Reality 101: CEC's blog for new teachers

Class Meetings: Developing a Supportive Climate in Your Classroom

Congratulations! You "Survived & Thrived" through February and are ready to embrace March, welcome Daylight Savings time, partake in St. Patrick’s Day festivities, and celebrate the official beginning of SPRING! It’s a wonderful time of year, full of hope, renewed energy, and high expectations.

In my February 12th post, I mentioned class meetings as a useful strategy for building positive relationships with students. In today’s post, I’d like to discuss why they are important to include in your daily or weekly schedule.

An organized and productive classroom of any type -- general ed., special ed., co-taught, self-contained, or resource, etc. -- will promote a positive climate. In turn, a positive classroom climate will promote effective instruction. Your goal should be to create a classroom community where students feel safe, respect peers and adults, are excited about learning, and are motivated to be successful. (Survive & Thrive: Tips for Special Educators, Maureen Gale, DayOne Publishing, 2008)

Read, Survive & Thrive

I hope you enjoyed the Web resources I shared this week. Today I’ve included a few of my favorite books, both new and not so new. Many have a behavior focus, some are specifically for beginning special education teachers, and others are helpful to all educators. All are books I refer to often and share with the behavior intervention teams and special education teachers I visit with each week. I believe educators should be lifelong learners so, if you’re looking for a new READ, try one of these.

Remember that two of the best strategies to help you Survive & Thrive as a special educator are to participate in professional development and to seek out resources to assist you and your students.

As always, please join in, comment, and share your favorite books too. Thanks for reading!

Behavior Intervention Manual
Hawthorne Educational Services, Inc.
www.hes-inc.com

CHAMPs: A Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management
Randy Sprick, Mickey Garrison, and Lisa Howard
Pacific Northwest Publishing
www.safeandcivilschools.com

Behavior Management Resources

Hi everyone! Thanks for joining Reality 101 for New Teachers. Behavior is my niche, so this week I thought I’d share some of my favorite behavior management resources. Just about everyone in special education keeps lists of resources nearby, as we are always looking for more items to add to our bag of tricks. Also, in our profession, just when you think you’ve seen it all, watch out -- something new, interesting, or challenging is right around the corner!

Enjoy these resources and please join in, comment, and share your favorites. We really appreciate your input. This is your blog!

http://www.cec.sped.org -- Home of your professional organization!

www.oswego.edu/~mcdougal/web_site_4_11_2005/index.html -- Great graphing tools for monitoring academics and behavior.

http://712educators.about.com/ -- Search engine with links to resources for educators.

Self-reflection and Classroom Organization

Happy Presidents’ Day! Having a day off gives us time to enjoy our favorite activities and de-stress from day-to-day responsibilities. I enjoy gardening and walking my dogs. Both provide me with quiet time to reflect on what’s going well and what goals I’ll set next.

Self-reflection is an important tool for special educators. Ask yourself questions such as:

• What’s working the way I want it to during my day?
• What time of day, subject, and/or activity is the most difficult to complete?
• What feels hectic during the day?
• Which students are meeting their goals? Which students are not?
• Are students meeting my behavioral expectations?

When we take the time to reflect on our success in the classroom and what we want to improve, we’re able to monitor our progress, set goals for improvement, and give ourselves a much-needed pat on the back. In today’s blog, we’ll take a look at how we can further improve our classroom organization.

Building Positive Relationships with Students

Hi again. I hope you are all enjoying your week and are ready for more tips to help you during the month of February.

Last week I had the opportunity to work with a new behavior support team at one of my schools. We had a lively discussion regarding strategies we use to build relationships and establish rapport with high-needs students. You know the ones –- they don’t trust anyone, have low self-esteem, have endured years of school frustration . . . and they just don’t feel like they fit in.

When you have new students entering your special education classrooms throughout the school year, it’s vital that you build relationships with them as quickly as possible. And we all know that a lack of solid positive relationships can really influence your classroom management plans. Our goals should always include building positive relationships with each of our students and teaching them how to build relationships with their peers and the adults on campus.

Survive & Thrive Tips for February

Hello out there CEC’ers!  I’m Maureen Gale, your February Blog host. I’m joining you from Orlando, Florida, where I am currently a district behavior coach. My CEC story is a long one, as my membership began in 1976 when I was a Student CEC member at the University of Florida (go GATORS!). I am always thankful for my CEC friends and colleagues and the support and opportunities I have as a member of CEC.

As a special educator for more than 30 years (where did the time go?), I’ve had a variety of interesting learning and career experiences as a resource teacher, an EBD teacher in a psychiatric hospital, a teacher trainer, a special ed. program coordinator, and a behavior specialist. I’ve also had the exciting opportunity to work as a special educator at American schools overseas in Uruguay, Japan, and South Africa. Guess it’s no surprise to my friends and colleagues that when CEC asked if I would host for a month, my only concern was not what to say but when to stop!

So, let’s get started with a few tips for this first week in February!