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Note Catcher- Universal Supports for Student Behavior

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Note Catcher- Universal Supports for Student Behavior

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Strategy Sheets- Universal Supports for Student Behavior 

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Strategy Sheets- Universal Supports for Student Behavior 

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Four-Part System for Getting to Know Your Students

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Four-Part System for Getting to Know Your Students

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Cult of Pedagogy

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A 4-Part System for Getting to Know Your Students | Cult of Pedagogy

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Relationship building is key to good teaching. This system will help you quickly get to know students and benefit from those connections all year long.

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32 of the Best Flexible Seating Options for Today’s Classroom

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Your Headspace Mindfulness & Meditation Experts

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One of the most accessible meditation practices is a body scan meditation, during which you bring attention to your body, noticing different sensations, as you mentally scan down, from head to toe. Here’s info on what the benefits are and how to do it.

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Illuminate the Way: The School Leader's Guide to Addressing and Preventing Teacher Burnout

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Illuminate the Way: The School Leader's Guide to Addressing and Preventing Teacher Burnout

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Paid resource- Addressing and Preventing Teacher Burnout: https://www.ascd.org/books/illuminate-the-way?variant=123032

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Classroom Arrangement and Student Engagement

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Classroom Arrangement and Student Engagement

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Fomcore - Soft Seating Experts | Flexible Furniture United States

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Jennifer Duffy's career in education started over 20 years as a Special Education Teacher. Since then, Jennifer has also been an Inclusion Facilitator, Literacy Consultant, Assistive Technologist, Instructional Technologist and is currently an Instructional Coach in a K-12 setting. Jennifer has a passion for empowering learners to find their voice and cause positive change in a connected world. Currently, Jennifer works with district administrators and educators as an Instructional Coach, bridging the gap between district initiatives and classroom application. Supporting teachers through professional development, coaching, modeling instruction, and co-teaching, Jennifer helps educators implement innovative and creative learning opportunities for their diverse students. Jennifer continues to research new ideas as well as current best practices by being an active participant in learning communities and conferences. Jennifer has had the pleasure of presenting innovative ideas for technology enhanced learning, social emotional learning, problem solving, and literacy at the local, state, and international level.

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Environment as the Third Teacher: An Introduction to the Reggio Emilia Approach - Fomcore

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Soft Seating Experts | Flexible Furniture United States

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Sensory Reduction Considerations for Virtual School Environments

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Sensory Reduction Considerations for Virtual School Environments

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Practical Tips & Accommodations for teachers working in Virtual settings

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Preventing Sensory Overstimulation in the Classroom - GIVE Guide

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Discover steps you can take to reduce sensory overstimulation during your lessons by making slight adjustments to the environment, materials, and content.

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12 Ways to Upgrade Your Classroom Design | Cult of Pedagogy

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Money and space are not prerequisites for learning-friendly design. Try any one of these ideas to make your classroom a better place for students to learn.

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We know that trauma is inherently dysregulating - and as teachers, there are so many things we have no control over - we can not control the trauma our students may have experienced, we can not control how a student's morning was before they got to school, we can not control poverty - the ONLY thing we truly can control is ourselves. So when we consider regulation - it is through regulating ourselves that we are teaching our students the most powerful lessons - and modeling what safe expression and control of emotions can look like.

WE are the most important "trauma-informed" tool we will ever have to teach our students regulation skills. We must continuously practice and model our own self-regulation. Whether that means keeping a calm tone and demeanor during times of stress or narrating for your students how you handle your own big emotions. This interactive and supportive process is called co-regulation and it can be broken down into three interconnected categories.

Co-Regulation

The research is clear that it all begins with relationships - so the first component of co-regulation is also the use of relationship to regulate and respond to a young person's needs. It is through these relationships we are able to provide comfort to students, be a mirror as they share their thoughts, ideas and perspectives and model what genuine interest and respect for others looks and feels like.

The second component is how we structure the environment to facilitate regulation. When we create classrooms that reflect the trauma-informed principles, with clear expectations, consistent routines and opportunities to practice regulation skills we are setting up "low stress" environments for our students.

