Hello Anonymous,
You aren't really anonymous in that you are a voice for so many others who have been overwhelmed by the negativity and challenges that children are compelled to display in our classrooms today. Thank you for voicing and asking for ideas! As someone has already said, "You are already mentoring"! Listening to the frustration of teachers is great mentoring.
Since you asked for ideas (or maybe you need us to listen some more?), here are some successes from the field. As a coach using the CLASS, it was indeed about relationship building with the teacher, but the crisis of children't behaviors left little time for niceties. Back to the theme of listening, I asked the teacher what help they wanted, and it was almost always about the children's behaviors.
Time to listen to what this teacher really needs.
We then picked one child to focus in upon, usually the most challenging. The question to ask, "What does this child LIKE to do? What makes him/her the most successful?" Often the teacher had difficulty answering this, but more prodding and giving time to listen resulted in things like, "He likes to move, he can't sit still and listen EVER", or, "she has trouble with transitions, but when she's playing she seems better, she just can't clean up."
Then we inevitably talk about how the classroom rules aren't working for this child, we keep asking them to sit when they can't (not won't), can there be more movement that is learning movement or calming movement? Or clean up time is a very hard time for her, can she stay and play longer?" Classroom rules and routines seem to get in the way of these particular children's learning.
We then take a look at the routines, and decide to change just one of them, one step at at time, to create a better environment and routine for our most challenging child. By helping this child, you help the whole classroom! Changing the rules isn't easy, but so many of us have found that the other children, after a bit of a grumble, "get it" and that they can handle if the rules are different for them. An example would be the radical change that some children don't need to come to circle time until they are ready, circle is a choice (and better be a lively, engaging one at that). Often children who choose not to come to circle time are listening to every word and learning right along, they can't sit in that enclosed circle and need something in their hands.
So many other changes in the classroom can be worked out if you, the mentor, help the teacher see that adapting the classroom routine to the child instead of the child to the routine really works. The teacher needs help "breaking the rules" and seeing how much more learning results.
One child at a time. Trial and error, working together to find a way. No one is alone, all teacher's needs are important. Listen.
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Curry Ander
Teachstone CLASS Trainer
curry.ander@teachstone.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 11-07-2018 13:05
From: Anonymous Member
Subject: Mentoring in classrooms
This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous
I have been a mentor coach for a few years already. I am so overwhelmed with the behaviors in the classroom. I do not know how to help the teachers out at this point anymore. I have offered modeling, strategies, classroom support. I stay in classrooms sometimes all day to help with the behaviors because the rooms are really bad. Not much help is being given through our mental health and disabilities team since they are so short staffed. I feel I am not able to mentor because of the concentration on the behavior issues. I am at the point of leaving but do not want to disappoint my teachers. I just don't know how else to help them. Any advice, recommendations would be greatly appreciated. They type of behaviors we are dealing with is physical, aggressive, defiant, nonverbal behavior.