A Post From Your School Psychologist: Considering Emotional Needs.

The world is changing.  Often in subtle, inconspicuous ways.  Sometimes in dramatic matters that linger in our selective conscious.  The chaos and trauma of media images fill our daily experience.  In response to shifts of societal mores, parental practices, and cultural norms... education must evolve to meets the increased emotional needs of students.  The emotional needs of our students are varied and complex.  Beyond simple feeling recognition, student needs transcend to social reciprocity, functional skills, and behavioral control.

There may be no other time in our country’s nation where the old cliched adage “it takes a village…” would apply.  Unfortunately, the villages have disbanded.  Families are separated. The human bond of hope, compassion, and integrity have been compromised.

As educators, we find ourselves increasingly responsible for the emotional, social functional, and behavioral growth of students.  Education is far beyond academics.   

I have attached a few fun behavioral ideas (along with classroom management strategies to ponder from the web):
   

1. Post visuals that teach basic routines. Students respond to predictable structure!

2. Have a plan for when students become frustrated.  Steps that they take to "calm down" in a safe manner.

3. Plan ahead: I little creativity can go along way to teach expectations!

4. Reinforce self-monitoring skills:  Children can not yet fully control their behavior. They benefit from positive encouragement to "check over their" work / behavior / perspective / social interactions in a systematic manner.    Make it fun!

5. Start with feeling recognition: Validating a "feeling" with a name is a powerful first step to a child's emotional/behavioral control.

6. Identify your classroom's target concern (big or small) and make a plan to address it. If it will help one student, it will probably help others.  No student learns in a vacuum.

7. Organize, organize, organize!  Brain Break Sticks!!! The more organized the educator, the more sound his/her well-being.  This, in turn, has a direct impact on each student's emotional status.  Remember, take care of your emotions first... all students will feel the impact. 

JMC