The last component includes explicit teaching, modeling and coaching self-regulation skills like problem-solving, calming and organization. Sometimes this can be done in more formalized ways such as an SEL curriculum or Morning Meeting structure but it also happens in the moment. Many times our behavior intervention, SPED and mental health teams are our biggest collaborative partners in this piece as well - reminding us of the power in collaboration

All three components can occur both informally and formally but the more we create our classrooms and communities with these components in mind, the more we are able to provide co-regulation for all of our students. Research shows the combination of teachers modeling and providing direct SEL skill-building instruction to be most effective for all age groups.

Teaching & Coaching Regulation Skills in the Classroom

Regulation skills help to restore all of the trauma-related disruptions by fostering student agency in coping with stress, generating a sense of dignity/pride in their ability to manage their own behaviors and emotions, and enhancing a sense of belongingness through shared learning and exploration-all of which are necessary to meet the ultimate goal of academic engagement and success. Important considerations include:

Skills most often need to be taught if our goal is to make sure every student has what they need for educational success (in other words, we can't assume that our students come to us with these skills already developed).

This requires collaboration with our students to understand different needs for safety and different opportunities to learn and practice these skills.

We empower our students with the skills they need to turn down their survival brain.

We are giving students the tools to build strong and healthy relationships with their peers.

Deep Breathing & Mindfulness

Deep breathing and mindfulness are tools we can use in our classrooms to help our students regulate. Mindfulness is non-judgmental present moment awareness or the act of actively noticing. Practicing deep breathing and mindfulness helps kids learn how to calm down, self-regulate, and manage stress. Check out these Safe Schools NOLA Tip Sheets for activities for K-4 and activities for 5-8.

Calm Down Corners

A "Calm Down Corner" (a.k.a. Think Space, Peace Corner, Safe Place, etc.) is a space within the classroom that students can utilize to regulate their physical and emotional state. The purpose is to help them regain behavioral control not punishment. Having a calm down corner includes teaching and practicing the SEL skills students need to strengthen their ability to regulate. By allowing them to practice these skills in the classroom we strengthen relationships and communicate to students that they belong in this community. Check out the Safe Schools NOLA Calm Down Corner tip sheet for more information.

Safe Schools NOLA Teacher discussing "Head Space" in her classroom
New Orleans Kindergarten Teacher describing "Take a Break" Strategy
Additional Resources

Self-Regulation & Co-Regulation

Deep Breathing & Mindful Movements

Calm Down Corners

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We know that trauma is inherently dysregulating - and as teachers, there are so many things we have no control over - we can not control the trauma our students may have experienced, we can not control how a student's morning was before they got to school, we can not control poverty - the ONLY thing we truly can control is ourselves.

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A simple greeting can make a profound impact. When teachers take the time to greet their students with a smile at the classroom door, they are telling each student, "I care about you. I respect you. I value you."

Feeling valued and connected can feed into a students' sense of belonging at school. Belonging, in turn, correlates with greater student well-being and higher academic engagement. An intentional investment of attention on the adult's part can have meaningful ripple effects for students.

Greeting students at the door is only one of many actions, big and small, that adults can take to help students in a school community feel a stronger sense of belonging . ( Tweet this )

This guide provides a working definition of student sense of belonging and key research on the importance of student belonging. It also suggests tools, resources, and strategies at the classroom, school, and district levels to help you cultivate a school climate where students can feel they belong.

Jump to sections of this guide using the table of contents:

Want detailed guidance on activities that build belonging? Download the toolkit: 5 Strategies to Build Student Belonging

Our researchers at Panorama use a shared definition of belonging: the extent to which students feel that they are valued members of their school's community. (Tweet this )

Belonging can include feelings of understanding, respect, connectedness, membership, or mattering. Sense of belonging is influenced by the classroom and school culture as well as by individual actions taken by adults in the school.

Take a moment to think about how important it feels to you to belong and have a sense of community membership in the places where you live, work, or play. Students care just as much about feeling like they belong at school.

Sense of Belonging Noun

The extent to which students feel that they are valued members of their school's community

Although we use a shared definition of belonging, we know that belonging can mean different things to different individuals and communities. Belonging might mean something a little different at your school or in your district.
Take a moment to consider:

How do you define belonging?

What are the characteristics of a feeling of belonging?

What's an example of when you feel you belong?

How about an example of when you feel you don't belong?

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Humans are relational creatures and belonging is a fundamental human need. Researchers describe belonging as, "a major factor that contributes positively to an individual's psychological development."

