paraprofessional?

  • Patience: You are dealing with children, some that are dealing with their own struggles which extra care and attention.
  • Ability to multi-task
  • Basic reading and math skills
  • Empathy
  • Kindness
  • Understanding
  • Assertiveness

Bottom line, paraprofessionals are the backbone of the classroom no matter the setting. It is important that students see the teacher treat the paraprofessional with respect. In my classroom, I always refer to any paraprofessional as teacher. My students know that they should give the same level respect that they give to me to the paraprofessionals in the room. If you get the opportunity to work with a paraprofessional, please embrace it! It can change your teaching and add to the feeling of community in your classroom.

I would love to hear your experiences, drop a comment below!

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