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Teacher Training > How-To Guide An out-of-a-kind resource in student discipline! All Behavior is Communication: How to Give Feedback, Criticism, and Corrections that Improve Behavior is an education and teaching book by Carmen Y. Reyes, The Psycho-Educational Teacher . The topic of this innovative guide is simple yet powerful: what teachers say to children (the words we use) influence the way students perform. Feedback and criticism that convey high and positive expectations influence positive performance, but feedback and criticism that constantly remind children of their low performance and/or recurrent behavior problems reinforce the same low performance and behavior problems that we want to extinguish in the first place. Teachers make the difference, that is how powerful our words and messages are. Therefore, if we want to change children’s disruptive and/or apathetic classroom behavior a first step would be to monitor, and if necessary change, the messages we sen...

Keeping the Peace: Managing Students in Conflict Using the Social Problem-Solving Approach  is a book by Carmen Y. Reyes, “The Psycho-Educational Teacher.” The issue of how to communicate effectively with distressed students represents one of the biggest challenges that teachers, administrators, and support staff face in today’s schools. A different but related problem is how to resolve a conflict happening between two or more students. These are no light issues; much of what teachers and administrators describe as discipline problems and disruptive behavior in the classroom stem from breakdowns in teacher-to-student and student-to-student communication. When these breakdowns are ignored or treated poorly, conflict spins out of control. Once in a conflictive interaction, teachers and/or staff find themselves in adversarial relationships with students. Similarly, two students in conflict see each other as enemies. Angry feelings, aggressive behavior, and in most extreme cases, vi...

Essentials of Emotional Communication for Reaching the Unreachable Student: Where Do I Start? What Do I Say? How Do I Do It? This innovative book is a comprehensive source of interactive (language-based) skills that gives teachers, school counselors, school psychologists, and administrators a unique opportunity in connecting, influencing, and guiding hard to reach students. Elsewhere, effective behavior managers are best known for their strong repertoire of interpersonal communication skills. Understanding how verbal and nonverbal messages operate in our interactions with our most challenging students enables school staff to engage distraught children in constructive interactions and in positive processing of their feelings and behaviors. Once teachers learn how to use language that contributes in the healing process of children’s troubling feelings and dysfunctional behaviors, interpersonal communication skills reach the level of emotional or therapeutic communication. This 300+ pa...

Watch Your Language! Ways of Talking and Interacting with Students that Crack the Behavior Code by Carmen Y. Reyes, The Psycho-Educational Teacher , is a comprehensive resource (360+ pages) of skilled language-based interventions aimed at improving classroom behavior by improving the way teachers and students relate, placing special emphasis on those strained interactions with students exhibiting habitually disruptive patterns of behavior. Founded on theory and principles in interpersonal communication this interactional approach is rooted in the belief that teachers’ ways of talking play a crucial role in influencing how students behave. In other words, students’ behaviors are a reflection of both the words that teachers use and how we say those words to children. A core belief in interpersonal communication is that high expectations that are goal-oriented influence positive behaviors while low expectations lacking a behavior or academic goal influence negative behaviors. This innov...

A popular belief in interactional and language-based discipline is that, when adults state any direction or command given to a child using positive wording , the child complies faster (and easier) than when we use negative language, i.e. negative directions or a negative command. Typically crowded with harsh terms and spoiled with negative presuppositions about the child’s character or identity, a negative direction tells the child what not to do, for example, “ Don’ t run on the hall” or “ Don’t bang on the table. What’s wrong with you today?!” (Negative presupposition: “There’s something wrong with you.”) In the same category we find the “Stop” command, for example, saying, “ Stop yelling! I’m getting a headache!” (Negative presupposition: “ You are giving me a headache.”) or “ Shut up ! I don’t want to hear another sound coming out of your mouth!” (Negative presupposition: “ Your sounds are annoying.”) Positive directions, on the other hand, give the child an alternative of...

