# data[].attributes.headline
Hats Off to a New Year!Greet students at the door with party hats and a quick craft activity that will get everyone warmed up and ready for learning. Ask each child to decorate a colored party hat in a personal way. Prepare a pile of magazines and construction paper, and invite students to draw, cut out, and glue on pictures of a favorite food, a sports team logo, a pet, or a favorite star. They can cut out letters for their names, and then add glitter or sequins. Encourage students to check out one another's hats and discover the interests they share.

# data[].attributes.subject
Hats Off to a New Year!Greet students at the door with party hats and a quick craft activity that will get everyone warmed up and ready for learning. Ask each child to decorate a colored party hat in a personal way. Prepare a pile of magazines and construction paper, and invite students to draw, cut out, and glue on pictures of a favorite food, a sports team logo, a pet, or a favorite star. They can cut out letters for their names, and then add glitter or sequins. Encourage students to check out one another's hats and discover the interests they share.

# data[].attributes.headline
Welcome BagsUse these party favors to send positive messages to students on the first day of school. For each student, fill a resealable plastic bag with the following objects: an eraser, to signify that it's okay to make mistakes; a small plastic gem that means each one of us is valuable; a little pack of Smarties® candies to show there are many different kinds of "smart"; a stick of gum so we all stick together; a star because we always shine and do our best; and a heart to show your classroom is a safe and caring place. Hold up the objects one at a time and reveal their hidden meanings.

# data[].attributes.subject
Welcome BagsUse these party favors to send positive messages to students on the first day of school. For each student, fill a resealable plastic bag with the following objects: an eraser, to signify that it's okay to make mistakes; a small plastic gem that means each one of us is valuable; a little pack of Smarties® candies to show there are many different kinds of "smart"; a stick of gum so we all stick together; a star because we always shine and do our best; and a heart to show your classroom is a safe and caring place. Hold up the objects one at a time and reveal their hidden meanings.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Kids think they know how to use the internet to search and find the information they need, but November has found through many interviews and school visits that often students have no idea why Google or any other search provider works the way it does. And they don't know how to phrase questions to get the answers they seek.

"Kids literally take their teachers assignment and Google it," November said. "They don't understand that Google doesn't speak English or any other language." He's tested his theory in classrooms, asking students to research the Iran Hostage Crisis. Students inevitably Googled the event and cited the first few pages that came up. But every resource was written from a U.S. perspective on an event that affected two very different countries.

"Your kids are not thorough," November said to the hundreds of educators gathered. "They don't see what they don't see, so it's really important that teachers challenge what's missing." Even more important is for students to learn the syntax of searching. To find sources from Iran students need to type "site:ir" in order to direct a search engine to explore that part of the internet. Even using that trick doesn't solve the problem because Iranians don't call that event "Iran Hostage Crisis," they call it " Conquest of the American Spy Den."

"It's my observation that we are not instilling a discipline and rigor of the grammar and syntax of the tool they are going to use more than anything else for homework," November said. And worse, when he asked kids about the kinds of assignments teachers give, students said 85 to 90 percent of the answers could be found with a quick internet search.

"I think we should give kids problems that you can't look up on the internet," November said. "Or, if you do, build the capacity to do it well." With the Iran Hostage Crises example, a teacher could require that students use sources from Iran, and could spend time brainstorming the right questions to ask a search engine to get the best information. These skills will help students throughout the rest of the school year and should be covered early.

"In the first 5 days I think we should front load really high level research skills," November said. That means teaching students to " power search" using Google operators, the words that define how Google searches. "A lot of kids have never used the advanced system of Google algorithms," November said. Without it, the internet is a vast space with little organization. November compared power searching to the Dewey Decimal System in a library - without it people are just wandering around a building hoping they find the right book.
MEANINGFUL CONTRIBUTIONS
Another important concept to impart within the first few days of school to students: you can make meaningful contributions to the world, no matter how old you are, November said. He described MathTrain, a website created by middle school math teacher Eric Marcos. Marcos asks his students to make math tutorials to help one another and posts them on the site. Some of the tutorials have been viewed over 50,000 times by people all over the world. When students learn their work can make an impact, they're not only more motivated, but they work harder.

"A global audience can be more motivating than a teacher in the classroom," November said. And kids love to connect with other kids, so why not give them that experience early in the school year and make it a regular occurrence. Most kids say they will ask a friend for help with something they don't understand before asking the teacher, November said. So why not let kids teach each other and help them see that what they are learning can help others.

"The best teachers were kids who had really struggled with the material and really understand what it's like to learn," November said. "Sometimes teachers suffer from knowing too much. The material they teach is easy to them and it can be hard to empathize with the stumbles of a new learner. Kids who have struggled with the material understand the pitfalls and can often explain them in ways other kids will understand.
ASK THEM ABOUT THEIR PASSIONS
The school year is often broken into so many units of study, standards to cover and snippets of time, that kids rarely get to work on one sustained project for very long. November is a big proponent of letting kids define and work on a project that has very few parameters and no rubric, and that will be presented at the end of the year.

"They resist because they have all this anxiety over the unknown," November said. "They are seeking safety in your rubric." But insisting students give it a try can yield strong projects, and more importantly it gives students the experience of defining the project and deciding when it's good enough. In a computer science class November taught, the most resistant student ended up building a massive database of resources for people with disabilities in her town. She couldn't finish it by the end of the year, so she came in during the summer to complete the work.

"That's the difference when students define their own problems with intrinsic motivation," November said. They care so much they're begging for the computer lab to stay open during the summer.
BUILD A LEARNING ECOLOGY
One great way to teach students how to learn is to show them how teachers learn and what their sources are. November favors Diigo, but there are lots of sites that help people organize what they've read online and share those resources. For teachers who are actively improving their knowledge of the subject matter they teach, why not share that digital library with students and show them what lifelong learning looks like?

