Behavior in Schools

 Behavior In the School

It is amazing to me how much behavior in schools have increased over the years. I remember when I went to elementary school and hanging out with everyone at school. I don't remember any huge fights, kids constantly getting sent to the office, or kids being allowed to do what they wanted in the classroom "just so they aren't interrupting others. These days, I consistently see the same 10 kids in the office EVERYDAY!!! I consistently see kids staying at school after hitting, kicking, or biting someone. I hear kids screaming or yelling at teachers. To me, this is amazing and uncalled for and SHOULD NOT be tolerated for other students and teachers sakes. It is mentally stressful for all involved.

I have thought a lot on this topic for quite some time now. My job was pretty tough last year but seemed to get tougher this year with behavior. I have adopted some coping skills and strategies to use with students but it seems like I spend most of my time dealing with these behaviors then I do teaching my students what they need to know for their life. I have talked to other staff members and I have also thought of some reasons this may be happening on my own.

1. Absents of Parental Discipline- Are students allowed to go home and get away with whatever they want while parent do their own thing? Are kids allowed to bite, hit, and yell at their parents while at home? These questions are all coming up when we talk about student behavior and different reasons for it and ways that might help them and their family. When we have a family with a student who is having a really hard time in school, its our job to not only educate the students on appropriate behavior but we have to educate the parent on different strategies and ways to help them at home.
2. Higher number of students coming from broken families- It seems like there are more and more children coming from broken families. Sometimes its a nasty break-up between the parents and fighting over the kids. Sometimes the kids will go for a long time without seeing one parents or not see a parent at all. This can have a huge affect on how a child acts at school. this may be them crying out for help.

3. Classroom Management- Teachers seem to come out of college with more knowledge and better classroom management skills. This can make or break a class and even affect individual students more. If the teacher does not have a good handle on the class and have structure within the class with clear expectations, students will have a hard time acting appropriate and behaving in class.
4. School Wide Behavior Management- Do schools need to be required to adopt a behavior system and prove to the state that it will work for their school? Does schools need to work together more and see what is working and what is not working? Get rid of what not working and bring in something new? There are so many questions for this and I'm not sure there is one answer to all of the questions. In the school that I work in, we don't have any behavior management process or behavior plan for our students. Teachers do their own behavior management and the principals will get involved if they need to. Their strategy may be different every time or they may be too busy to where the student ends up waiting in the office looking at books. This is a huge area that a school needs to focus on and work together with their teachers to come to a solution that is best for all students.

These are all observations and nothing is a proven facts. They are all personal opinions.

Curriculum for Students with Special Need

           

Being a new teacher to this district and this field in a new position at these schools has been a struggle of mine to incorporating the general education curriculum with my students and their needs. The current curriculum that my school district just adopted is a tough one. It is a curriculum that our regular education students are having a really hard time adapting to let alone the students with special needs. The time is takes me to modify each and every curriculum is overwhelming and exhausting. It is my goal for my students to learn the most they can while in the general education classroom. A few things that I have don’t to help me and my students with this process are as follows:

1.     Peer Buddy- It is always a good idea to have a peer buddy with these students. This buddy has to be picked very diligently. It needs to be a student who can multi-task and still pay attention to what the teacher is saying. It needs to be a good role model. It also needs to be a student who can understand the student’s disability and work through things with them with guidance from the special education or general education teacher.

2.     Para Support- Although this is a really hard solution to get, this is a great way for the student to be involved in the general education classroom. The para would be there to talk the student through the tasks and may break them down if needed.

3.     Classroom support with pullout time- This is the way that we end up needing to do most of the general education classroom with the higher special education students.

When I am sticking one of my severe needs students in with the general education classroom, I get a lot of questions from the teachers, such as, why should they be there when they don’t understand any of the information being presented. My response to this is it doesn’t just teach the students academically, but it teaches them socially. This is a time for these students to learn how to sit in a classroom and what is socially acceptable and what’s not. Those are some thoughts on inclusion and some solutions to keep in mind.