Beyond its implications for mental health, belonging plays a specific role in education. Research shows that belonging positively affects engagement, behavior, and academic performance. ( Tweet this )

When learners feel that they belong in the educational setting:

Student engagement increases

Negative behavior incidences diminish

Academic achievement improves

John Hattie's Visible Learning research synthesized findings from 1,600+ meta-analyses of 95,000+ studies involving 300 million students. He found that teacher-student relationships, school climate, and sense of belonging all meaningfully contribute to accelerating academic success.
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The evidence is clear: From primary school through middle school and high school, and even into higher education, it's important to prioritize relationships and belonging to support student wellness and student success.

Many elements go into whether students feel they belong, such as whether the physical environment reflects their background or needs and their relationships with peers. Adults can also contribute to students' sense of belonging in the classroom by creating the conditions for belonging, safety, and trust.

One way to do that is through classroom practices and routines with students. (For system-level practices to create a culture of belonging, skip to the section below.)

Here are three activities adults can try in the classroom setting to foster a sense of belonging:

1. "Get To Know You" User Guides

2. Values Reflection

3. Morning Meetings

1. "Get To Know You" User Guides

Students and adults can complete user guides and share them with their class (always to the extent they feel comfortable). A "user guide" is a document that can help individuals provide more visibility into their personalities, interests, and working habits, and facilitate more effective collaboration with peers and teachers.

Here are some questions to get started on what to include in a user guide:

What makes you feel inspired?

What is one thing you think you do well as a student?

What do you like to do outside of school?

For more ideas, check out 101 Inclusive Get-to-Know-You Questions .

2. Values Reflection

The goal of Values Reflection is for students to consider their own belief systems and to celebrate-not to judge-the diversity of values, experiences, and beliefs in their classroom.

Teachers have students pick three to five core values that they hold. Students can reflect on these values by journaling using prompts , or express them by creating a mindmap or visual anchor of their values to share in pairs or small groups.

3. Morning Meetings

Morning meetings are a schoolwide classroom management practice used to address students' social-emotional learning (SEL) needs on a daily basis throughout the school year. Setting aside time every day to check in and say hello builds a sense of belonging for students and adults in the classroom.

Every morning, teachers gather their students in a circle to interact with one another and kick-off the day. While these daily warm-ups will look different in different classrooms, they often include a greeting, time for personal sharing, SEL activity, and morning message.

Belonging Activities for Digital Classrooms

Online learning presents its own challenges for helping students build relationships and stay connected. With pandemic closures pushing many classrooms online, teachers must develop a toolkit of approaches to foster feelings of belonging even at a distance.

Get creative with technology, but remember to be authentic and stay consistent with your activities and practices. For example, morning meetings can be held virtually and video newsletters can bring communication with students and families to life. For more details about how to help students feel a sense of belonging online, check out these eight strategies .

A culture of belonging starts with adults. All the adults in a building or district can work together to foster a school environment of caring, connection, and belonging. ( Tweet this )

Here are three protocols that you can use in staff meetings (or as meeting warm-ups!) to develop adult capacity, skills, and mindsets around creating a culture of belonging in your school or district:

1. Permission to Envision

2. Mindsets for Adults

3. Belonging Baton Pass

1. Permission to Envision

This activity for educators is an opportunity to give yourself permission to take a step back and envision what you hope to be true for your educational community.

Write a future headline that reflects your goals for student belonging. Once you know the headline, ask what needs to be done to realize those goals in your classroom, school, or district.
Example of a Permission to Envision headline
You can share your headline with team members or families, and use the headline as an aspiration for your classroom, school, or district.

2. Mindsets for Adults

Identify shared decision-making tenets that are important to your community when it comes to building a culture of belonging. Example tenets could be acting with authenticity or utilizing asset-based approaches.

Once your school or district community has identified these core mindsets for adults, you can place these tenets at the top of meeting agendas so that whenever you make decisions that impact students, these tenets are top of mind.

3. Belonging Baton Pass

Cultivating a true sense of belonging is akin to a baton pass. As each adult learns what works for students, their hobbies, and how they like to feel seen, they can share that with other adults who are supporting those students.

