Eight students at The Graham Academy, a special education elementary school for students living with autism and students living with behavioral challenges, can now say “I am a published author”. Their writing activity assignments for World Kindness Day in November were collected and published into a professionally bound hardcover book. "What Kindness Means to Us" is now in print. Teacher Michelle Toepfer found the idea for the book publishing program online at Studentreasures Publishing. She sent away for the free kit that included a step-by-step guide to submit the student’s creations. Illustrations accompanied a hand-written sentence from each child on what [...]

By Diane Myers, PhD, SVP, Special Education – Behavior at SESI Brittany Croteau, MSW, LCSW-C, Director of Behavior Support at SESI Ask any educator about the most challenging time of year and you’re likely to get a response related to state or district testing. While we all understand the need for annual assessments as a measure of progress, students and staff alike often experience heightened stress during “testing season.” In addition to the disruption to regular routines, many students experience test-related anxiety. Test anxiety can affect students for a variety of reasons: previous poor performance, difficulties with academic content, pressure [...]

The concept of reinforcement is fairly simple, but powerful: Behavior followed by pleasant results (for the person behaving) is likely to be repeated in the future.  Using reinforcement to increase appropriate behavior in the classroom is highly effective but requires careful planning and a thoughtful approach. Let's take a closer look at how we can use reinforcement to increase socially appropriate behavior for all students, including those with disabilities.  Since behavior followed by pleasant results (for the person behaving) tends to be repeated, we can think about how to set up this contingency in our classrooms. If we can arrange [...]

Maximizing structure helps make the most of each school day and proactively sets the stage for student success. The ideal environment is one in which students and staff can efficiently and effectively meet their expectations for the day. We’ll take a look at the five components of how to best maximize structure to create an environment conducive to positive classroom outcomes.  Structure in the Classroom  There are three types of structure to maximize in the classroom and in the school:  Physical Structure: Classroom furniture and intentional seating, materials, layout of the building, optimal staff location  Décor: Should reflect academic and [...]