Step Towards How to Run a Successful Classroom

Now let's take a step towards how to run a successful classroom environment.

Classroom Management

One of your biggest concerns as a daycare teacher is going to be classroom management!

No matter how much experience you have as a mom handling your own children, it's something else entirely when you're responsible for a room full of children.

They all come from different backgrounds and have different personalities. Don't worry -- all you need to do is learn the basics of classroom management and you'll likely find that it is easier than you were expecting to manage your classroom.

A huge part of classroom management is organization. If your classroom is not well-organized and well-run, it will show in the behavior of the students.

Handling Inclusion Students

A good inclusion teacher will do his/her best to motivate his or her students, especially the ones who are struggling or who refuse to do the work regularly. Sometimes, a non-disabled teen will reject the help, it has happened to me, believing erroneously that I am not their teacher or that it would place them in the same category as the special education classmates. Yes, there is a certain stigma attached to the label "inclusion student"; the perception is probably due to the lack of comprehension by both regular students and classroom teachers. The question I am asked most often is "What exactly does Learning Disability mean?" I try to clarify the best way possible to my teaching colleagues that these students do not perceive stimuli normally, even though their intelligence level is average-normal. It would take a trained psychologist to give all the details, I am not, but the tool we use to detect such learning disability (LD) is a series of tests which show severe discrepancies between the potential and the actual academic performance. For example, if a child's verbal ability is calculated at 100 and he/she performs at 85, we call that a learning disability in Reading Comprehension.

Auditory Processing Disorder in Children

• Does your child often ask "what?" or "huh?"
• Do you need to repeat questions and directions frequently?
• Is your child easily distracted or bothered by loud or sudden noises?
• Are conversations difficult for your child to follow?
• Are noisy environments upsetting?
• Are verbal (word) math problems demanding?
• Does your child have difficulty following directions?
• Does your child make a great effort to hear the differences between words or sounds that are similar (COAT/BOAT or CH/SH)?
• Does your child struggle with reading, spelling, writing, or other speech-related language difficulties?

Auditory processing disorder affects about 5% of school-age children. 

Advocating For Your Child

An advocate is someone who speaks for another person. Typically, adults speak for their children and hopefully want the best for their child. But what is the best way to be an advocate for your child?

Parents need to learn what their rights are. Any school can give parents a copy of their rights (usually available from special education personnel). Parents must learn to advocate for their children, not blindly accept what school officials or teachers say or deny what their child can and cannot do. This means they need to stand up and say what they want to happen, the way they want it to happen and what results they expect for their child's behavior and academic progress.

Will parents always get what they want? Maybe, maybe not. Parents and schools often must compromise because of the limitations of time, money and personnel resources. Requests and/or expectations must be reasonable and stated in ways that are accommodating to everyone involved. 

Special Ed Robotic Instruction for One-On-One Education

One of the biggest challenges we have in special education in our schools, at least out here in California in my area is the cost of one-on-one education. A good many of these kids really do need one-on-one instruction as that is the most appropriate given the situation, or at least multiple teachers or teacher aides per classroom, and those classroom sizes are smaller, and it's a lot to handle when helping these kids learn.

There have been significant strides made in working with computers and avatars to help Special Ed kids, and that's a wonderful thing, but still we must reduce the cost further. Of course that's difficult without lowering the level of instruction. Okay so let's talk about this for a second and some potential solutions.

First, our think tank has been working hard to come up with new ways to improve the efficiency without reducing quality of the classroom. It's all about costs, budget controls, and leveraging the technology. Still, the teachers need latitude, and freedom to do their teaching.

Technology In The Classroom

In the field of technology, the word disruptive is used for a technology or innovation that brings about a radical change in the way a sector functions by introducing efficiency, affordability and convenience. The technology revolution in the business sector is represented by the extensive use of smarter phones or web conferencing in American offices. However, the impact of disruptive technology on the education sector is much higher. A wave of smart classes and e-learning has transformed the way education is delivered and pursued, today.

