Management Philosophy, part 2 by Genesis Salemstate

genesissalemstate — 2023-09-18 20:07:39 UTC

There is one specific quote that I love. I even printed it out to post on my personal bulletin board. It reads: "Clearly, deciding to reinforce students only when they demonstrate behaviors that are not in their repertoire is unfair and sets them up to fail" (Scott, 2012, p. 219). Having this quote visible will guide me in applying tier-two strategies or a BIP with my students.

As a teacher, if I want to implement tier-two strategies with my students to reinforce a behavior, I need to evaluate if they already know how to perform the behavior independently or if they require my assistance to learn how to achieve it. The Comprehensive Management Plan has taught me the importance of following up with students' progress to improve their behavior. It's a good idea for teachers to keep data and ask questions that can help determine the best course of action. For example, suppose a student is having trouble getting along with others and is causing tension instead of reprimanding the student for not getting along with others. In that case, I can help them develop the social skills to help them achieve that goal.

genesissalemstate — 2023-09-18 20:14:08 UTC

Another aspect I learned from this class is the importance of applying SEL lessons in the classroom. This is particularly important for my students, who arrived in the U.S. last September and are still adjusting to the school's environment and life in a new country. From what I observed, it has been hard for many of them to adjust to life here; I can see how much they miss home because they had to leave everything behind. Therefore, as a way to support their emotions, I created an SEL lesson plan based on reflection on and expressing their emotions about their experience of adapting to life in the U.S. I have not implemented this lesson yet with my students, but I plan to in the next few weeks before Christmas break. I also do not want that to be my only lesson plan for them. I want to make it a goal to implement more in the future to help them cope with the life changes. Perhaps I can try to implement two SEL lessons a month; as time goes on, I will see if I need to do more.

At first, my main goal was to teach my students English. However, I realized that I was so focused on that aspect of their education that I neglected their social and emotional needs. Throughout this course, I have learned that if a student's needs are not met, they cannot function in class. Additionally, I found the Social-Emotional Learning module insightful and enjoyed reading the article that Professor Ernest posted. The article mentioned that it is important to acknowledge that "teaching SEL is not a solution for all of the challenges our students face. But there's a lot we can do as educators to make a significant positive impact. It starts with our own social-emotional skills" (Garcia). I always keep this quote in mind because social and emotional learning (SEL) lesson plans may not solve all the problems that arise in the classroom, but they can greatly benefit students. However, the most important thing for my students is having a support system to help them with their experience in the United States.

genesissalemstate — 2023-09-18 20:16:09 UTC

Students always deserve to be treated with humility. I might find it challenging to implement this quality within myself. Still, I must remember that if I want to build trust with my students, at times, I may need to put my authoritative position aside and demonstrate that I acknowledge my students' feelings. One way I can do this is to seek my students' input and value their thoughts. This would involve asking questions like, "What do you need from me?" or "What can I do to improve the situation?" By demonstrating humility toward students, I show that I genuinely care for their thoughts and feelings and do not want to work against them; rather, I want to create a safe place for them. It also empowers students to voice their concerns and be involved in their learning experience.

Humility (Pt. 2)

genesissalemstate — 2023-12-10 21:44:42 UTC

After learning so much throughout this semester about reinforcing positive behavior in the classroom, one value that I always want to implement with my students is humility. After starting the Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) and Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) with one of my students, I realized I could have handled the situation better. As a teacher and an individual, I felt that I acted too quickly in selecting this particular student for the BIP and FBA without fully understanding the whole picture, including what was going on in their personal life. I should have checked in with the student and asked, "What's going on?" This question would have "given me enough information about what was happening in their personal life and would have allowed me to create an action plan tailored to their needs more effectively. It is important to keep in mind that "students often have a unique perspective

about their own behavior and are able to generate ideas or changes that could reduce problem behaviors” (Kern, 2016, p.166).

There are two things that I learned from this experience, and that is:

It is okay to admit when you are wrong. It takes humility to do so, and it is okay to apologize to students when you know you have made a mistake because, at the end of the day, as a teacher, the goal should be to build trust with students.
Another thing that I learned was to "recognize that being fair does not always mean treating students equally. On the other hand, if we rely too much on the system, we may fail to do what is best for each individual. A system that narrowly interprets behavior ends up treating all students the same" (Curwin et al., "018, p. 12). Connecting this idea with my action plan, I believe I would have continued with my BIP and FBA. Still, I would have done it differently and considered the students' thoughts more without quickly jumping into the plan. This would have made the procedure more effective based on the student's needs.