"I think teachers should demonstrate how they learn in the first five days," November said. Typically we demonstrate what we already know and have learned. That has to change. We have to teach students to learn to learn."

A great way to do that is through social media, one of the best ways for teachers to connect professionally and find ideas to further their own craft. If Twitter is such an important tool for educators, why keep it from students who also want to know how to connect and build a network?

"We should teach them to follow the best minds in the world on whatever their passion is," November said. He remembers showing a boy interested in becoming an entrepreneur the Harvard Business Review's Twitter page. The magazine follows heavyweights in their fields, who are accessible to students in ways they never were before the internet, if student know how to look.

"Before the internet there were two important things to teach: content and skills, like writing," November said. "Now there's a third skill which is to build out your network to the world."

Teaching students to view Twitter as a research tool, a way to see what the brightest minds in a discipline are thinking and reading is akin to teaching them to search the internet powerfully. It's giving them the tools to continue learning long after the test.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Four Skills to Teach Students In the First Five Days of School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids think they know how to use the internet to search and find the information they need, but November has found through many interviews and school visits that often students have no idea why Google or any other search provider works the way it does.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When their students act out, I propose the novice teachers do the following: Get curious, not furious. Let's explore what that means. Rather than a teacher resorting to traditional discipline measures, it behooves the student greatly for the teacher to realize classroom outbursts, verbal defiance, or volatile anger can be symptomatic of repeated exposure to neglect, abuse, or violence. Traumatic stress can also manifest as withdrawal or self-injury.

The Brain

As we know, neuroscience is informing the field of education. A good number of us educators as of recent have been reading about what routine distress or trauma can do to the brain and to learning. It basically shuts it down. When we ask students to do high-level tasks, such as problem solving or design thinking, it's nearly impossible if they are in a triggered state of fight, flight, or freeze. This trauma state may look like defiance or anger, and we may perceive this refusal as choice, but it is not necessarily so.

Schools and districts are participating in professional development on trauma-informed teaching, as the benefits are clear. According to research conducted by the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children, here are a few of the key benefits of becoming a trauma-informed school:

Improved student academic achievement

Less student absences, detentions, and suspensions

Reduction of stress for staff and students and less bullying and harassment

Improved teacher sense of job satisfaction and safety

Start Here

As you seek to learn more about trauma-sensitive teaching, you can also explore the curious-not-furious maxim I offer to novice teachers. Getting curious on the part of the teacher looks like this: Why might the student be behaving this way? What might be some contributing factors? Might this be a reaction to fear or insecurity? Might she be scared, hungry, lonely, or tired? Instead of defaulting immediately to a disciplinary measure (detention, off to the principal's office, a time out), the teacher chooses to first ask the child: How are you? Are you okay today? How can I help? Is there anything you would like to talk about?

Some may be thinking that this isn't in the job description of a teacher ( I am not a counselor or therapist.) But this isn't about saving anyone, I assure you. In fact, I see teachers burn out, in part, because teachers can get into thinking that they can save troubled students, and when they can't, they believe they have failed at their job. But here's an important truth to remember: We can't heal or save anyone except ourselves.

Creating Classrooms of Care

What is this truly about? It's about us moving more towards what I like to call classrooms of care -- an antithetical turn or very intentional detour from the institution of schooling. When we do this, we humanize ourselves with our students and create spaces for them to do the same, going beyond the singular dimension of "teacher" and singular dimension of "student." A classroom no longer seems sterile, regimented, or threatening. In this transformation, more and more classrooms become communities of care, discovery, and learning (for students and teachers).

When teachers get curious, not furious, they don't take the student's behavior personally, and they don't act on anger. They respond to student behaviors rather than react to them. They are then able to seek what the next steps might be for supporting a child in distress and emotional pain (a talk after class, arranging a meeting with the school counselor, etc.) According to the research of Adena Klem and James Connell, students who perceive a teacher as caring have higher attendance, better grades, and are more engaged in the classroom and at school.

In my 20 years as an educator, and from observing numerous classrooms and teachers, I do know this: Compassion and care can transform learning spaces. In the words of the Buddhist scholar and meditation teacher, Sharon Salzberg, "Our society tends to dismiss kindness as a minor virtue, rather than the tremendous force it can truly be."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Getting Curious (Not Furious) With Students | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When their students act out, I propose the novice teachers do the following: Get curious, not furious. Let's explore what that means. Rather than a teacher resorting to traditional discipline measures, it behooves the student greatly for the teacher to realize classroom outbursts, verbal defiance, or volatile anger can be symptomatic of repeated exposure to neglect, abuse, or violence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Anyone who thinks teachers have it easy should try organizing differentiated lessons to meet the individual needs of 25 or more readers!

Reading teachers have two big goals for every reader: to be skillful, and to discover a lifetime love of reading. In the short term, it helps to focus on specific goals and offer students strategies to meet them. Finding a just-right goal for each reader can help manage differentiation and ensure you're teaching the right strategy at the right time to the right student. Nationally known teacher and staff developer Jennifer Serravallo uses these 13 goals as guideposts for her teaching.

1. Preemergent and emergent reading

Before readers begin reading conventional print, they can do many things readers do by using the pictures: tell stories across the pages, look closely at pictures in nonfiction texts to learn about topics and details, and work with partners to enjoy their books.

2. Reading engagement

Engagement is everything. Richard Allington's research shows that the biggest difference maker in learning to read is time spent actually reading. Students need to learn how to stay focused on their reading, develop stamina to read for long stretches and across pages, and choose books that they'll love. Engagement is more than compliance or staying on task. It's about helping children love to read.

