Don’t Just Accommodate Anxiety, Teach Skills!
Date: March 29th, 2023
Accommodations are important, but they’re not enough. They need to be accompanied with skills and techniques so a kid knows what to do when they’re feeling a certain way.
Ask Polly: Behavior At Home vs. School
Date: March 26th, 2023
Polly answers the question: “How am I supposed to improve the behaviors in my 5th grade classroom when at home my students are allowed to do whatever they want and say whatever they want?”
Prevent Behaviors from Becoming Safety Issues
Date: March 22nd, 2023
What do we need to do in order to prevent behaviors from becoming safety issues?
Ask Polly: High School Behavior and the Office
Date: March 19th, 2023
Polly answers the question: “I send high schoolers down to the office when they act up in my class and it doesn’t seem to make any difference! So I wonder if I should just save the office for really higher level stuff so the kids know when they have truly gone too far?”
WHAT Is the Behavior?
Date: March 15th, 2023
Look at a child’s behavior. Is it a disruption? Disrespect? Refusal? Safety? The problem a behavior creates is a lot more important than the behavior itself.
Ask Polly: Teens Mocking Teachers?
Date: March 11th, 2023
Polly answers the question: “I was walking down the hall with a colleague and a group of 8th graders started mocking our conversation as we passed. What would you have done in that situation?”
Don’t Overuse “Be Safe!”
Date: March 8th, 2023
We don’t want to overuse the terms “Be safe!” and “Be careful!” because they actually plant imminent fear and danger in a kid’s mind.
Ask Polly: Kids Can’t Handle Play
Date: March 5th, 2023
Polly answers the question: “Why can’t our kids play? Is it video games? They are so aggressive. We can’t play kick ball anymore in our school or four-square anymore or any of those types of games because they just can’t seem to handle it. Do you have any ideas?”
Disruptive Behavior?
Date: March 1st, 2023
If a kid is so disruptive that you have to remove them from the classroom, be careful it doesn’t backfire. How?
Ask Polly: Kids Disrespectful to Paras?
Date: February 26th, 2023
Polly answers the question: “How do we get high school students to treat paraprofessionals with respect? I hate to see kids using abusive language and saying things like, “You’re not even a teacher.””
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