Good Social Tips for Children With Autism Here's is a great article on Social Tips for Children with Autism... HERE

A great article from Asperger's Society  about living with your adult child and some of the steps to consider. Please check out their article at

http://www.aspergerssociety.org/aspergers-syndrome-in-adults-living-with-your-adult-child-90

|D|

Why Before School Is The Perfect Time To Build Rapport - A New Article By Michael Linsin

---

Why Before School Is The Perfect Time To Build Rapport Posted: 09 Jun 2012 09:39 AM PDT Five minutes. That's all it takes to improve your relationship with your students. And why is that important? Because having rapport with students translates to powerful and behavior-influencing leverage—the kind of leverage that compels them to want to behave, to want to do well, and to want to please you. And those few minutes before the morning bell are perfect for improving relationships, perfect for building a natural, trusting bond between you. But you have to get up from your desk to do it. You have to set aside your lesson plans, walk away from your last minute preparations, and give up your most treasured final moments of morning solitude. For wherever your students congregate before school—in the hallway, on the playground, lined up outside your classroom—that's where you should be. Chatting, listening, smiling . . . just visiting. Here's why: It's an easy way to build rapport. Simply being with your students outside the limits of the classroom is an easy, organic way to build rapport. But it's important that you bring with you no agenda, no expectations, and no strings attached. Just bring your non-judgmental self and a modest goal of getting to know your students better. And they'll take care of the rest. It's an opportunity to talk with those who talk less. As your students grow accustomed to your presence every morning, they'll begin drawing closer—sharing personal stories, becoming more familiar, smiling and laughing more and making eye contact. This is especially important for shy, quieter students. You see, the more comfortable they are with you in these casual moments, the more they'll open up, participate, and contribute in class. It allows you to prove that every day is a new day. The idea that yesterday's mistakes and misbehaviors are forgotten is an important part of an overall strategy to turn around your most difficult students. But it doesn't work if they don't believe you or if your actions say otherwise. Thus, spending some quality, no-strings-attached time with them every morning is an especially impactful way to prove this truth to a skeptical bunch. It brings less popular students into the fold. No, you're not going to have a particular agenda or awkward strategy to force friendships with less popular students. But what you are going to do is let everyone see who these students really are. You're going to let their personalities blossom and shine. And as you build rapport with them, and bring others into the conversation, friendships will develop naturally. You're just a gardener planting seeds. It's a reminder of what a blessing it is to be a teacher. The love of teaching can be found in your relationships with students. It's the deep connections, the laughter, the thank yous, the smiles, and the poignant moments you'll always remember—and that can never be taken away. The more time you spend with your students "just because," the more influence you'll have, the better teacher you'll be, and more you'll love your job. Just Be You The biggest mistake teachers make when attempting to build rapport is that they try too hard. They dominate the conversation—talking at, rather than with, students. They shower them with praise. They talk too loud and too aggressively. In other words, they force the relationship—and come across as inauthentic. The truth is, having a healthy, trusting, and influential rapport with students, the kind that gives your classroom management plan relevance and meaning, is primarily a function of your likeability. So take it easy. Listen more than talk. Don't try so hard. Let the conversation come to you—and then let it go where it goes. Just be there. Be open. Be available. And most of all . . . Be yourself. If you haven't done so already, please join us. It's free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.   - Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

From Michael Linsin of SmatClassroomManagement.com: 

"A teacher who dishes out consequences based upon her (or his) own, personal subjective view of her students, the behavior in question, or the particular situation will lose control of her classroom and the respect of her students.

A well-written classroom management plan, on the other hand, followed as taught, modeled, and practiced, is fair to all students and never creates resentment, friction, and hard feelings between the teacher and her students.

Unless you have a student in need of specific behavioral accommodations detailed in an IEP, it’s best for your students, their learning, and your peace of mind that they all fall under the same clearly defined, objective classroom management plan."


This is from a great article published at http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2012/06/16/how-to-be-consistent-with-classroom-management/


I would highly suggest reading the entire article by MICHAEL LINSIN and also subscribing to their newsletter. It is filled with great information and techniques.

|D|

The "Committed Sardine Blog" has a posting that helps with understanding between neuroscience and education. The article explains how the brains plasticity is more durable as well as how this plasticity helps the brain to learn.  A great resource for those interested in how the brain work and how we learn.
Check it out HERE.

 |D|