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Relational First Aid Kit To promote a healthy classroom environment for all students, including Limited English Proficient and English Second Language learners, teachers must be aware of the causes and symptoms of an unhealthy learning environment. Most people can immediately recognize the differences between an unhealthy and a healthy learning environment. Effective teachers are very familiar with the items, actions and attitudes that help create a healthy classroom environment. They know that a healthy classroom contains all of the items found in this first aid kit.
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Emotional
Stethoscope - Reading the emotional needs of children can be
challenging because children do not always verbalize their needs.
Effective teachers have developed their own "emotional
stethoscope" to observe and identify the roots of child behaviors.
For some people the skill comes naturally, but for others, it is a skill
that must be learned. Secondary students who have "fallen through
the cracks" often recall feeling alienated by classroom teachers
when they failed to meet a teacher's expectations. Often the withdrawn
and quiet students who simply "do not get the work done" are
waiting for a teacher to demonstrate genuine concern and caring. For
many students school is their safest emotional environment, and they
need sensitive teachers to help them deal with their emotional issues
often exacerbated by puberty. Quality teachers have a built-in emotional
stethoscope.
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Respect and
Encouragement - The miracle salve that cures all scrapes, scratches,
bruises, wounded egos and broken spirits. Apply often and apply
generously! Helping students feel
good about themselves and their learning does not happen by mistake.
Respect has some very deeply entrenched cultural implications. Some
sociologists comment on the Afro-American culture as having historically
been a matriarchal society, where it is culturally reinforced for young
males freely give respect to female authoritarian figures. The Hispanic
culture has culturally reinforced male dominance and a female authority
figure humiliating a young male in front of his peers has cultural
significance beyond "school rules." Some Asian cultures
demonstrate respect and humility by not looking straight into the eyes
of authority figures. Teachers need to know these cultural underpinnings
and respect students and their cultural heritage. Be a model of respect
and encouragement for your students. Consult the Manual - Every student is unique. They all come to our classrooms with varying backgrounds and needs. To truly create a healthy learning environment, teachers need to view each child as an individual, respect each child's uniqueness, and design learning strategies that will help each student become successful. This requires a teacher to be extremely knowledgeable about individual learning styles, brain research, language development, different cultures, personality styles, learning difficulties, student rights and legal issues. The new profile of a quality teacher looks more like a physician than a typical teacher. It is no longer acceptable to assign everyone in a classroom the same type of activity. Physicians don't prescribe the same treatments for all patients. They address the specialized needs of each individual. Physicians also take advantage of more professional growth opportunities than most other professions. They read medical journals and keep their skills fresh since new medical solutions and effective treatment methods are published every day. Keep education a profession by keeping abreast of research on learning. Take advantage of professional development opportunities so that you will have the information necessary to improving how students feel about learning.
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