Here are some “tricks of the trade” in language-based discipline so that teachers and parents get better results when disciplining angry and/or noncompliant children. 1.      Lower Your Voice When disciplining, reduce the tone of your voice and speak s-l-o-w-e-r. This helps you both in projecting self-confidence and in remaining calm. Louder and angrier statements, on the other hand, conceal the message beneath all the noise and harsh words that accompany them. 2.      Stay in the Present Do not dwell on past behavior, or something that happened weeks earlier. Correct only behavior that is happening here and now . 3.      Own Your Message Change “You-messages” to “I-messages.” For example, instead of saying, “ You are such a potty mouth!” say, “ I feel uneasy because I don’t like being cursed.” 4.      Challenge the Child When you address misbehavior, keep it simple but keep it ...

In the psycho-educational field we firmly believe that adult behavior strongly influences child behavior, often creating an emotional atmosphere that is more conducive to noncompliance than to compliance. More specifically, what we say to children and how we say it can either accentuate or de-escalate a behavior problem. Caregivers need to be vigilant of those communicative (i.e. messages) and interactional (e.g. strained adult-child interactions) factors that may inadvertently fuel inappropriate behaviors in children. Next, I share some insights of things we say to children that may be contributing to disruptive behavior at school and at home. Among them, we can find: ·         Creating on-the-spot penalties for misbehavior rather than developing and discussing consequences for negative behavior with children before problem behaviors happen. Children need to know the consequences for misbehavior in advance. ·      ...

On this blog post, you will find additional language-based strategies that school-based staff can use to cope with negative feelings and self-defeating thoughts when things get out of hand with a hard to handle student. With minimal variations, parents and caregivers can apply these strategies to handle children having difficulty complying with rules. 1.      Focus on a personal goal so that you shift your attention from where you have been to where you intend to go; in other words, shifting from a past-oriented focus or negative view to a future-oriented focus or more positive view. 2.       Create mini-goals (shorter and easier to do) branching from your bigger goal so that you move, incrementally and in more manageable terms , from where you feel you are placed in the present to where you aspire to be placed in the future. You can create a timeline such as: in two weeks, in four weeks, in three months, in six months, and finally, b...

To read this article, click on the link: Practicing Social Skills: How to Teach Your Student Social Interactions | LD Topics | LD OnLine

To read this article, click on this link: Praising Kids: “Good Job!” Doesn’t Cut It Anymore, Part 1 | Psychology Today A Call to All Teachers: Proudly announcing our new group for educators worldwide, “ We Teach the World .” Our aim is to connect teachers and related school personnel all over the world, so that we can share much-needed ideas, strategies, and lesson plans as well as all kinds of resources in classroom management and in student discipline. Coordinating our effort worldwide, we can tell each other where to find important resources and information. If you administer a teaching blog or have created educational resources to facilitate our job, you are welcome to share them here. As long as they contribute to education, we want to know of your business. Teachers with questions, post them here; mentors and seasoned teachers, your valuable experience and unique perspective matter to us, so make your voices heard. Because isolated, we teachers are imaginative, resourc...

To read this article, click on link: Influence Your Students by Gaining Their Respect: Six Strategies A Call to All Teachers: Proudly announcing our new group for educators worldwide, “ We Teach the World .” Our aim is to connect teachers and related school personnel all over the world, so that we can share much-needed ideas, strategies, and lesson plans as well as all kinds of resources in classroom management and in student discipline. Coordinating our effort worldwide, we can tell each other where to find important resources and information. If you administer a teaching blog or have created educational resources to facilitate our job, you are welcome to share them here. As long as they contribute to education, we want to know of your business. Teachers with questions, post them here; mentors and seasoned teachers, your valuable experience and unique perspective matter to us, so make your voices heard. Because isolated, we teachers are imaginative, resourceful and resilien...

"Essentials of Emotional Communication" is NOW on Kindle Countdown Deal for only $1.99. Hurry! Price goes up to $9.99 after December 28, 2013. Amazon.com: Essentials of Emotional Communication for Reaching the Unreachable Student: Where Do I Start? What Do I Say? How Do I Do It? eBook: Carmen Y. Reyes: Kindle Store A Call to All Teachers: Proudly announcing our new group for educators worldwide, “ We Teach the World .” Our aim is to connect teachers and related school personnel all over the world, so that we can share much-needed ideas, strategies, and lesson plans as well as all kinds of resources in classroom management and in student discipline. Coordinating our effort worldwide, we can tell each other where to find important resources and information. If you administer a teaching blog or have created educational resources to facilitate our job, you are welcome to share them here. As long as they contribute to education, we want to know of your business. Teacher...