Create simple, shareable information systems to capture belonging expertise amongst caring adults (classroom teachers, administrators, support staff, custodial staff, etc.) in your school community. Possible tools to use for this include Padlet , a Google Doc or spreadsheet, or Support Notes in the Panorama platform .

What's the best way to understand whether a student feels they belong at school? What's the best way to assess the impact of belonging-building activities or strategies?

The answer to both is: Ask the students! Asking students (as well as faculty and staff) to reflect on their sense of belonging can give you the feedback you need to understand what is or isn't working. ( Tweet this)

The research-backed Panorama Social-Emotional Learning Survey includes an opportunity for students to reflect on their sense of belonging, so that schools and districts can measure the effectiveness of climate and culture programs.

Our survey questions are designed to help you understand how much students feel that they are valued members of the school community. Here are some examples:

How well do people at your school understand you as a person?

How much respect do students in your school show you?

Overall, how much do you feel like you belong at your school?

Panorama's Adult SEL survey also offers questions designed to assess adult sense of belonging, such as:

How well do your colleagues at school understand you as a person?

How much respect do colleagues in your school show you?

Overall, how much do you feel like you belong at your school?

You can read and download the complete set of Panorama Student Sense of Belonging survey questions .

Success Story: Measuring Student Sense of Belonging with Panorama

D.C. Public Schools' Anacostia High is using the Panorama SEL Survey along with the Panorama MTSS platform to measure and improve student sense of belonging.

Dr. William Blake, Assistant Director of Redesign at the school, shared the story of how they implemented a ninth grade Dream Team pilot program pairing every student with a caring adult in the building for daily check-ins.

Due to the pilot program, student sense of belonging increased by 11% from the Spring to Fall of 2021 in their Panorama survey results. Belonging translated to better academic outcomes-their highest rate yet of promotion from ninth to 10th grade.

As Dr. Blake said, "The Dream Team pilot created an environment where every student believes they have somebody in the building who cares about their success. Now, our students feel more connected than ever before."

Has anyone ever told you to cheer up? Being told how to feel rarely has the intended effect. Telling students "You belong!" is just as ineffective .

When learning how to write in school, we're told that we need to show, not tell, in order to make a convincing case. The same concept applies here. Students need adults to show them that they care for them and value them.

All of the tools, approaches, and practices shared in this article are suggestions for getting intentional about fostering student sense of belonging-and doing it in a way that authentically expresses that students are valued.

We already know you care deeply about those students. Now they need to know it too.

Download the toolkit: 5 Strategies to Build Student Belonging

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Why Students Need to Feel a Sense of Belonging and How To Create It

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Student sense of belonging -- what does it mean, what does the research say about it, and what strategies at the classroom, school, and district levels help to cultivate student belonging?

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20 Unique Activities to Get To Know Your Students Better

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The best way to build relationships is by taking the time to learn about each other! Here are 20 activities to know your students better.

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According to Aubrey Daniels, "By definition, the 4:1 ratio is four positives to one negative. What many don't understand is that in order to shape the behavior you want, you must provide enough positive reinforcement for that behavior to become consistent. This is a great tool to use in business, sports, and even at home."

Check out what Aubrey Daniels has to say about the power of using the 4:1 ratio when delivering praise.

This concept centers around the idea that you should deliver praise four times more frequently than a correction.

Easy, right? Wrong! On an average day, a child receives at least one hundred behavior-based instructions. Statements such as: put that away, come over here, make sure you finish ___. Adults tend to notice "incorrect behavior more often than the desired behavior, thus providing more corrections than praise.

There are 1,440 minutes in a day, which means that if your child engages in challenging behavior for 30 minutes every day, there is still plenty of time (1,410 minutes to be exact) left to provide positive reinforcement for desirable behavior.

Challenging behaviors don't disappear overnight. Behavior change takes time, and the 4:1 ratio of praise is one of the many tools that can contribute to that long-term change.

Inflate Positive Reinforcement Using the 4:1 Ratio

The power of using a 4:1 ratio when delivering praise vs. making random praise and corrective statements.

Imagine PRAISE as a giant, brightly colored balloon and anytime a correction is given it results in one of those balloons popping. The bigger the collection of balloons, the lesser the impact if one bursts.

The 4:1 ratio of praise vs. corrective statements ensures that a higher rate of positive reinforcement is provided. When these statements are randomly delivered, it could result in a higher rate of criticism and less positive reinforcement.

