Hello
Welcome To Our Teacher's Corner
Our Page Dedicated Just to Teachers!! There's much to see here. So, take your time, look around, and learn all that is available here just for you. We hope you enjoy your visit.
Teacher's Most Crucial Topics
KYVO Defined Teacher's Role
Teacher's Are Important
KYVO Defined Teacher's Role
The Unique Role Of Special Education
Teachers
Teacher's Tools
Teacher's Are Important
KYVO Defined Teacher's Role
Creating a Positive Classroom
Mitigating the Effects of Bullying
Teacher's Are Important
Teacher's Are Important
Teacher's Are Important
Your Well-Being Matters
The Teacher's Role
KYVO focus for suicide prevention starts with preventing the contemplation of suicide instead of the act of it and helping individuals make the choice to live. This choice must be the easier and better option to prevent suicide. School is a main component in the lives of children with an enormous impact on their mental health well-being and their prone to suicide.
Teachers and school officials do not have the job of preventing the act of suicide. Suicide is only prevented by each of us making the choice to live. Instead, school officials need to focus on improving each student’s sense of well-being.
The role of teachers and other school officials is: Understanding the connections between the child's development, the school environment, and the mental health well-being of their students to prevent them from contemplating it.
Suicide is now also the second leading cause of death among high school students, and gifted students also have an increased risk of suicide.
Keep in mind that anything that increases the perception of well-being will be beneficial to students, but everything that does this will not benefit each student equally.
Each of us has a varying threshold for dealing with stress and the associated pain caused from it. Stress depletes our threshold for coping making life more overwhelming. Suicide occurs when this stress from life overwhelms the ability to cope with it. The increase risks of suicide and its link to all disabilities mean that special education teachers have an extra duty of diligence in preventing it.
An understanding of social emotional development in children is a must in suicide prevention. Children start valuing the opinions of the peers and needing to fit in with the group around second to third grades. This same age group needs help to accept peers that are different or left out of the group. It is imperative in suicide prevention to ensure these students have learned to accept all students. Otherwise those with disabilities will experience an increased stress of non-acceptance that takes a greater toll on the student the longer it continues.
Fourth to fifth grade students become critical of their peers and more-self conscience of their abilities. Students with disabilities that are already left out of the group are pushed farther out and their self-doubts about their abilities and self-worth are only reinforced by their peers creating a downward spiral as the next years of seventh and eighth grade they will depend on the peers for self-identity.
These kids have such a low self esteem and worth that it makes it even harder for their peers to accept them. The expectations placed on the social engagements of high school and to date only add to their difficulties.
Children place such a high value on their peer groups and needing to belong that it becomes easy to understand this source of anxiety and stress in children with disabilities and the toll this school environment may have on the mental health well-being of students with disabilities.
Recognizing that students in special education have an increased risk of suicide as it is additional stress for the student compounded by the student's own sense of belonging and being accepted by peers and altering perceptions.
Anything that makes a student feel different from their peers or causes teasing by a peer is a potential threat to well-being including the gifted programs.
These few examples of the effects on mental health well-being caused by the various disabilities affecting social emotional development illustrate five key components for suicide prevention.
- The most crucial factor is the student’s perceptions of acceptance and belonging
- The effects of these perceptions on self-worth, self-esteem, and self-identity
- The impact of these effects on mental health well-being.
- ADHD and disabilities that cause difficulties in impulsive control are the only ones with special considerations
- It is having a disability and not the exact disability that is the important factor with ADHD the only exception
IMPORTANT REMINDER: Things are NOT always as they seem. Popular and well-adjusted students don't always have that same perception of themselves. These kids believe it is all a facade. That they have to continue to act a certain way to be accept or they will be reject by doing anything different. Many experience overwhelming stress as they view themselves as a fake and there is no other way.
Unique Role of Special Education Teachers
Special Education students are the most at risk for suicide.
