This paper highlights a (2022) study conducted in a Canadian school division with middle school teachers. The purpose of this study was to learn what middle school teachers did to positively connect with their students. Due to COVID-related concerns, four participants were interviewed individually via zoom and asked to share strategies that they…

The educational services available for fully included middle schoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the general education setting in the United States are not well known. Even less is known about how the executive functioning (EF) deficits of such youth are addressed in the classroom. The current study sought to identify the challenges,…

The educational services available for fully included middle schoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the general education setting are not well known. Even less is known about how the executive functioning (EF) deficits of such youth are addressed in the classroom. The current study sought to identify the challenges, including EF, that…

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of a professional development program on sixth grade teachers' use of social dynamics management (SDM) practices. SDM practices represent teachers' active attempts to incorporate classroom social dynamics into everyday instructional and behavior management strategies. Sixth grade teachers…

To succeed in classrooms, students must possess emotional-regulation skills, engage in positive social interactions, and trust teachers. Students coming from backgrounds including poverty and trauma may not possess these, as chronic stress has been shown to lead to impulsivity, poor emotional-regulation skills, and lower executive functioning.…

"Nurturing Students' Character" is an easy-to-use guide to incorporating social-emotional and character development (SECD) into your teaching practice. The links are clear--elementary and middle school students have better odds of academic success if you nurture their social and emotional skills. Drawing on broad field experience and the…

The significance of social and emotional learning (SEL) continues to grow in today's schools around the world. More teachers agree that students' social and emotional needs must be addressed in the learning process. This is because how students feel about themselves and think about one another affects the ways they learn in school. Learning…

Classroom management is a common concern for teachers. Music teachers in particular experience unique behavior challenges because of large class sizes, uncommon pacing requirements, and performance-based outcomes. Positive behavior support (PBS) is an evidence-based framework for preventing or eliminating challenging behaviors by teaching and…

This interpretive, exploratory study utilized survey methodology to document middle level principals' perceptions of effective teaching practices and the preparedness of newly hired middle level teachers. The findings suggest that principals' descriptions of effective teaching differ from their descriptions of effective teachers. Additionally,…

The effectiveness of an intervention package involving self-management and a group contingency at increasing appropriate classroom behaviors was evaluated in a sample of middle school students. Participants included all students in each of the 3 eighth-grade general education classrooms and their teachers. The intervention package included…

Teachers are responsible for delivering academic instruction, facilitating student learning and engagement, and managing classroom behavior. Stress may interfere with performance in the classroom, however (Tsouloupas, Carson, Matthews, Grawitch, & Barber, 2010), and recent studies suggest that stress is quite common among today's educators. In…

In an era of student testing by any means necessary, it has become increasingly rare to locate teachers who are committed to teaching students to improve society because they are instead under immense pressure to raise test scores (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2006). Ms. Shaw, the social studies teacher discussed in this article, is…

Adolescents struggle with many types of conflicts in their lives. They must define relationships with friends, teachers, parents, and themselves. Disagreements will arise, and without the proper training, many teens are left feeling angry, confused, or depressed. Teaching middle school students to deal with conflict productively at an early age…

With the realisation of the importance that self-esteem has as a central role in children's success in school and furthermore for their future in the work place and their personal lives, educators identified some systems, which can be integrated into school life, that target self-esteem and social and emotional skills. One such model is Circle…

This study used self-monitoring, coupled with a student/teacher matching strategy, to improve the classroom social skills of five inner-city middle school students, who were at risk for school failure. Using a multiple-probe across students and settings (class periods) design, we evaluated intervention effects in up to six different settings.…