Recent Changes

Healing Communities
With this year only being my sixth year of teaching and raised in a somewhat normal household I find reading this type of book very eye-opening and shocking as to what children actually have to live with. Numerous times I had to wipe tears and pick my jaw up off the floor. I can only hope my presence in the classroom is one that is positive and helpful to healing for those children who face or have faced life altering trauma. I hope my influence with my co-workers will not be forgotten. I know the students that I have taught have changed me and I will always remember them.

Kind Children
Schools/Teachers should be providing a safe environment filled with love, compassion, trust and kindness. Everyone should be showing up with a big smile, warm hugs and thoughtful positive words. Classroom should feel like a home with 17 brothers and sisters. This classroom home is where students and teachers help each other to grow and succeed.

Expectations
Rich or poor, tall or short, label or no label, all of my students will have an expectation. They will be expected to grow and learn more than they ever thought possible! Yes, the knowledge of a disorder or disease will help me to support the student to make that growth but it will not change it.

Overwhelming Stress
Discussing and reasoning what to do when these situations arise BEFORE they actually happen are the best ways to help our students maintain or regain self-regulation. Our 2nd Step curriculum is an excellent tool for teaching coping techniques. Students need to know when something happens and they are upset to first use their voice, their calm voice, to fix the problem. Getting upset accomplishes nothing.

Overwhelming Stress
I think that teaching students about how their emotions effects their bodies this can help them identify what is going on when they begin to overreact. It is critical to also teach students strategies to calm themselves. If you teach these strategies it only takes a cue word or even a quick question to help them slow down and begin to regulate. I also have a variety of fidgets in my room and encourage my students to use them when they feel that their anxiety is high or they just need a break.

Expectations
Again I have found that with my students my presuppositions and approach to them has a profound effect on their behavior and how the days go. My behavior and reactions are the most controllable thing in my classroom. If I expect a student to struggle because of this or that label, they will. If I start fresh and give them the expectation of following the plan for the day they will more likely do so.

Empowered Students
Everyone likes choices; no one wants to be told what to do and how to do it all the time. I believe when students are given choices they feel empowered and able to cope when situations arise. In my class, students are able to choose the center and how they complete that center, whether it be Math or Reading. When it is a behavior issue, I give the student the choice of a quiet/safe place to collect their thoughts, taking a walk to another classroom/library/office to deliver a note, use the restroom to wash face and regain composure.

Healing Communities
This book has been a wonderful read, very helpful and practical. I have often wondered just how students who have faced such terrible things learn to succeed and even thrive. This book provided useful insight in just how I can help these students to face difficulty and strive for better. I know the stories in this book are difficult, but overall I was amazed at the hopeful theme of the book.

Kind Children
School is supposed to be a safe environment. As a group of professionals our school works to provide this safe environment. I see that many of our students depend on us to be a safe place, and their anxiety levels go up when we get close to a long break or the end of school. As teachers we need to daily remember that the relationships we build with children effect every interaction we have with them. As I tell my own children, "If we aren't there for each other who will be?"