But how do I increase my delivery of positive praise?

There are four easy ways to monitor your own behavior as it relates to using the 4:1 ratio.

Four tips for increasing positive praise include: making a plan, using a timer, self-monitoring behavior, and pairing it with a tangible.

1. Make a Plan: Establish a positive alternative behavior. If your child spends much of their day yelling at others, you want to listen for (and reinforce) any time they are using an inside voice.

2. Use a Timer: It is much harder to remember to give praise for the length of an entire day; instead, start small. Pick an hour and focus on watching or listening for that positive alternative behavior during that time.

3. Self-Monitor: Decide how you will track your behavior. Using two colors of rubber bands worn on your wrist is an easy method for monitoring praise vs. corrective statements. Anytime you make a statement to your child (or student), move the associated color to the other wrist.

4. Pair with a Tangible: If your child or student uses another token or point-based reinforcement system, you can pair positive praise along with the delivery of the reinforcer.

As always, remember to use behavior-specific praise to ensure that the receiver knows that you are speaking to them. Additionally, this guarantees that the positive statement relates directly back to the chosen behavior.
You can read more about behavior-specific praise here.
Challenge yourself to use the 4:1 rato for an hour tomorrow and see how positively reinforcing it can be for both you and your child.

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Check out the 30+ resources in my FREE Resource Library. Lost the password? Click here for access.

Also, don't forget to visit the BIAS Store, or check me out on TeachersPayTeachers.

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Four Simple Ways to Use a 4:1 Ratio of Positive Praise That Actually Work

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According to Aubrey Daniels, "By definition, the 4:1 ratio is four positives to one negative. What many don't understand is that in order to shape the behavior you want, you must provide enough positive reinforcement for that behavior to become consistent. This is a great tool to use in business, sports, and even at home."

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Because the school-to-home relationship is so important, try to reach out and establish this connection before the first day of school. This purposeful effort on your part will help parents/guardians see that you care, and it will help you set up your classroom and students for success. Think of it as a welcome activity for the school year. It can start to shape attitudes and expectations and also be a powerful way to introduce yourself. This can be an effective first step in connecting with your students and families and building trust and community.

This doesn't have to be overly time consuming and can even be done as a form letter, but however you reach out, be overwhelmingly positive. You want to set the tone for the school year, and you want families and students to be excited about the learning journey before them. Consider some of these ideas for reaching out before the first day of school.

Send a letter or email.

Send a welcome letter or email to your students and families. Save yourself some work by checking with your school office staff to see if there is a way to get a list of emails and addresses. Your school might even have a process for bulk mailings that you can use. Often, your student information system (SIS) will have available emails that can be exported.

Send digital greetings through available systems.

Most schools already have a messaging system in place. Many times, these are built into a SIS. This can be an efficient way to send out a greeting to all of your families from a central location.

Record a video introducing yourself and describing your classroom.

There is no substitute for seeing a face and hearing a voice. By sending a video message, you can connect with families in a more personal way, and you can reduce the chances that your words will be misunderstood. You can include a link to your video if you send it through email or your SIS. If you use paper mail, consider creating a simple, personalized short URL to your video. This will make it easier for families to type it into a browser. Bitly ( Tips) is a free and customizable URL shortener. You might also consider adding a QR code for families who find it easier to scan a code and access your video with their phone. QR Code Generator is free and easy to use.

Send parents/guardians information they will need to connect to your digital classroom spaces.

This is a great time to let parents/guardians know how you will communicate with them throughout the school year. Be sure to consider what information families will be seeking, like where students will be accessing resources online, where grades and assignments can be checked, and how/when families can communicate with you.

Invite parents/guardians to school-sponsored events, like open house.

Does your school sponsor events, like open house, activity sign-up day, student pictures, or technology distribution nights? When you reach out, be sure to include information about these face-to-face events. While this virtual reach-out is a great start, a personal meeting can make your relationships with parents/guardians even stronger.

Share district and classroom calendars.

Include calendars and key dates in your communication. This can help your families feel empowered and included.

Outline how and when parents/guardians can contact you.

This is key information and will help make families feel welcome to reach out to you. The next section of this article will explore how you might set up your classroom communication system.