3. Print work

Readers use meaning and syntactic and visual clues to read the words on the page. That means they need practice matching words to pictures, or what they know about the story to ensure what they read makes sense. They need practice using grammar, sentence structure, and parts of speech to problem-solve words or sentences. And they need practice applying phonics skills to break apart challenging words and make sure that the word they read matches the letters on the page.

4. Fluency

Reading should sound like talk. When we teach readers to read in proper phrases and with expression, emphasis, and pacing, we teach them to reflect the meaning in the text. Plus reading with fluency helps them to better understand!

5. Fiction: Plot and setting

Comprehension is like making a movie in the mind. Plot and setting are crucial elements, so it's important to teach and assess for understanding problems/conflicts, retelling/summarizing, visualizing the world of the book, and synthesizing cause and effect.

6. Fiction: Characters

What's more important to enjoying fiction than identifying with characters? To engage with a story, readers need to know what characters look like, what they sound like, what they feel, what they do, and how they change.

7. Fiction: Themes and ideas

Helping children to think deeply about underlying ideas in the text is about pointing them to the why of a story. This category includes thinking about lessons or messages, symbolism, and social issues.

8. Nonfiction: Main topics and ideas

Determining importance is especially crucial in nonfiction. Readers need to understand what the text is mostly about so that its pieces come together as a whole - especially when they include an array of opinions or conflicting statements.

9. Nonfiction: Key details

Not every detail is important in a nonfiction text. Pointing students toward the key details means clueing them in to the facts and information that best supports the main idea. As texts become more complex and information packed, this skill becomes increasingly important.

10. Nonfiction: Text features

Identifying text features is a staple of nonfiction teaching, but research by Nell K. Duke suggests that readers need more support on using text features once they spot them - especially in terms of synthesizing them with the text.

11. Fiction and nonfiction: Vocabulary and figurative language

The importance of vocabulary and figurative language was long ago confirmed by reading researchers. But research also shows that most vocabulary is learned in the course of reading. The support of this goal, therefore, requires increasing readers' word-consciousness and strategies to figure out new words in the midst of reading.

12. Conversation: Speaking, listening, and deepening comprehension

Reading is both solitary and social. We might read by ourselves, but don't we love to talk about favorite books?! Teaching students to talk about books and listen to others' opinions can boost comprehension.

13. Writing about reading

Writing guru Donald Murray said that "Writing is thinking." So, writing is important to deepening students' ability to interact with and comprehend texts. Writing may be formal or simply sticky notes that readers place in a text.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Plan Reading Instruction Efficiently With These 13 Goals

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Reading teachers have two big goals for every reader: to be skillful, and to discover a lifetime love of reading. In the short term, it helps to focus on specific goals and offer students strategies to meet them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tomorrow, and be fine with it? This year, I have one of the most challenging classes I have ever had. I am still working on training them to do what I want them to do, but I know that in the end, I will win! Meanwhile, we are spending a LOT of time on classroom management, modeling routines and procedures often. Here is a list of some classroom management tips and techniques that I have used successfully in Kindergarten, but I think that they would probably work in most any elementary grade classroom. I hope that some of them will work for you, too!

Have a (Naughty) Child Model the Correct Behavior
One thing that seems to work well, is having a very difficult child in class model the correct behavior. I usually start with a reliably good kid to model the behavior, and then switch to a naughtier one. Then you know that he or she DOES understand. The Daily Five book has a wonderful explanation of this technique. If you don't have that book, I would get it and read at least the first chapter or two on training your class to read silently. The training method works for other activities as well as silent reading.

Ask Parents for "Advice"
In this day and age, talking to parents about their child's misbehavior and expecting them to back you up can often backfire. All too often, parents see their role as the person that is there to defend their child, rather than to discipline their child and help the teacher. Therefore, I have changed my approach when I call parents of misbehaving children, especially the FIRST time I call. I ask them if they can help me by giving me advice on the best way to get their child to cooperate with my instructions.

This is the basic technique.
1. Before I call, I think of a couple of nice things to say about the child. (This is very important, because as soon as parents hear that the teacher is on the phone, they tend to feel defensive.)
2. THEN, I tell them that I am calling them for advice, since they are the experts on their child, and I'm SURE the child behaves at home. (Ummm... not always! But a little white lie won't hurt too much!)
3. Can the parent give me any tips for getting the child to ______?
4. Then I thank the parent profusely for their help, and let them know that if they can think of anything else that will help to let me know.
5. I encourage them to also speak to their child and encourage good behavior at school.
6. I ask him or her if they have any concerns or questions, and if they would like a follow up phone call, note, or email to let them know how the child is doing.
7. Get a notebook or clipboard and write it down whenever you make a phone call or leave a message. Keep a log of parent contacts, if at all possible. If you leave it by the phone, it won't be too much of a burden. My phone log has absolutely SAVED me now and then!

Start with the parents of the ringleaders, if you can identify them. When kids are naughty, I start talking to parents after the first week or two of the school year. I prefer to wait until two weeks have passed if I can, but sometimes I can't wait. As soon as I have to put someone in time out or discipline a child in any way, I grab my notepad and write it down so that I don't forget what child did. I do tell the child that I will have to speak to his parents later, if I intend to do so.

Put the Child on the Phone with Mom or Dad (Immediately)
This technique can stop a very insistent rule-breaking or defiant child in his or her tracks; but be sure that it does not turn into a "public shaming" type of thing. The phone call should be done in a corner of the room while the rest of the class is busy with something else.

Talking to a parent about their misbehavior often leaves a Kindergartner in tears. I don't enjoy watching a child cry, but when a child is defiant and rude, and I KNOW that the parent will back me up, this works immediately. In my experience, it works better than calling the office and asking them to come pick up the child for a talk with the principal.

