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1. This philosophy speaks to me because it looks at education as a process and not a solution. 2. This can be applied to the classroom by creating a foundation of numerous ways students can address their own needs/emotions. Example: Take a break, put your head down, go to the back of the classroom. When I see student's trying to regulate on their own, I can set up a time to meet with them to assist them with whatever needs I can help them meet or to help them process or provide space for them to exist. 3. This can be difficult to implement if there is not a solid or trusting relationship established.

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Johnny: Kind and Firm Boundaries with kids.

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Johnny: Kind and Firm Boundaries with kids.

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1. This philosophy spoke to me because I feel that I am kind, and it is easy for me to question my own values and beliefs which then makes me looser with my boundaries.
2. An application of this philosophy is the intro task at the beginning of the year that the article talks about. It tells the students that we’re here to learn while also establishing seating.
3. You might run into trouble with some people walking around, but being vulnerable and redirecting the student to start the task is the way to go even though it can be challenging.

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1. I think relationships are the building blocks of a good classroom. Building positive relationships is important for being able to ask students to do more and to be a trusted person.
2. I think the check-in/check-out sheets or simply point sheets are helpful. I think they are a good way for students to be thinking of their goal and working toward it. I think it helps to build the positive relationships and models a healthy relationship for the student.
3. The data tracking can be difficult depending on the behavior that is being tracked. I also find the time aspect as always to be a struggle with finding time to actually talk to students about their sheets.

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Kid's Do Well if they Can - Nicole Oswald

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Kid's Do Well if they Can - Nicole Oswald

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1. This philosophy speaks to me as I feel it is the foundation and groundwork for the entirety of my educational philosophy. I have a passion for supporting all students and operate from the lens that there is no one who comes to school or work each day just trying to get it wrong.
2. The place that I see this applied the most is when students are struggling with unexpected behaviors. Staff often assume that the child is making a choice to not do well. However, when operating from this lens,  consequences are often punitive instead of teaching a new skill to help the child have the skills to thrive or even just navigate the environment.
3. It can be very challenging to converse with someone and have this perspective when their perspective differs. If you choose to believe kids do well if they can or kids do well if they want to, there will definitely be disagreement from educators about which path to choose to support the child.

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Melvin - Strong Relationships are Key to Student Success

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Melvin - Strong Relationships are Key to Student Success

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1. This philosophy spoke to me because I am a big advocate in relationships. Some of the most difficult students to me are not difficult, they are just not understood or met where they are. I make it a point to connect with all of my students on some type of level so that they are open to learning from me and know that they can trust me when they really need a person on their side, when they are in the right. I firmly believe that if a student does not like you, then they will not learn from you.

2. The CICO strategy is something that I have used before, especially with those closed off students who do not connect well. Showing the students that you are there for them no matter how much push back they try to give you can make a world of a difference. This CICO strategy will help me connect with students and see where they may need the most help and guidance, no matter what class or problem it may be.

3. One reason this might be difficult is because some students are closed off and think that everyone is against them. This will make it hard to develop that CICO system because there is always that battle with the brick wall that said student has put up.

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Structure, Routine & Clear Boundaries Are Key To Student Success

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Structure, Routine & Clear Boundaries Are Key To Student Success

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Rachel Seavey (don't know why I am anonymous)
1. As an unstructured, non-routine having person, this is something that does not come naturally to me. In my substitute teaching over the past 2 years, I have seen how easy it is to lose control of a class without these key ingredients. Since I know it is something that I struggle with, I enjoy learning more about it to help me as I go into my own music classroom.
2. I like the reminders to start the year off by establishing boundaries and rules, and then using firm, but kind, reminders when students start to push the boundaries. I can start out the year by having slides or posters up that outline how the basic class routine will go (grab music, find seats, fun non-graded thing, learning, review in closing) and work with each class to establish what they feel should be classroom norms or rules (no talking when others do, try your best, no bullying, come to class prepared, etc)
3. As mentioned, the structure and routine are not things that are natural to me so establishing those will be difficult at first. The other is that I've worked at a guitar shop with my dad for the past 19 years (and met lots of famous people) and love to share and tell stories, so it's sometimes hard for me to not overshare. I need to remember it's about the students and not me (although I will totally share a story if it's absolutely relevant or if I am asked directly).

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Structure, Routine, and Clear Boundaries are Key to Student Success

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Structure, Routine, and Clear Boundaries are Key to Student Success

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1. This philosophy spoke to me as an incoming first-year teacher who is extremely silly and loves to get side-tracked. I want to ensure that I establish a clear structure and boundaries in order to better support all students in their learning. This is something I have been thinking about lately.

2. I love being organized, and I think an easy way to establish structure and  boundaries is to create a simple daily routine. (i.e. "we start the class this way..." "we end the class this way..." etc.). This would, undoubtedly, help students but also keep me on track! On the friendliness/ firmness scale, while I think it's really important to be authentic, open and honest with students, I do see how oversharing could be a potential issue.

