It happened pretty fast. Almost without warning, two students were at a breaking point. In this case, it started when Samantha and Ariel traded mean comments on social media late in the evening. The next day, their hostility seeped into the classroom. They stared each
The social and emotional lives of our students is of paramount concern, especially as we enter the third year of pandemic teaching. We have witnessed firsthand how much we depended on our ability to learn about our students and communicate with them, and the difficulties
As we continue to navigate pandemic teaching, there is a clear need for small group instruction. With so many disruptions over the past two school years, students are reading at a wider variety of levels than we have seen in the past. Children want attention
Humans make assumptions about individuals based on what we see. Although we like to say that we get to know a person first, science suggests otherwise. Experiments have demonstrated that people make trait judgments based on seeing someone’s facial features after 100 milliseconds (Willis & Todorov, 2006). That’s one tenth of
We all know that teacher-student relationships are one of the biggest predictors of student success. Actually, it’s been reported that teachers that have strong relationships with their students have 31 percent fewer behavioral issues (Marzano, 2003). That’s right, 31 percent. However, let’s take a minute to
If you’ve ever been to a museum, you may have noticed that items on display are organized in specific ways. Displays, by design, pique interest, evoke emotion, or urge action unique to each individual’s experiences. The way items are grouped together, the exhibit label, the
A clipboard or tablet, watchful eyes, and listening ears. That’s all it takes to be an effective kidwatcher. Yetta Goodman, who coined the term in the 1980’s, helped educators think about the valuable data they can collect just by listening in to student conversations and by hosting one-to-one
The beginning of the new school year offers equal doses of excitement, tempered with a bit of trepidation. “I can’t wait to meet new people!” and “I hope they like me…” seem to compete simultaneously for attention. And we’re talking about the teachers! We don’t
I remember the first time I was placed in a classroom with students all on my own. I had been hired as a 7th grade teacher and it was the first day of school. A student came up and tried to give me a tissue
Contributed by Kikanza Nuri-Robins This post was originally published on The Huffington Post. In schools, our children are often judged by one descriptor—words that are not of their choosing. Black kid. Troublemaker. Underachiever. Poor kid. These words are one-dimensional substitutes for relationships. These words set up our