This is what I do: I just stop what I'm doing and take the child to the phone. Then I have them listen while I call their parents and tell them what their child was doing. Then I put the child on the phone and have that child explain. This is usually VERY effective, but you need to have a pretty good working relationship with the parent. If you think you might need to do this, you might want to let the parent know that if the need arises, you will be calling them during the day for help, and get permission to do this if necessary. And I would like to reiterate that the phone call should be done in as private a place as is possible.

If you need the parents help right away but never asked them for prior permission, you can try calling and ask for advice on how to handle the child. Usually, in my experience, the parent will ask to speak to the child, and that is the end of that!

Have Children Earn Chips for Good Behavior in Teams
Something else I have done in the past is have the kids work in teams to get the most chips for good behavior. They each have a bowl and I add chips when kids in their row are listening, etc. I like to count them and weigh them in front of the kids with a balance scale, too! The kids like that.

We used to put one chip in front of the child while they were working at the table. If the child got out of control at a center, I quietly came up and simply removed the chip, usually without saying a single word! If the child asks my why he lost the chip, I tell him that we are working now, and I will explain it later. I sometimes ask the child to think about it and see if he or she can figure it out. Usually, they do already KNOW. Then at the end of that rotation, whoever still has a chip gets to put it in their group's bowl. As they put each chip in, I quickly praise each child for a great job.

When Kids Respond Only to Their Parents, Sometimes They Respect the Video that Their Parents May See
Here's another one. Get out a video camera and put it on a tripod or a countertop. It doesn't even have to be ON, as long as they think it is on. (Of course, sometimes in my classroom the video camera IS on, ha ha!) Let them know that their parents will get to see it if necessary. Now that's pretty tricky, and I wouldn't do it unless I absolutely had to. I do, however, get a permission to photograph paper signed and take pictures of the inappropriate behavior, just to show the parents and principal. It can be destroyed after that. Please note that any photography of a child can only be done with parental consent or it is a violation of COPPA.

Sometimes, it is the only way to make a point. However, even just asking the child if their mom or dad would like what they saw on that video tape is enough to make the behavior stop. Just remember that if you are bluffing on taping the child, he'll figure it out before too long.

Try Teaching the Classroom Management Routines and Rules with Music, Stories, and Puppets
I always try to keep things positive whenever I possibly can, and having kids learn rules and routines with songs and motions is one of the best ways I know how. Here are some clips from my Classroom Management DVD. It also comes on CD.

This song about tattling is a sure fire winner! It is TOTALLY effective in my classroom! The kids really get the point: nobody likes a tattletale!

Back Up and Try it Again
Now my class this year is very difficult! But they are improving in baby steps. Every time someone blurts out something without raising a hand, I stop, and back up. I say, "Okay, we're going to try that again. I'm going to read that page again, and let's see if you can all be quiet. Don't say a word! Here we go, let's try it." Then I say it or read it again, etc., and see if they do better. The kids get so tired of my repeating that routine, that they pretty much give up on it after a while and will ask the naughty ones to quit. The teacher can WIN just by persistence.

This also means that I get to say "Good job!" rather than "Go to time out" more often. For the kid that keeps blurting after that, THEN I send him or her to time out. It helps us from spiraling down to the negative so much. Keeping things positive can be pretty hard with a very difficult class, but this is one way to get there.

Reading Books About Behavior (Social Stories!)
Another great technique is by reading the children stories about rules, etc. These are known as "social stories" and they are a commonly used tool by counselors, therapists, teachers, psychologists, and many other professionals. I love to tell social stories with books and puppets because the children see it as a treat rather than a lesson! Little kids sit up and listen when a puppet talks! If you do a search for "social stories," you will come up with MANY, and tons of them are printable and free! Here are a few books from my collection (both of the puppets were purchase on Amazon, though):

We read one of these Wiggles books nearly every day as a way of teaching and reviewing the procedures and rules.

Give them STRUCTURE- and LOTS OF IT!
Children that come from homes where there is not a lot of discipline seem to need a lot of STRUCTURE and BOUNDARIES. They cannot be left on the floor to play with unifix cubes in a group of five. They will go nuts! They do better in chairs. Whenever I give them boundaries, they do better. So try to figure out how your class functions the most successfully and go from there. Whatever works- do more of that.

For example, I have a carpet with colored sections for each child to sit in. We have a seating chart. I may move children a couple of times a week if needed. Some groups need to sit in certain spots at the tables at group time. Certain kids can never sit together. I cannot give them a single inch, or they will take a mile. Hopefully, we will get them all trained and they will be perfect little angels by Thanksgiving, and then I will be able to relax with them a little bit. They do have their wonderfully sweet moments!

Here are some examples of structure and boundaries that can be tried:
- Each child can be given a certain spot to sit in on the rug- even without a colored carpet with squares!
- Try SitSpots.com for a cheaper alternative to the big colored carpet with squares. (FYI, I do get commissions for the SitSpot links mentioned in this post!)

- Have children enter the classroom and take a seat just five or six at a time, praising them as they walk in nicely.
- Have children move from one center to another just one group at a time as you all watch, and cheer for them as they follow instructions.
- Let children play with a certain manipulative within the boundaries of a rug or even a jump rope spread out in a circle. The toys and the kids playing with them must stay in the circle.
- Assign seats at the tables where you teach small groups so that children don't have to run to sit next to their friends, etc. You can always reward good behavior with letting them sit anywhere on a certain day.
- If there is a certain toy that everyone wants to play with, make a check-off sheet and rotate kids through so that there is no fighting over it. If you know that only four kids can play with it at a time without a problem, then only allow four. I worked with a teacher that made "toy passes" for certain toys and passed them out at the beginning of playtime. If a child left the toy, they had to give it back to her and she would decide whose turn it was next.
- If kids cannot line up without pushing and shoving, try taping down names on the floor (or even sight words) and assign kids spots to line up on. Those that tend to push, etc., cannot stand near each other. SitSpots also make great line up spots, and can help space kids out.
- If kids fight over the "best" pencils or other supplies, put names on them and have them find their own. You could also put sight words or numbers on them and have them find their assigned one! Be sure to assign a word or number to the struggling children that they really NEED to learn! (Might as well kill two birds with one stone!)
- Make special arrangements for any child that cannot transition without pushing, fighting, etc., to simply not line up (or whatever) with the others EVER. I did this with one little boy who had decided that he just HAD to be first in line everyday, and would fight his way up to get there. So I told him that he never was to get in line. I made a chalk circle about five feet away from the line, and told him that was his spot. He HATED this- but later he earned the right to rejoin the class.

