“I have dealt with violence and my room being destroyed, and I have had to evacuate my classroom (….) I definitely have experienced all of that, being called words that I'm just horrified by—I couldn't believe a kid would call me that.”
Being Proactive and Structured Regarding Behavior
“We try to take the most proactive approach that we can with behaviors. So when we do our screening for Kindergarten, we will go observe in the Pre-K classes. We will interview the Pre-K teachers and we meet with the parents (…) We have a rubric when they come to screening. We're looking at everything that might be a flag for a behavior and then we try to disperse them equitably within [our grade].”
“A lot of what I do is make sure that I have plans in place for all of the different things that I've experienced over my years for all the different behaviors. I have plans in place prior to the start of the year. I make sure I have my calm area, my calm-down buckets.”
“We have separate desks. Those are our little islands. We've got them there ready to go when we need them. I've got a really awesome calm space. We practice breathing every day (…) I do a responsive classroom meeting every morning. So I think it's (…) having that structure and routine in place.”
“We have a S.E.L. pacing guide that we do in our district. So we are teaching them all about their emotions and feelings and how to regulate their emotions. We're doing this from day one.”
Being Flexible
“The biggest thing that I think works is being flexible (…), picking my battles, letting them win sometimes, sometimes not. I don't always have the last word.”
“I have kiddos who—they have to finish coloring. One of my hardest kids could not transition. He needed to finish his coloring. And for me, that is not a fight. That's not a battle that I needed. Previously it was, and then it would just escalate. He would escalate and then he'd blow his top, and then we're done. Then your class is being evacuated. Nothing's getting done. So just having that flexibility to say, “You know what? I can tell that you're not done. How many more minutes do you need?” And then I could always go, “Okay, five or ten?” And then, of course, they're going to pick a number outside of that range because he's trying to show that he’s in charge in this classroom, so he'll say “twelve”. “Nope, that wasn't your choice. Five or ten? You choose or I choose.” So then he makes the choice. We put on our timer.”
“I have a kiddo—every day he takes a break and some people will say that's not fair because the rest of my students aren't getting a break. Well, guess what? My other kids don't even care because we're having so much fun doing what we're doing on the carpet. They don't even realize he's out there taking a break.”