3. Like I mentioned above: I love being silly. Even with a clear structure, boundaries and routine, there may be times when my silliness might negatively impact student focus/transitions... so I might need to implement some built-in transitions to help with this.

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One key tenet of my philosophy is that all kids want and need to learn. I strongly believe this to be true and agree that if a kid is not doing well it is not because they are unmotivated or don’t want to it is just because they don’t know how to… yet.

An area of opportunity that exists for almost every one of my kindergarten students to some extent is the ability to separate logical thoughts from emotion. As the article mentions, many times the students can feel themselves “heating up” but lack the tools to calm themselves back down so they can deal with the problem. One way I can help with this in my classroom is by having them practice using their social emotional skills when they are calm to try to prepare them for what they might do or say.

The biggest reason this might be challenging is simply time. I have so many things packed into my day and we only have a small chunk carved out for our SEL curriculum. If my students do not regularly practice these skills they will not develop and they will not be able to help themselves so they can do better. Trying to incorporate them into my other lessons may be one way I could make this work.

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1. I chose to read the article about balancing friendliness with firmness, because this is something I struggled with at the beginning of my student teaching (and may still have a bit of trouble balancing). I always want to be seen as a friendly teacher, but sometimes it's easy to let students walk all over us when that happens.

2. I can see this working in many ways in the classroom. Setting expectations at the beginning of the year will help to set the mood and tone of the classroom. Greeting them and beginning to build that relationship will show that classroom culture is important to me, but also that we have specific rules to follow. Following through is also super important - if you say you have a rule, you NEED to enforce it with EVERY student. Using a friendly tone instead of a mean tone will help to balance that friendliness with firmness, too.

3. As I said above, it can be so easy to fall into the "friend" role instead of the "teacher" role. We obviously want all of our students to like us, but sometimes they might not. And I think that it's okay to keep the teacher-student relationship instead of worrying about what our students might think of us. The balance can be hard to walk, as it is a fine line, but making sure that we have rules set at the beginning of the year can help to avoid this.

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1. This philosophy drew me in with talk of choice for student success. I am always looking for ways to incorporate choice in an effective way into lessons, because during my time subbing and student teaching I saw a lot of buy in from students through this method!

2. I think teaching science lends itself nicely to giving students choice in how they decide to portray their learning. For example, when learning about the water cycle in 6th grade it would be fun to give students guidelines about what must be included in their project (ie, terms, descriptions, etc) and then letting them create whatever excites them the most (poster, comic, novella, powerpoint, etc).

3. I think implementing choice and figuring out how to best incorporate without making too much extra work for you and the students is something I worry about. Especially if within the choice means you have to curate a longer and more varied (in terms of medium) credible resources. But I do think it is worth it!

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1) This philosophy spoke to me because it comes from a very experienced counselor and strikes close to my personal philosophy. I believe that kids are doing the best they can given their circumstances. There is always an underlying reason why there is an unwanted behavior in a student. This article emphasizes the empathy and understanding needed to be a teacher.

2) I think that in order to get on top of specific behaviors, the teacher must find the root of it. Simply making excuses for the student solves no problems. Pulling students aside and having conversations with them can help with the relationship between you two. The more a student trusts you, the more you are able to help them as a trusted adult.

3) Some students are very hard to reach and require long-term support and effort. Even if they are not willing to talk, a teacher needs to be able to keep up the effort on their part to talk and get to know a student.

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1. STRUCTURE, ROUTINE AND CLEAR BOUNDARIES ARE KEY TO STUDENT SUCCESS

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1. STRUCTURE, ROUTINE AND CLEAR BOUNDARIES ARE KEY TO STUDENT SUCCESS

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2. Paraphrasing--- Because we are friendly, our students might perceive us as friends.  Professional boundaries help clarify our relationship with our students.

I think this is important to remember, especially now, when we all want to work so hard at relationship building. Positive relationships are so essential, but professional boundaries are just as important. They benefit us and our students by creating clear expectations and helping support classroom management.

3. This can be a challenge for me at all grade levels because I love having a fun and relaxed classroom. I find with lower school students, however, that if I do not have good boundaries, our classes can get too chaotic. With upper school and middle school students clear boundaries keep the class appropriate and on track.

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**EXAMPLE**
1. I chose to look at the Edutopia article about student relationships being key to student success. This philosophy spoke to me because I have seen first hand the difference that a strong relationship can make in a struggling student's life.
2. One way I can see this working well in my science classroom is having individual conferences with each student at least one time per unit. This will allow me to get to know my students, similar to the CICO method mentioned in this Edutopia article. I will be able to check in with them socially, emotionally and academically within each unit.
3. This could be difficult to accomplish with pacing of curriculum and planning a lesson that students who aren't conferencing can do independently. This would also take significant practice and routine generating to ensure a smooth implementation.