These techniques are TIGHT controls on the class's every move. BUT... once you get them under control, you can start to gradually release them, one behavior at a time and then teach them methodically how you want them to behave, with more freedom. And if they can't handle it? You can always go right back to the way it was before and try again in a month.
One thing to remember is that all of these little classroom management "fixes" do take extra TIME out of your day. That's just the way it is. There's nothing that you can do about that. So it's likely that with a class like that, you won't get to cover as much as you do with the kind of nice, cooperative class that we all would like to have! So remember that, gather up all of the patience you can muster, and take a deep breathe. Let it out slowwwly and then just let it go. And remember this: once you master teaching a class like this, you will have learned that you can do and teach just about ANYTHING, if you try! When you're done, you'll have so many tricks up your sleeve, you'll be the expert that everyone goes to for advice. So cheer up! It's not all bad!
Think About WHY the Struggles Are Happening- and See if Any Can Be Eliminated
It is true that children often have a reason for their misbehavior. I am no child psychologist, that's for sure! But I have read a lot of great books on the subject,(here's my favorite by Ronald Mah) and I know that many of the behaviors that appear to be designed to make a teacher's life miserable are actually a cry for help from the child.

This is my favorite book on behavior management, by Ronald Mah. ALL of his books are EXCELLENT. I especially like listening to him speak in person! Come to the CKA Conference in January to hear him live. He is usually a speaker there.

The question is, is it possible for the teacher to help the child resolve the problem? For more on this topic, see this outstanding blog, Teaching Through Turbulence, written by a teacher named Heather who has taught classes for emotionally disturbed special needs children for MANY years. This blog is GOLD! Here are some of my favorite posts:
Recognizing Triggers Behavior Management Linky (Recognizing the Functions of Behavior)
This chart is from the blog Teaching Through Turbulence, and is an excellent example of how you can look for the function or cause of the behavior and try to fix the problem THAT way. It's perfect, if you can manage it!

------------

Follow me! Did you enjoy this post? Do me a favor and share it with your friends! And follow this blog by signing up email updates, or follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on TPT! I'm also on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, too! Don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter (on the left sidebar) for special deals and promo codes that you won't find out about anywhere else.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Getting Control of a VERY DIFFICULT CLASS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tomorrow, and be fine with it? This year, I have one of the most challenging classes I have ever had.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Anxiety is a huge barrier to learning and very difficult for educators to identify. "When anxiety is fueling the behavior, it's the most confusing and complicated to figure out," Minahan said. That's because a student isn't always anxious; it tends to come and go based on events in their lives, so their difficulties aren't consistent. When we are anxious our working memory tanks, making it very difficult to recall any salient information.

Researchers surveyed a group of first graders none of whom had any reading or math disabilities. Those who had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder were eight times more likely to be in the lowest achieving group in reading, and two-point-five times more likely to be in the lowest quartile in math achievement by the spring.

"Anxiety is a learning disability; it inhibits your ability to learn," Minahan said. But it isn't usually recognized as a learning disability and there is almost never a plan for how to address it in the classroom. "For kids with anxiety, the 'can'ts fluctuate," Minahan said. "When they're calm they can. When they're anxious they can't. And that's very deceiving."

Anxiety isn't about ability, it's about interference, which means that traditional rewards and consequences don't often work with this group of learners.

"Rewards and consequences are super helpful to increase motivation for something I'm able to do," Minahan said. But an anxious person's brain has shut down and they aren't able in that moment to complete the task being asked of them. The best way to combat this tricky problem is to try to prevent anxiety triggers and build up students' social and emotional skills to cope with the moments when anxiety sets in.

When kids are in the throes of bad behavior they have poor self-regulation skills, often get into negative thinking cycles that they can't stop, have poor executive functioning, become inflexible thinkers and lose social skills like the ability to think about another person's perspective. That's why kids can seem so unempathetic when teachers ask, "how do you think that made Sam feel?" At that moment, the student acting out has no ability to take Sam's perspective, but a few hours later or the next day, he might be able to show the remorse educators want to see.

ALL BEHAVIOR HAS A FUNCTION

Bad behavior is often connected to seeking attention, and when kids act out, they can see the results.* "Negative attention is way easier to get and hands down easier to understand," Minahan said. "It's much more efficient." Adults tend to be unpredictable with attention when a student is doing what she is supposed to do, but as soon as there's a dramatic, obvious tantrum, the student has the teacher's attention. And negative attention is powerful -- one student can hijack a whole classroom.

A common teacher response to low-level negative attention seeking is to ignore the student. The teacher doesn't want to reward bad behavior. "I want to caution you about ignoring someone with anxiety because their anxiety goes up," Minahan said. Ignoring an already anxious student can accidentally convey the message that the teacher doesn't care about the student, and worse might escalate the situation. Perhaps a teacher can ignore a student tapping his pencil or banging on his desk, but threatening behavior can't be ignored. And the student learns exactly what level of behavior he must exhibit to get attention.

