• Get to know your students. Connect on a one-to-one level.
  • Learn the children's names as soon as possible.
    • During quiet work time (i.e. five minute free-write) have seating chart in hand and practice learning names.
    • Take pictures of the students in groups—put their names on back of the picture to use as a flash card to study at home or to review before class.
  • Prioritize your time by identifying students with highest needs or behavioral issues: (1) special needs, (2) leaders—those whom the others follow, either with positive or negative behavior, (3) quiet, withdrawn students, and (4) behavioral issues. The children in these four categories should be approached as soon as possible, but you may want to do some research first.
    • Check with counselors and previous teachers to obtain background information.
    • Talk to parents/guardians (before contacting directly talk to counselors.
  • Personal journals allow for individual feedback and a personal (written) conversation between you and your students. These can be kept in a bound journal or loose leaf sheets filed in the students’ binders or file folders that you keep. If using a file folder for storing class work, the inside of the folder itself can be used as space for the personal journal. Here are a few suggestions for a personal journal entry:
    • Ask about students’ interests outside of this particular class or school— of what teams or clubs are they members?
    • Ask what they see themselves doing in ten years—where they will be living, the type of work they’ll be doing, the car they will be driving, etc.
    • Ask them to think about a favorite teacher (past or present) and have them describe that person and what about their teaching style is particularly special.
  • You can set up personal interviews that can be conducted during class time, or scheduled for before or after school.
  • Volunteer to chaperone school dances, go to sports events and music/drama presentations. And follow-up with a personal note, or talk to the student privately, describing what you saw them do that was special. (Be careful about congratulating performances publicly—you may not realize that a football game you attend may have conflicted time wise with other sports/performances that other students were in, or you may not have noticed another child on the football team who was not spotlighted.) Try not to focus only on the high-profile events.
• Documentation of interactions
  • Set up a file for each student that includes contact information and log of contact with parents and observations of student achievement in content, process, group skills, and peer relations.
  • Formative assessment should be conducted on a regular basis to provide information that will indicate if any adjustments or additional help is needed for a student to be successful. Discuss issues of concern with the student and contact parents early enough to make accommodations needed to help this child be successful.
  • Document all measures taken when dealing with individual students, and whole class adjustments/accommodations.
• Classroom norms should include mutual respect.
  • Plan to have a reasonable method for dealing with disruptions:
    • Warnings should include a time out when you can talk to the student individually.
    • Do not fall into the trap of a power play—no one wins—children get frustrated and angry and you will as well.
    • Tell the student why their actions make you feel disrespected.
    • Ask the student what his/her needs are. (Do not say, “What was that all about?” as it puts the kid on the defensive.)
    • Talk about what you can both do to make sure that your needs and the student’s needs are met.
      If this is a repeated offence, the private discussion should include an administrator and/or parent.
    • Steps for dealing with disruptions should be clearly stated and be consistent. Kids are very quick to recognize when the steps are being used indiscriminately.
    • If you feel very angry—this is not a good time to talk to a student—tell him/her to go to office, with a note, and talk to him/her when you have cooled down. Before meeting with him/her, try to figure out the value/virtue that the student’s behavior confronted . . . then talk about your need to have that value respected.

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Prepared by UW TEP program participants.