The presence of technology in classrooms makes the student an active learner instead of a passive one. The education system becomes more student-centric. The student can choose, manipulate and generate what he wants to study and how. The student himself creates the learning environment and the mode of obtaining lessons. E-learning has made the education system more convenient and flexible. The student can learn through his own choice of platform. The role of the teacher also changes as he is no more the sole source of knowledge. He transforms into a mentor and is responsible for providing guidelines and resources to the students.

Common Learning Disabilities

There are a lot of students who either have or develop different learning disabilities throughout their educational career. This could mean they have dealt with it since elementary or grade school, or they didn't have it until they went to college. Either way, it can still make getting an education difficult and can affect the grades they get. However, a lot of these disorders and disabilities are very common and although some may prove to be more of a challenge than others, they are still possible to work with and accommodate.

One of the most common types is attention deficit disorder, ADD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. This condition normally affects the attention span of students and can make it difficult to concentrate during lectures, tests, and assignments. There are ways to treat this medically with a prescription from a doctor. However, many students find ways to work through their disorder without medication. Students with ADD or ADHD should take frequent breaks while studying or working on an assignment, and find a way to relieve built up stress or tension. 

To Label or Not to Label? Pros and Cons to Getting Educational Diagnoses

To Label:

1. Diagnostic testing may reveal learning gaps

2. Getting a diagnosis / label may qualify an individual for help in school and tutoring services at some colleges.

3. Having a label may make it easier to explain atypical behavior or achievement.

Not to Label:

1. While diagnostic testing may lead to learning gaps / (i.e. person can't add two digits to two digits, this person does not understand cause and effect in reading), it often limits expectations to what a person with that label typically can do.

Tips For Parents of Specials Needs Children

You can get a very good, quality education for your special needs child within the school system. You do need to take heed of some important aspects when dealing with disabilities and the school district.

Educate yourself before you go into a meeting with the professionals in the school district:

* Learn all you can about your child's specific disability (classification)
* Learn your rights & responsibilities (for you & your child)
* Learn the rights & responsibilities of the school district
* Find an advocate through the state dept. of education
* Find a support group or start one of your own
* Find online support groups- they have a wealth of information that you may need.

You will never learn all the laws of special education as there are several notebooks (about 4 inches thick) filled with these laws. You can, however, learn the laws that pertain to your child and their specific needs.

Can An ADHD Child Really Benefit From Attending A Specialty ADHD School?

As countless parents around the world can attest to, a child with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) can be quite a handful, and many parents actually get to a stage where they literally become desperate. If parents of ADHD children feel this way, just try to imagine how teachers must feel if some of their students have ADHD. Not only is it a huge challenge trying to work with these kids, but they can also make it very difficult for a teacher to focus on other kids in the class.

With the number of ADHD kids rising year on year, we're seeing the arrival of more and more specialty schools which focus solely on providing high quality education to children with behavioral disorders such as ADD and ADHD. This is achieved by allowing children with these types of disorders to be taught in an environment which is specific to the special needs of these kids.

One of the most common behavioral traits of ADHD children is inattentiveness. This is not to say these children cannot pay attention to what's being taught in class, but they certainly have great difficulty staying focused on a particular subject or project for any length of time. 

What You Should Know To Help Struggling Students

Children, adolescents, and adults with learning and performance difficulties are usually faced with information processing problems in a few specific areas. These areas include visual processing, auditory processing, organization, memory, attention, executive function, abstract reasoning and more.

For children and adults with LD and/or ADHD, their parents, and their teachers there are three very important words to remember: 1. Information, 2. Knowledge, and 3. Wisdom. Read on to find out what this means.

INFORMATION

The 1st level of understanding comes when you gather information (a) about LD and ADHD, their types, the combinations of difficulties, how they are diagnosed, and how they are treated so that you know as much as possible in order to proceed successfully, and (b) about the individual, including strengths, difficulties, testing results, behaviours, and performance. You will read books, watch DVDs, attend workshops, and ask questions.