TIP 1: Instead, "what you need to do is make positive attention compete better," Minahan said. She often suggests that teachers actively engage the most difficult student at the beginning of class saying something like, "I can't wait to see what you think of this assignment. I'm going to check on you in 5 minutes." When the teacher actually comes back in five minutes, validates the student's progress, and tells her another check-in is coming in ten minutes it sets up a pattern of predictable attention for positive behavior. And while it might seem unfair to take that extra time and care with one student, it ultimately saves instruction time when a teacher doesn't have to deal with a tantrum that sends the student out of the room.

TIP 2: Often in an attempt to form a positive relationship with a student teachers will publicly praise positive behavior. That can backfire, especially with anxious kids who don't want any extra attention from peers. Private or non-verbal praise is often better. Minahan recommends pulling students aside at the beginning of the year to ask how teachers can best tell them they're proud. "It's a gift to your February self if you can figure out a system now, otherwise you'll get stuck on the negative attention scale," Minahan said.

Tip 2.1: She also recommends fact-based praise as opposed to general praise. Vague praise is easy to dismiss.
ANTECEDENTS TO BAD BEHAVIOR
Many kids have predictable anxiety triggers like unstructured time, transitions, writing tasks, social demands or any unexpected change. Similarly the antecedents of negative behavior are fairly predictable: unfacilitated social interactions, interaction with an authoritative adult, being asked to wait, when demands are placed, being told no, writing, and transitions.**

Tip 3: "Teach waiting now," Minahan said. "When you are anxious, despite your age, it's very hard to wait." She was asked to observe a boy who constantly disrupted class. Minahan soon noticed the boy often did his work, but if he finished early or there was downtime in the class, he would start causing trouble. When Minahan pointed this out to him he had no idea what "wait time" was. She had to spell out to him that when he finished a task he should apply a strategy, like turning over the paper and doodling appropriately on the back. After this small intervention the student's behavior was so improved that his teacher thought he'd gone on medication.

'You can have really bright, able children whose anxiety is interfering so much.'

For kids with anxiety, there are a number of strategies teachers can employ. The first is not to take any student behavior personally. The student isn't trying to manipulate or torture the teacher, his behavior is reflecting something going on internally. Often a short movement break can help relieve anxiety, but not the way they are commonly given.

Minahan described a seventh grade girl who was recovering from an eating disorder. The girl was scraping her arms so badly they would bleed. After lunch, predictably, the behavior was worse, so her teachers were letting her color and draw to relieve her anxiety. Another common break is to tell a student to go get a drink of water down the hall. The coloring break wasn't working for this seventh grader and Minahan soon figured out why. "We accidentally left her alone to fester in her anxious thoughts," she said.

Tip 4: Leaving class doesn't give the student a break from internal negative thoughts like "I'm fat," or "I'm not smart enough," which paralyze thinking. But a break paired with a cognitive distraction does offer respite from the "all or nothing" thinking that's so common with anxious students. An older student might take a break and record herself reading a book out loud for a younger student with dyslexia. It's impossible to read out loud and think another thought. Other distractions could include sports trivia, sudoku or crossword puzzles. Little kids might do a Where's Waldo or look through a Highlight magazine for the hidden picture.

Tip 5: When teachers want to wrap up a task they often use a countdown. "Silent reading time is going to be over in five minutes." But counting down doesn't support a high achieving anxious child who feels she must finish. And it takes a lot of executive function skills and cognitive flexibility to fight the urge to keep going after the time is up. So instead of counting down, a teacher might walk over to that student and say, let's find a good stopping point. She may stop a minute later than the rest of the class when she reaches the designated point, but it won't escalate into a tug-of-war.

Transitions are another common time for kids to act out. Younger students often don't want to come in from recess, for example. But when a teacher says, "Line up. Recess is over. It's time for your spelling quiz," it's no wonder the student doesn't want to go from something he loves to something he hates.

Tip 6: The teacher can give students an in-between step to make the transition more palatable. Go from recess, to two minutes of coloring, to the spelling quiz. The intermediary step gives that non-compliant student behavioral momentum. He's already sitting down, quiet, with pen in hand, so the jump to spelling isn't as jarring.

For middle and high school students, school is all about being social, but the only times students get to see their friends are in the two to five minute passing periods between classes. Again, the transition is from something they love to something they hate, so don't make that transition extra hard by collecting homework as they come in the door. The toughest kids are probably already not doing well in the class, and a reminder of the homework exacerbates feelings of inadequacy.

Tip 7: One high school geometry teacher started playing two minute YouTube videos about geometry as students came into class. It got students from the hallway into the classroom without thinking negatively and her class started to run more smoothly. She didn't have the same interruptions she used to, which made the lost two minutes seem worth it.

Tip 8: Minahan also likes some of the biofeedback tools that are now available, like the EmWave. A wound up student puts a sensor on his finger and calming down becomes a game. He might start out with a picture of a black and white forest, but as he calms down (and the sensor monitors his heart rate) the colors start to pop in. It can take as little as two to five minutes to completely calm a kid down when they can see the feedback so clearly.

"I like it because it's so concrete," Minahan said. A student with high functioning autism might not even know what a teacher means by "calm down," but with the biofeedback device she can see what it means.

WORK AVOIDANCE

Minahan says it's very common for students to have trouble initiating work, persisting through work and asking for help, but there are strategies to help kids build the skills to get better in these areas.

"You can have really bright, able children whose anxiety is interfering so much," Minahan said. The anxiety isn't coming from nowhere; it's coming from prior experiences of feeling frozen and stupid. In that moment the child's working memory isn't working, so teachers need to find ways to bypass it until the anxiety passes.

Tip 9: One way is to let students preview the work for the day. In the morning, an elementary school teacher might work on the first few problems with the anxious child so she knows she can do it. Then, when it's time for that work later in the day, that child receives the sheet she's already started and can go from there.