Strong relationships start with strong communication and trust. Therefore, it is important to set up a user-friendly communication system for your families and then clearly communicate it out to them. The simpler and more consistent that it is, the more likely they will be to use it.

"Strong relationships start with strong communication and trust."

There are many communication systems available. The best one is often the one to which you have easiest access. If your school sponsors a system, that is usually your best place to start. A few popular options are included below.

Learning management system (LMS)

This can be a great central hub for communicating and sharing classroom resources. Most LMS platforms have a parent access feature to help keep them connected, and many have smartphone apps that provide notifications, as well. Some examples of LMS platforms are Canvas, Schoology, Moodle, Blackboard, and Google Classroom. Seesaw ( Tips) is a parent-friendly student portfolio and learning system that makes parent/guardian communication quick and easy, and it works well even with the youngest learners.

Student information system (SIS)

Most schools provide online parent/guardian access to student gradebooks. These systems often include direct messaging systems for sending announcements to all students and families.

Classroom website

This is more of a one-way communication system, but it can be an effective way to push out information to one, consistent location.

Texting services

Free options, like Remind, can allow you to set up secure messaging systems to push out text messages to students and parents/guardians. It can send information directly to the place that most students and parents/guardians have readily available: their phones.

Your communication system should include several key components:

How and when can families reach you?

How will you share important classroom information and announcements?

How can families review student academic progress (grades, assignments, etc.)?

How will families access and log in to available digital accounts?

For more information about setting up a classroom communication system, check out the AVID Open Access Establish Your Communication Plan article.

Even a strong start to the school year can fade if you don't maintain regular connection with families. To keep the relationship alive and strong, it must be reinforced throughout the school year. While conferences between teachers and parents/guardians, as well as open houses, are effective connection points, they will likely not be enough. To establish meaningful connections and really empower parents/guardians to participate in the learning process, you'll need to go beyond these school-sponsored dates. Here are some tips and suggestions to help you develop a plan.

Schedule regular contact opportunities.

It's easy to forget to do this, so consider putting reminders on your calendar or schedule a delayed email to yourself reminding you to reach out to families. Try to reach out to each family several times per year. You might even want to put specific student names on your calendar, so you can keep track of the families you've contacted.

Send both whole-class and individual messages.

Whole-class messages, similar to those you used before school began, are ideal for pushing out reminders, deadlines, and announcements. They are a quick and efficient way to help keep families informed.

Individual messages can go a long way toward strengthening relationships with families. This extra effort to connect gets noticed and is often appreciated. If you can, send a personalized message to each family; this could be a quick email message or a short phone call. If you're sent to voicemail, you can leave a short message. These messages signal that you recognize each student as an individual.

Provide digital portals to information.

These may already be integrated into your communication system (which is great), but make sure that parents/guardians know how to access and log in to these platforms. Encourage families to set up their personal accounts, if available, and remember to post new information regularly. If there is never anything new to see, families will stop checking.

There is a significant difference between communicating with families and empowering them. Communicating with them is very important and keeps them informed. While you can make this personal at times, it still functions largely like a business transaction. Empowering families, on the other hand, shifts the role of families from a passive observer and receiver of information to a full participant. Empowered families will generally be much more invested in the process, which can lead to more intentional support of their children's learning.

Create a two-way communication system.

Give families a voice. Make sure that your communication system includes a way for them to communicate with both you and their child. Better yet, don't just provide this opportunity, actively encourage it. Hearing from parents/guardians can provide you with valuable insights into their child. A two-way communication system also feels more collaborative, builds greater trust, reduces misinformation, and informs both ways. For families who speak another language, consider providing translation tools, such as ImTranslator or Google Translate.

Provide resources to help parents/guardians support their child.

Most parents/guardians want to help, but many times, they don't know what to do. If you can provide specific resources and strategies for them to use with their children, they will be more empowered to act upon their desire to help. This may be as simple as informing parents/guardians on how to check on student grades and progress, or it may include more instructional supports. Perhaps, you offer a booklist or links to strong instructional websites. You might share flipped videos of your lesson, so they can learn alongside their child.

Include families in the school/classroom.

Are there opportunities to connect families with classrooms and schools? Sports teams often have booster clubs that go above and beyond in supporting athletes and teams. Can you build a similar connection to your classroom? Here are a few ideas that can help you begin to make these connections.