The specific special education category of learning disabilities has a notably heavy toll on mental health. Students and adults with learning disabilities are 46% more likely to attempt suicide, and there is a strong link between the two.
Suicide occurs when this stress from life overwhelms the ability to cope with it. The increase risks of suicide and its link to all disabilities mean that special education teachers have an extra duty of diligence in preventing it.
Children place such a high value on their peer groups and needing to belong that it becomes easy to understand this source of anxiety and stress in children with disabilities and the toll this school environment may have on the mental health well-being of students with disabilities.
The factor of belonging is deceiving in students with Autism. It is easy to assume that because they do not understand social cues, and they may not seem to care about their peers or having friends that they have a lower risk of suicide. However, that only means they find their self-value, self-esteem, and self-identity in someplace other than their peer groups that vary by individual students. This could be a teacher, a therapist, or other staff member; and their influence will have the greatest impact on the student’s mental health. It is also important to recognize that any student feeling ostracized by their peers may turn to their teachers and other school staff in search of acceptance.
It is the student’s perception of being accepted that is vitally important to their mental health well-being and in suicide prevention. Each individual affected by the same disability will have differing perceptions of acceptance, and these perceptions are altered by each disability differently. Students with intellectual disabilities do not have the same social deficiencies as those with Autism. They may not understand the why behind the way their peers are treating them but may know that it is wrong and likely be confused by it. It is best for them to find reassurance in a teacher or support staff given the importance of school in the lives of children.
An observant and empathetic teacher that is able to recognize the distress of a student and go to them with an immediate offer of reassurance will have the greatest impact on their perception of acceptance and well-being.
Deaf students will most likely will find acceptance among the deaf community, but that is not always a guarantee. Big D is more accepting of those born deaf than those that became deaf at an older age. Thus, students that are older and become deaf may not find acceptance in either the deaf or hearing community as Big D emphasizes a separation between these two communities. This contributes to the difficulties of older students becoming deaf, and their struggle with accepting their disability. Their perceptions of self-identity, self-worth, and self-esteem may change as they question their acceptance in both communities and struggle to understand their new place in this world is complicated by this division between communities, and teachers need to be aware of their unique struggle for acceptance, and help them find that acceptance in other areas and ways.
Any student that experiences a new sudden disability may have similar struggles with acceptance. Any new disability; regardless if is a speech and language disability caused by an illness or a serious injury that caused TBI or multiple disabilities; especially in older students will challenge everything a student knows to be true about their own self- identity, self-worth, and place in the world, This may have a devastating impact on the student but the possibility exists for the teacher to help mitigate these effects.
Recognizing that students in special education have an increased risk of suicide as it is additional stress for the student compounded by the student's own sense of belonging and being accepted by peers and altering perceptions . Anything that makes a student feel different from their peers or causes teasing by a peer is a potential threat to well-being including the gifted programs. These few examples of the effects on mental health well-being caused by the various disabilities affecting social emotional development illustrate five key components for suicide prevention.
- The most crucial factor is the student’s perceptions of acceptance and belonging
- The effects of these perceptions on self-worth, self-esteem, and self-identity
- The impact of these effects on mental health well-being.
- ADHD and disabilities that cause difficulties in impulsive control are the only ones with special considerations
- It is having a disability and not the exact disability that is the important factor with ADHD the only exception
Teacher's Tools
Creating a Positive Classroom
Students are individuals with their own perceptions and factors affecting their sense of well-being and these tools will not work for every student and each one will work better for some students than others. However, some student out there will benefit from each of these tools.
Having a full toolbox means as a teacher you are more likely to have something that will benefit the majority of your students. The following is a list of strategies to help fill your toolbox and/or use as a starting point to help you brainstorm for your own ideas.
1. Taking the time to evaluate your own mood, distress, and promote positivity throughout the classroom not only benefits the students, but you as well.
2. Be mindful of your own well-being as a teacher. Students sense and feed-off of teachers’ negative emotions. The more you feel stressed so do they.