Tip 9.1: In high school, teachers can give students with trouble initiating the preview as homework. Students can start at home without any pressure and continue at school. "Fight or flight is the worst when they first see it," Minahan said, so try to bypass that moment and prevent a breakdown.

Tip 10: At the same time, when the teacher names the strategies a student is employing, he is helping the student build a toolbox that can be used independently. Strategies might include, asking a teacher to help her start when she feels frozen, or asking to preview the homework. For perfectionist students, difficulty starting can stem from a fear of messing up. Give those students dry erase boards, where the mess ups can be easily erased. It helps when teachers treat the difficulty starting as a small problem and say something like, "Looks like you're not initiating. What strategy are you going to use?"

'When I shift the reinforcement to skills, I've noticed the skills go up and that's what makes the difference for the kids who have mental health difficulties.'

Tip 11: Some strategies to build persistence include skipping the hard ones and doing the ones a student knows first, working with a buddy, and double checking work on problems that have been completed.

Giving help in class is often a tricky balance, especially if a student is too embarrassed to ask vocally. Instead of acting out because she can't do the work, the student might raise her hand, pass the teacher a note or make eye contact. Then the teacher has to be careful not to give too much help. "We accidentally create dependency because we help so much," Minahan said.

That goes for academics as well as behavior. Often a teacher will notice a student becoming agitated and dysregulated and tell him to take a short walk. But ultimately the student will be better served if he can learn to monitor himself and implement strategies when he notices early signs of agitation. "Kids have to learn how to catch themselves on the way up and calm down there," Minahan said, because that's when the strategies work. But kids need to be taught how to recognize the signs.

Tip 12: Teach kids how to do a body check. With younger students a teacher can describe the signs of agitation as they are happening so the student starts to recognize them. With older students, ask them where in their body they feel anxious, for example, "in your belly?" "Give them the data every day," Minahan said. "This is your body on the way up." After the groundwork has been laid, a teacher can just say "body check, please" to let a student know it's time to check in with themselves and start using a strategy.

But what can you do when a kid is already exploding? Minahan says, not much because the child will have a very hard time reacting in a reasonable way once he or she is riled up.

Tip 13: What educators can do is anticipate those moments and rehearse self-calming strategies when the child is calm.

In one case, Minahan knew an elementary student she was working with was going to have a traumatic change in her life. The child's mom was giving her up to foster care and the date had been set. To prepare for what would undoubtedly be a moment when the student couldn't control herself, Minahan had her practice self-calming in the social worker's office, where she would probably go on the day. Twice a day for five minutes she rehearsed a self-calming routine when she was already calm so her working memory was available and she was learning the strategies.

When the day came and the child did freak out, Minahan quickly got her into the office with very little touching or verbal interaction which might further set her off. Once there, the girl got into her routine, and started singing to herself as a cognitive distraction. "The rehearsal allowed for automaticity and did not require cognition or working memory in that moment," Minahan said.

Tip 14: Rehearse replies to confrontations. Minahan worked with a high school student who constantly got in fights. If he felt disrespected he'd start swinging. Together they rehearsed over and over him saying, "I don't have time for this," and walking away. During the rehearsals, Minahan gave him something to hold in his hands as he said this. And soon, he stopped getting in fights. It gave him the moment he needed to make a decision not to use his fists and a go-to automatic reply.

Tip 15: Use data to disprove negative thinking. Writing is a common barrier for kids with anxiety, Minahan said. But one way to begin getting students past this hurdle is to ask them how hard a task will be before they start and again after they've completed it. Almost always the perception of the task is worse than the actual task. With several weeks of data you can show students the pattern in their responses.

Minahan worked with a girl who hated writing so much that she was skipping school twice a week. She would often say that writing was torture to her. Minahan broke writing down into component parts with corresponding strategies for getting started on each part. When the student worked on a writing task Minahan would ask her how many strategies she employed. Often the girl didn't use that many strategies, which didn't fit with her own conception of herself. "We reframed her whole thinking and she felt more empowered to solve her problems," Minahan said.

INTERACTION STRATEGIES

In any interaction with students teachers can only control their own behavior, but that's actually a lot of power. "We are 50% of every interaction with a child," Minahan said. "We have a lot of control over that interaction."

Tip 16: If a teacher gets off on the wrong foot with a student early in the year, try randomly being kind to the child, rather than only giving positive attention based on his or her behavior. This kind of noncontingent reinforcement helps the child to see the teacher likes him for who he is, not because he does math well or reads perfectly, Minahan said.

Tip 17: In areas where the difficult student is competent, give her a leadership role. Maybe let her take a younger child to the nurse or start an activity club. This helps change the child's perception of herself and also her relationship to the teacher.

Tip 18: When demanding something of a student, don't ask yes or no questions and teach kids not to ask yes or no questions. In that scenario, someone has a 50 percent chance of being disappointed with the answer. By changing the question, the teacher opens the door for the answer to be diffusing, rather than an escalation of defiance. For example, if a student asks, "Can I work with Jack?" The teacher can reframe the question: "Oh, did you want to know when you could work with Jack? You can ask: When can I work with Jack." The student might not like the answer, but it likely won't produce the same explosive reaction as getting an outright "no."

Tip 19: Give kids time and space. If a student is prone to arguing, eye contact and physical proximity can escalate potential protests.*** For example, if a kid is humming in an annoying way, a typical teacher move might be to make eye contact with the child and shake your head to get him to stop. But in this situation eye-contact is non-verbally asking the child for a response, which he may be incapable of giving at that moment. Instead, calmly walk over and put a note on his desk that says, "please stop humming." Then run away and do not make eye contact with that student for a few minutes.

"The initial reaction is not pleasant and you have to wait for them to de-escalate before they can comply," Minahan said. Sometimes the mere presence of the teacher prevents that de-escalation.

