Ask Polly: Detention for Disruption?

Date: April 22nd, 2023

Polly answers the question: “I have a 6th grader who keeps disrupting my history class so I give her detentions. But I’m not seeing any improvements in her behavior. How do I get better results?”

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Don’t Just Accommodate Anxiety, Teach Skills!

Date: March 29th, 2023

Accommodations are important, but they’re not enough. They need to be accompanied with skills and techniques so a kid knows what to do when they’re feeling a certain way.

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Ask Polly: High School Behavior and the Office

Date: March 19th, 2023

Polly answers the question: “I send high schoolers down to the office when they act up in my class and it doesn’t seem to make any difference! So I wonder if I should just save the office for really higher level stuff so the kids know when they have truly gone too far?”

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This Kid Can’t Keep It Together!

Date: December 7th, 2022

What can you do when you have a child who can’t keep it together?

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Kids Learn Empathy from YOU!

Date: November 16th, 2022

How do kids learn empathy? By watching us! When they see how we, as adults, interact with each other, they learn how to interact with others.

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Help Kids Focus!

Date: November 9th, 2022

We want kids to focus and pay attention in class. But often when we say those terms to them, it causes them to do just the opposite.

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Teaching Self-Help Skills to Little Kids

Date: October 26th, 2022

Here’s a funny little story that totally shows the importance of teaching self-help skills to our youngsters. Kids shouldn’t get in trouble for not having skills we didn’t take the time to teach.

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The Adults ARE the School Culture!

Date: October 12th, 2022

How we contribute to our school’s culture will have a huge impact on students, for good or bad!

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Ask Polly: Middle School Morning Meeting?

Date: October 8th, 2022

Polly answers the question: “When I used to teach elementary, I thought that Morning Meeting was a really helpful part of the day. Now in my new job as a middle school teacher I wonder would Morning Meeting help here too? Or is Advisory better for older kids?”

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Teach Transition Skills or Suffer the Consequences!

Date: October 4th, 2022

Transitions between classes tend to create behaviors. Why? Because we don’t give kids the few minutes they need to mentally prepare themselves for the next thing.

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