Invite parents/guardians to class events, like performances, awards events, and celebrations.

Offer volunteer opportunities for parents/guardians, such as being a classroom tutor or after-school monitor, helping staff a book fair, facilitating a fundraiser, or providing a helping hand at a school track-and-field day.

Provide a way for parents/guardians to comment on student work. Programs like Seesaw allow them to comment on or "heart" student posts. You could also encourage parents/guardians to fill out an online form with comments that you collect and distribute to students or encourage them to send a Valentine's Day card to their child.

Written communication can often be taken out of context or misunderstood, even when the senders have only the best intentions. There are no tones of voice or facial expressions to help interpret meaning. Therefore, remember to communicate with care throughout the process of establishing relationships and connections with families. Here are a few tips and reminders that can help you set yourself up for success and avoid misunderstandings as you reach out to families.

Be positive.

Always share positive insights about a child. Every conversation should include positive comments, even if you must eventually address a concern. What is something that the student is especially good at? Did they treat a classmate with kindness? Did they share an insightful answer? Did they perform well on a class activity?

Celebrate the good.

This is closely connected to the previous point, but it builds on the idea that success leads to success. When we celebrate the good, we build up student self-esteem and allow them to develop grit to overcome challenges along the way. Every student deserves to be celebrated, and by sharing this celebration with parents/guardians, we can build up our students.

Respond within 24 hours.

This might seem overly simple, but it's very important. A quick response shows you care. If you are especially busy and need more time to thoughtfully reply, you can send a message acknowledging that you received the message, that you don't have time right now to give your response the attention it deserves, and that your full response will be coming later.

Reread messages before sending.

Text is easy to misunderstand, and when you are in a hurry, it's easy to type something that you did not intend. In addition, written messages often lose the subtleties of facial and body language that we get when speaking face-to-face. Therefore, be sure to reread your message before sending it. If it's an emotional message, consider saving a draft, waiting an hour or two and then rereading it with fresh eyes before sending it.

Keep parents/guardians informed.

No parent/guardian wants to find out for the first time at a conference with you that their child is struggling. Make sure that parents/guardians are continually updated on the progress of their child.

Remain professional.

You can be warm and inviting, but use professional language in your correspondence. Anything that your write or record becomes a permanent record, so be mindful of what you include. Above all, don't have important (or private) conversations on social media. Even when families are personal friends, be aware of the line between personal and professional.

Listen and validate parent/guardian concerns.

This is an important part of developing trust. Parents/guardians have insights that you may not have considered. They see their child in a different environment and are aware of different events that are happening outside of school. By listening and validating their important perspective, you will strengthen your partnership with them. It is also important to remember that not everyone will see a situation in the same way.

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Five Tips for Connecting Positively with Families - AVID Open Access

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Because the school-to-home relationship is so important, try to reach out and establish this connection before the first day of school. This purposeful effort on your part will help parents/guardians see that you care, and it will help you set up your classroom and students for success.

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Leading with Strengths (Educator Well-being) with Dr. Paul Porter

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Leading with Strengths (Educator Well-being) with Dr. Paul Porter

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Lead with Who You Are with Dr. Paul Porter

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TO END PUNITIVE, EXCLUSIONARY DISCIPLINE, WE'RE GOING TO NEEDNEW LENSES, PRACTICES, AND POLICIES. YOU'RE IN THE RIGHT PLACE.

We are in the midst of a societal and public health crisis. We are losing our most vulnerable kids, largely due to perspectives that are outdated and counterproductive, and disciplinary practices that are punitive and exclusionary.

With each time-out, detention, suspension, expulsion, paddling, restraint, seclusion, and arrest at school, there are children who aren't getting the help they need and are being pushed away from caregivers who could instead be helping them.

The cost to all of us is profound. Overwhelmed, discouraged educators. Frustrated, desperate parents. Expensive placements. Disenfranchised, marginalized, alienated kids. A pipeline to prison.

It doesn't have to be this way.

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We are in the midst of a societal and public health crisis. We are losing our most vulnerable kids, largely due to perspectives that are outdated and counterproductive, and disciplinary practices that are punitive and exclusionary.

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Iris Center Resource on Encouraging Appropriate Behavior

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Iris Center Resource on Encouraging Appropriate Behavior