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CLASS LEARNING COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER
Top Discussion in November
Overwhelmed with Student Behaviors
An anonymous member asked: "I have been a mentor coach for a few years already. I am so overwhelmed with the behaviors in the classroom. I do not know how to help the teachers out at this point anymore. I have offered modeling, strategies, classroom support. I stay in classrooms sometimes all day to help with the behaviors because the rooms are really bad. Not much help is being given through our mental health and disabilities team since they are so short staffed. I feel I am not able to mentor because of the concentration on the behavior issues. I am at the point of leaving but do not want to disappoint my teachers. I just don't know how else to help them. Any advice, recommendations would be greatly appreciated. They type of behaviors we are dealing with is physical, aggressive, defiant, nonverbal behavior.
The community jumped in with sympathy, support, suggestions, and understanding. If you are struggling with similar issues, it's a wonderful thread to read through. Here's just a bit:
One thing you can do is to help the teachers notice the positives and build upon those even if they are small wins. We call it Positive Descriptive Acknowledgement in the Teaching Pyramid and it can be close to magic. It can be anything even a few second just stating what you see children doing that is positive and what we want children doing. Just say what you see. For example " you came to circle time", you used walking feet", "you passed the milk that was being friendly". Even if it's for a few seconds. -Donna Yuriar
I want to say that you ARE mentoring and mentoring some very important skills. You are modeling to show up and give your best even when you know that you are facing a challenge. You are modeling that children are important and valuable no matter what they bring to classroom with them. You are modeling self-control and executive function to every child who watches your presence in the classroom. You are demonstrating to the teachers who are your responsibility just how important they are. Hang in there because chances are the situation is better for your involvement. -Barbara Karr-Gotz
Coffee with CLASS
Our first CLASS Community coffee meet-up, held during the NAEYC Annual Conference, was a great success! We had 18 Community members from DC, Florida, Connecticut, Georgia, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Texas, Virginia, and Mississippi come together to ask questions, share stories, offer support, and caffeinate before the third day of the conference. Thank you to everyone who was able to come. We hope to have more in-person Community events soon.
No matter where you are in your CLASS journey, there's something new for you.
Mary-Margaret introduces Responsive Caregiving and how to improve interactions by looking at an infant's cues that the child may be trying to communicate a need as well as ways to support an infant's exploration.
How do you emphasize students' interests and motivations throughout the day? How can you encourage responsibility and autonomy with such young students? And how does that support the Pyramid Model of Social Emotional Learning? We attempt to answer all these questions.
Fascinating blog on the opportunity gap in K-3. "Only 4% of children in the sample had access to classrooms with better teaching across all four years. Yes, only 4%.Over half of the students had better teaching never or in only one year.
Supporting Students in Play
I work with a Head Start program and one of the challenges we see is children not knowing how to play. It's strange to think you actually have to teach these skills because years ago children did this naturally. Now with children being so busy, sports practices/games, dance classes, music classes etc they don't have the time for free play at home. Then there is the addition of screen time which limits free play. I think Effective Facilitation is a key ingredient to helping children expand their play skills as well as Quality Feedback. -Tamara De Los Santos
As a coach I often ask teachers to consider the following question: What are the children telling you they need? In cases when play is fragmented or punctuated by behavior challenges the answer becomes clear. They need to learn how to play. Typically we unpack the social skills required for successful (non-stressful) play and determine activities or develop plans which will scaffold children as they learn these skills. Another question we often consider is: What does good play look like, sound like, feel like? Sometimes this also can reveal which pieces children are missing and also help teachers understand how to model good play.-Heather Jones
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