3 . Practice with students in staying in the here and now by focusing on each of the senses by stating what you feel, hear, feel, and see in any given moment the class needs to distress
4. Do other types of short meditation exercises such as everyone imaging they are in their favorite place.
5. Read some inspirational quotes aloud.
6. Display positive and inspirational quotes and pictures throughout the classroom.
7. Be clear and precise in your rules, expectation, and consequences for breaking rules.
8. Always follow through with those consequences as stated. This isn’t always easy when there are justifications for leniency. Just remember if you give an inch ; they are going to take a mile which only invites chaos.
9. Use leniency with extreme caution. (see above)
10 . Be willing to give yourself and students constructive small 5-10 minute mental breaks throughout the day. Especially if you notice the majority of your class starting to fidget or they have work hard to understand a new concept. Learning is much easier when given opportunities to focus attention elsewhere and then refocus on learning.
11. Do yoga stretches or other types of exercises during these breaks.
12. Chewing gum is a proven benefit for students in helping them to be better focused and pay more attention in class.
13. Music sets an atmosphere in a room. Try playing soothing or classical music as students enter the classroom and anytime they need be settled down.
14. Be willing to think outside the box and try new things within the classroom. School is about learning. The learning process needs to be our priority not tests or grades. The more you know and understand about which tools work best for you and being teacher; the greater the benefit is to your students.
15. Always remember; just because you taught a lesson doesn’t mean that the student learned that lesson. If you focus on students learning the lessons the teaching will happen automatically. However, if the focus is on teaching then the learning won’t always take place. Focus on learning and not teaching everyone will be successful.
16. Important note for teachers in special education or work with special education students in their classrooms. Consider the characteristics of the disability and evaluate it through the lens of that student for insights into the effects is has on that student. Each student is impacted differently though they are labeled with the same disability.
Teacher Tools
Mitigate Bullying
Suicide prevention must start by improving students' own perceptions of acceptance and belonging. This takes brainstorming of ideas as perceptions are based in factors unique to each individual. The discovery of the one that will be the most effective in influencing these perceptions in any given student is usually a matter of trial and error. However, here are some ideas for teachers to consider jump starting the brainstorming processes for their own ideas.
1. Teachers need to find ways for other students to see the value of the student that is struggling such as openly praising their work in front of the student’s peers.
2. Recognizing hidden talents and promoting ways for others to notice those same talents.
3. Communicating your concerns with other teachers to get their corporation to recognize and promote the same positive traits, characteristics, and talents for a greater impact on their perception of self-worth.
4. Promote ways for the student to shine non academically and show-off their talents in front of their peers to increase their acceptance by peers that are also accepting to the student without forcing a student. The goal is to improve mental health well-being and the opposite effect happens if a student is forced into some sort of performance.
5. Pointing out their positive attributes to them and using that to help with self -discovery may help them come to an understanding of their new place in the world.
6. Some students may benefit from teachers focusing on their positive attributes that are located among their negative ones. Creativity, uniqueness, and originality is easily disguised as being weird and different. The extreme of which is defiance and going against the norms of society. Children with EBD are particularly surround in negativism towards their behaviors that are then associated with them as a person. Dissociate these behaviors from the person and help other teachers, students, and staff to do the same. Try finding positive outlets for their negative behaviors which is often through redirection. An example of this is if there is a problem with accepting authority and following the rules, teaching them to fight for something instead of fighting against authority and rules may help. Try reminding them of particular desires or privileges they want anytime they are showing signs of being non-compliant and remind them that have to fight against that urge and fight for their privileges.
7. Keep an atmosphere of positivity in the classroom that promotes acceptance and belonging through the decor and classroom arrangement.
8. Passing out a sheet of paper with the name of every student on it with space between each name to allow students to write something positive about each student. Collect these and composite every student’s response for each separate student onto its own page. Then hand back each student their own page of positive peer responses to read and keep. This also helps peers to see and think about each student in a positive light that is the start to changing attitudes leading to acceptance.
.