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The importance of positive staff-student relationships
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 While discussing the importance of relationships in her TED Talk, Rita Pierson (2013) states, "Kids don't learn from people they don't like." In a typical school year, students can spend more than 1,000 hours with their teacher (Sparks, 2019). Therefore the nature of the staff-student relationship can set the tone for the learning environment. Having a positive relationship with students can improve school attendance, classroom management, and academic outcomes. In addition, positive relationships can also influence teacher job satisfaction and teacher retention.
Since relationships play a critical role in a successful educational experience, it is important that teachers have a diverse set of tools to assist in the development of these relationships. Examples of strategies for building relationships include greeting students daily, sharing your enthusiasm for your students, inquiring about student interests through conversations or questionnaires, incorporating student voice and interests into instructional planning, and speaking to students with respect. In her article "7 Ways to Build Better Relationships with Students," Stephanie Shaw (2016) provides seven strategies that are useful in building relationships with students. One of these methods is the 2 x 10 Strategy. With this strategy, the teacher has a personal conversation with a student for two minutes a day for ten consecutive days. This strategy can develop the student-teacher relationship and, in turn, improve school performance especially with students who are struggling behaviorally.
There are numerous ways to build positive relationships with students. An important thing to remember is that no matter the strategy you choose, students will notice the way in which you interact with them and will model their behavior after yours (Rimm-Kaufman & Sandilos, n.d.). Having relationships with students in which you show respect and enthusiasm for learning can go a long way in creating a lifelong love of learning for them.
Additional information on building positive relationships can be found in the resources listed below.
References
Rimm-Kaufman, Sara and Sandilos, Lia. (n.d.). Improving students' relationships with teachers to provide essential supports for learning. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/education/k12/relationships
For more information, contact Whitney Shotwell (wlshotwell@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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3D printing: Creating your own low cost, low tech assistive technology
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Do you know if there is a 3D printer in your local school division or local public library? Many schools in our area have at least one 3D printer for use in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities. In addition, there is growing interest in using 3D printers to print customized, low cost, low tech assistive technology devices for students with disabilities (Buehler, Comrie, Hofmann, Mcdonald, & Hurst, 2016). Tools that are 3D printed can support students in accessing many different areas including communication, reading, math, and organization. The
VDOE's T/TAC at VCU
has two Robo R1 3D printers available for use within the
T/TAC at VCU
Office. They will be available for facilitated checkout soon to consumers who have attended one of our 3D printer workshops.
If you have access to a 3D printer, it is fairly simple to locate pre-made designs that you can access and print. Once you have located a design, the file can be downloaded easily from the source, uploaded into the 3D printing software, and printed on a 3D printer. Staff at the VDOE's T/TAC at VCU maintain a chart with links to easily downloadable assistive technology files that can be uploaded into the 3D printing software and printed. You can access this chart at bit.ly/3DATFILES. Some examples of beneficial low tech assistive technology tools listed on the chart that can be 3D printed include:
Once you locate a 3D printer you can access in your school division or local library, use the chart linked above and the additional sources below to locate design files that will work with a 3D printer and to learn more about the benefits of 3D printing for students with disabilities.
Resources:
- Thingiverse: This website is very robust and has many 3D printer files along with comments and feedback to assist in utilizing the files.
- Project Core: Project Core at UNC Chapel Hill has developed many different textured core words that can be used for communication.
- Makers Making Change: This website contains numerous ideas and files for 3D printing assistive technology tools.
- Your School OT Blog: A local occupational therapist wrote an informative blog post entitled, "5 Things School OTs should 3D Print."
- 3D Printing in OT: This website provides 3D printer files and ideas along with additional informative resources in 3D printing and file creation support.