Tip 20: Reward practice or strategy use, not performance. "When I shift the reinforcement to skills, I've noticed the skills go up and that's what makes the difference for the kids who have mental health difficulties," Minahan said. Ultimately, educators are teaching kids the skills and strategies that they can then use throughout their life when they're anxious, so rewarding practice makes sense.

The more teachers can empathize with students, teaching skill building and focus on preventing challenging behavior, the smoother the classroom will run. Often that means learning about the student in order to identify triggers and design new ways of interacting with even the most challenging students.

*An earlier version of this post overstated the connection between bad behavior and seeking attention.
**An earlier version of this sentence highlighted only one type of negative behavior -- fighting.
*** This section was updated to include the situations under which eye contact could make a situation worse for a student. We regret these errors.

Don't miss an episode of the MindShift Podcast

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
20 Tips to Help De-escalate Interactions With Anxious or Defiant Students | KQED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Anxiety is a huge barrier to learning and very difficult for educators to identify. "When anxiety is fueling the behavior, it's the most confusing and complicated to figure out," Minahan said. That's because a student isn't always anxious; it tends to come and go based on events in their lives, so their difficulties aren't consistent.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Share One Word

Ask students to share one word about how they are feeling that day. It can be in general, about a new project, or about something that is happening in their lives or in the world. This is whole-child stuff that tends to the emotional aspect of the student, bringing balance to the academic and intellectual focuses that typically drive the school day. It also builds emotional intelligence. When I was first doing this opening routine, students would say things like good, okay, tired, and bad, and then as they became more comfortable with each other and gained a larger vocabulary of emotion words, they began to share such words as pensive, anxious, serene, and frustrated. For low-stakes in the beginning, have students share with a neighbor or in a triad, then build to a whip around the room where everyone shares her or his word aloud.

Quote of the Day

Students love to share their opinions. (Who doesn't?) As an opening routine, I used Quote of the Day the first few years I taught high school, and it proved a great success. I would find a quote from a singer, actor, politician, or a famous dead person and have it displayed on the board when students walked in. They would enter the room, sit down, and begin writing a response. Under the quote, I would include the same question prompts: What does it mean? How can you relate to it, or make a connection to the world?

The Reading Minute

This one comes from English language arts teacher guru Kelly Gallagher. Find a passage online or in a book -- an excerpt of a poem, essay, article, or story -- and read it aloud. The passage might be humorous, interesting, angering, or beautiful, exhibiting great writing. After reading aloud, students open their notebooks and write a single-sentence summary to remember what they just read, or they can write a thesis statement. After a month of modeling different types of passages -- and sharing aloud sentences -- student then sign up to bring in a passage to read aloud for the Reading Minute. At the end of each semester, you can have students look back at their collection of single sentences and reflect on what was their favorite Reading Minute passage and why (They learned something important, it made them laugh, etc.). Check out this video of Gallagher discussing the Reading Minute.

Closing Routines

Cleaning up and discussing homework is an important routine for the end of the day, but it's also important to give your students a chance to further process their learning, and even to set a goal. Closing routines allow your students to check their understanding, and they also give your students an opportunity to reflect. It's a great way to wrap up your lessons. Closing routines also honor your time together that day, as well as give your students an opportunity to use their voice. The following are three examples of "exit slips" that can be completed on a small piece of scratch paper or a sticky note at the close of class.

Rate the Learning or Lesson

This exit slip can be accomplished in a matter of mere minutes. Ask students -- on a one to 10 scale -- to rate how well they understood the learning that day. If they rate their understanding low, ask them to write down what they may need (more time, more explanation, a graphic organizer to help with writing the essay, etc.). Students can also rate the lesson or teaching on a one to 10 scale; ask them to write a sentence or two giving feedback on the materials or activity that day.

Collect the slips, and after your students leave, make piles of similar ratings. If you have a lot of eight, nine, and 10 ratings, the lesson went well. If you have lower numbers, then it might be time to probe for further information from the whole class the next day, and then review or even reteach.

Closing Statement or Question

Ask students to first turn and talk in pairs or in a triad. What did you learn? What surprised you? What is unclear? What do you want to know more about? Then ask them to come up with a closing statement or question about the content and write it down. Collect the slip, and use these for talking points the next day, answering questions and commenting on statements they wrote.

Grab a Goal

Ask your students to think about a goal they would like to set. It can have to do with the unit of study, or it can be a personal goal outside of the classroom. Use sentence starters to prompt the writing for this one. Tomorrow, in class I will be ready to ______. Tonight, I will ____. By the end of the semester, I will ____. Have them share with a neighbor or in small groups, and ask for a few volunteers to share with the whole class. Collect the slips and sticky notes. This is a wonderful way to get to know your students. (You can do one, too!)

Writing their names on exit slips was optional for me. You decide -- perhaps sometimes yes, and other times no. Students will be more honest if it's anonymous. Yet with goal setting, there's more accountability if you have names, and you can check in with individuals and offer specific supports and encouragement.

Collaborating With Colleagues

Advice I like to give to new teachers: Go out and collect opening and closing routines from fellow teachers. The internet is not always the best place to seek curricular materials -- your colleagues are! Talk with colleagues during meetings and then stop by their rooms to take a look at their resources and student products.

A mistake new teachers often make is thinking they have to create everything from scratch. I explain that there are those who have been at this a long time and have honed strategies, collected data and student samples, and then adjusted that activity or project to make it even better -- and they are there, right next door, ready to share their expertise and resources with you.

What opening and closing routines would you like to offer up? Please share in the comments section below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
6 Opening and Closing Routines for New Teachers | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ask students to share one word about how they are feeling that day. It can be in general, about a new project, or about something that is happening in their lives or in the world. This is whole-child stuff that tends to the emotional aspect of the student, bringing balance to the academic and intellectual focuses that typically drive the school day.