Teaching Practices

 





 I have to say that I am blown away by this process. It is amazing to me that we can take and edit photos ourselves, keep using the same memory card over and over again, make mind-blowing changes to the photos, and then easily share those photos with anyone and everyone. What a world we live in!

Given that my interview with the American School is today, I have been reflecting on effective teaching practices that I have learned or have been exposed to over the years. Below is a summary of some of those practices.

My teacher refuses to go ahead with lessons until she is absolutely sure that everyone gets it. It’s amazing.

—High School Senior

 I love the quote above from the American School web site. I talked about this principle in my previous post. I do think that it is worth reviewing. In far too many cases, we have a tendency to rush the Educational process so we can get to the end of the lesson or so we can help the student achieve immediate success on an assignment. Have we taken the time to make sure that “everyone gets it”? What kinds of assessments are we using to judge whether or not “everyone gets it”? How are we measuring the longer-term development of key skills related to reading, writing, and math?

 

  DEALING WITH CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS

  1. Address safety for all students
  2. As soon as possible, try to return to a supportive and productive learning environment.
  3. Contact other school personnel to get their perspectives on the student and related behaviors.
  4. At the appropriate time, process the behavior and related details with the student.
  5. Use questions with a scale of 1-10.
  6.      On a scale of 1-10, how concerned are you about this behavior? 10 is the most concerned and 1 is the least concerned.
  7. Come to some mutual understandings about the behavior and its impact on the student and others.
  8. Develop a plan for moving forward.


TEACHING

  1.  Identify the skills that need to be developed.
  2. Consult with the student and discuss the skills that need to b developed.
  3. Make a plan for developing the skills.
  4. Execute the plan. 
  5.  As much as possible, have the student do self-assessments.
  6. The teacher also does assessments.
  7. Update and change the plan as necessary and appropriate.
  8. Repeat this process until the student has demonstrated some degree of mastery.


ZONES OF REGULATION
  1. https://zonesofregulation.com/
  2. Build safe and supportive environments
  3. Increase self-awareness and social and emotional skills
  4. Book and curriculum and training
  5. Identify how we are feeling and then respond accordingly
  6. Develop and implement effective emotional self-awareness and self-regulation
  7. 4 Zones
    1. Green Zone: happy/focused/calm/proud
    2. Yellow Zone: worried/frustrated/silly/excited
    3. Blue Zone: sad/bored/tired/sick
    4. Red Zone: overjoyed/elated/panicked/angry/terrified


SOCIAL THINKING 

https://www.socialthinking.com/ 

The Social Thinking Methodology has been a guiding resource for schools, clinics, individuals and families around the world for more than 25 years. Our work supports individuals' social, emotional & academic learning, whether neurotypical or Neurodivergent, with or without diagnosis. Our materials are helpful for students in mainstream and special education—they can be used across developmental ages to support the development of social competencies, flexible thinking & social problem solving to improve: conversation & social connection, executive functioning, friendship & relationship development, perspective taking, self-regulation, and Social Thinking vocabulary. Help us protect the fidelity of this body of work and be informed about how you can/can’t use our materials considering our intellectual property, copyrights and trademarks.

 

 


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