Reference
Buehler, E., Comrie, N., Hofmann, M., Mcdonald, S., & Hurst, A. (2016). Investigating the implications of 3D printing in special education. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS), 8(3), 1-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2870640
For more information, contact Shelley Jewell (jewellsr@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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Managing behavior using the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children approach
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With a sea of information on how to manage challenging behaviors in the preschool classroom available for teachers and professionals, it can be an overwhelming task to sift through the myriad of options and select what is the best for their students. Despite all of the expertise, there isn't a "one size fits all" approach. Early childhood educators complain that they don't have enough time to collect data to justify the intervention strategies or to create behavior plans for their children with challenging behaviors. These issues can lead to endless frustration and possibly abandoning their quest for the intervention strategies they need.
Dunlap, Wilson, Strain, and Lee (2018) have designed a model for resolving challenging behaviors of young children in their book, Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children: The Early Childhood Model of Individualized Positive Behavior Support. They propose that effective behavioral interventions are based on the principles that define the relationships between events in the environment and the occurrences of a child's behavior (Dunlap, Wilson, Strain, & Lee, 2018).
The process of Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children (PTR-YC) is carried out in five steps:
- Teaming and Goal Setting
- Formation of a classroom-based team, roles and responsibilities, and creation of short-term goals (i.e., identifying a challenging behavior to be resolved and a desirable, pro-social behavior that will replace the challenging behavior).
- Data Collection
- Determination of data collection methods; recommended use of the five point Behavior Rating Scale.
- PTR-YC Assessment (Functional Behavioral Assessment)
- Process of gathering information in checklist format, related to antecedent variables (prevent), function and replacement variables (teach), and consequence variables (reinforce).
- PTR-YC Intervention
- Process of matching the most appropriate intervention strategies from each of the categories (prevent, teach, reinforce) to the assessment data, along with methods on implementation.
- Using Data and Next Steps
- Examination of the effectiveness of the strategies and if progress has occurred.
- Checking to see if new behaviors have appeared and taking additional steps to gather information on those behaviors.
- Making adjustments to intervention strategies, intensity, or quantities, until the challenging behavior has dissipated (Dunlap et al, 2018).
The Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children approach is designed for children two and a half to approximately five years of age and for a wide range of developmental abilities. This valuable resource serves as a manual and includes descriptions of the steps of the PTR-YC process, objectives, tools, tips, recommendations, and a CD where the data forms can be downloaded and printed.
Reference
Dunlap, G., Wilson, K., Strain, P., & Lee, J. (2018). Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for young children: The early childhood model of individualized positive behavior support. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing, Co
For more information, contact Mary Szymanski (mpswingle@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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Increasing positive student behaviors by increasing family connections
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Family engagement has been shown to be an effective practice to increase positive student behaviors including increased student engagement, and reducing the need to redirect student behavior in the classroom
(Kraft & Dougherty, 2013).
A simple way to do this is to keep parents/families connected and informed about what is happening in the classroom. This communication can be accomplished through monthly newsletters to all families, maintaining a class website, or sending weekly progress updates through email. Individual contact is important as a way to communicate to families/caregivers something positive about a student and to problem-solve when challenging behaviors arise.
In addition to the more "traditional" methods of communicating, such as newsletters, email, and phone calls, educators have a variety of options through social media and apps designed specifically to build communication between teachers and families. The apps listed below are two suggestions to help educators with building these connections, and are free for educators and families:
TalkingPoints
: This app allows teachers to send messages that are automatically translated to the family's native language. Currently, TalkingPoints allows families and teachers to communicate in over 100 languages, thereby reducing language barriers and making it significantly easier to build connections between school and home.
Remind
: Teachers are able to utilize this app to increase family involvement by sending reminders and announcements about class activities and creating engagement opportunities for students outside of the classroom. Additionally, Remind allows teachers and families to communicate through individual messaging.
Reference
Kraft, M. A., & Dougherty, S. M. (2013). The effect of teacher-family communication on student engagement: Evidence from a randomized field experiment.
Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness
, 6
(3), 199-222
.
For more information, contact Kelley Neubert (harriskc@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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