To read this article, click on link: Key Factors in Creating a Positive Classroom Climate > Committee for Children A Call to All Teachers: Proudly announcing our new group for educators worldwide, “ We Teach the World .” Our aim is to connect teachers and related school personnel all over the world, so that we can share much-needed ideas, strategies, and lesson plans as well as all kinds of resources in classroom management and in student discipline. Coordinating our effort worldwide, we can tell each other where to find important resources and information. If you administer a teaching blog or have created educational resources to facilitate our job, you are welcome to share them here. As long as they contribute to education, we want to know of your business. Teachers with questions, post them here; mentors and seasoned teachers, your valuable experience and unique perspective matter to us, so make your voices heard. Because isolated, we teachers are imaginative, resource...

To read article, click on this link: Educational Leadership:The Positive Classroom:Seven Strategies for Building Positive Classrooms A Call to All Teachers: Proudly announcing our new group for educators worldwide, “ We Teach the World .” Our aim is to connect teachers and related school personnel all over the world, so that we can share much-needed ideas, strategies, and lesson plans as well as all kinds of resources in classroom management and in student discipline. Coordinating our effort worldwide, we can tell each other where to find important resources and information. If you administer a teaching blog or have created educational resources to facilitate our job, you are welcome to share them here. As long as they contribute to education, we want to know of your business. Teachers with questions, post them here; mentors and seasoned teachers, your valuable experience and unique perspective matter to us, so make your voices heard. Because isolated, we teachers are imagin...

To read article, click on this link: Nonviolent Communication Summary (NVC) NEW! Free or Cheap Books, Worksheets and Lesson Plans for Teachers Finding all kinds of FREE or cheap resources for teachers – Including books, guides, articles, worksheets, checklists, rubrics, lesson plans, and plenty more! Like our Facebook Page here to start receiving these unique teaching resources.

To read article, click on this link: Clarification - Communication Skills | SkillsYouNeed NEW! Free or Cheap Books, Worksheets and Lesson Plans for Teachers Finding all kinds of FREE or cheap resources for teachers – Including books, guides, articles, worksheets, checklists, rubrics, lesson plans, and plenty more! Like our FACEBOOK PAGE here to start receiving these unique teaching resources.

To read article, click on this link: Reflecting - Effective Communication Skills | SkillsYouNeed NEW! Free or Cheap Books, Worksheets and Lesson Plans for Teachers Finding all kinds of FREE or cheap resources for teachers – Including books, guides, articles, worksheets, checklists, rubrics, lesson plans, and plenty more! Like our FACEBOOK PAGE here to start receiving these unique teaching resources.

To read article, click on this link: Listening Skills - The 10 Principles of Listening | SkillsYouNeed NEW! Free or Cheap Books, Worksheets and Lesson Plans for Teachers Finding all kinds of FREE or cheap resources for teachers – Including books, guides, articles, worksheets, checklists, rubrics, lesson plans, and plenty more! Like our FACEBOOK PAGE here to start receiving these unique teaching resources.

To read article, click on this link: What is Communication? - Verbal, Nonverbal & Written | SkillsYouNeed NEW! Free or Cheap Books, Worksheets and Lesson Plans for Teachers Finding all kinds of FREE or cheap resources for teachers – Including books, guides, articles, worksheets, checklists, rubrics, lesson plans, and plenty more! Like our FACEBOOK PAGE here to start receiving these unique teaching resources.

To read article, click on this link: Interpersonal Communication Skills | SkillsYouNeed NEW! Free or Cheap Books, Worksheets and Lesson Plans for Teachers Finding all kinds of FREE or cheap resources for teachers – Including books, guides, articles, worksheets, checklists, rubrics, lesson plans, and plenty more! Like our FACEBOOK PAGE here to start receiving these unique teaching resources.