Do you have students struggling with anxiety? Unfortunately, your students are not unique in this. Anxiety is pretty common in classrooms around the world these days.

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As I am living the student anxiety train with one of my own children, it has got me thinking about all of our students that regularly deal with anxiety. How do we help them to not only manage day-to-day but move forward? 

Our very fast-paced and "connected" world today can be both a blessing and a curse for our students. While it's great to stay connected with, chat and play games online with both friends and family, our online lives can become a detriment to our real lives if we aren't careful. The declines in real social skills, stressful personal lives, and ever-increasing school standards and pressures combine to make for a rough go for many of our students. 

While it's great to say be grateful, have a growth mindset, etc., that's...

None of us start the school year hoping it's a challenging year. That would be ridiculous!  No. All teachers start the year with hope and great intentions, right? But, somewhere along the way, things can start to unravel [some years more than others]. 

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So we need to figure out - where do things begin to fall apart so we can prevent that from happening in the future.

Today's episode is all about establishing systems and procedures that can go the distance so you and your students are set up for success all year. [Even when you hit those inevitable bumps in the road].

Where do you start? Well... we need to begin by defining what a well-run classroom looks like, what a great class community feels like and what the day-to-day looks like in an organized teacher life.

So what kinds of things make up the infrastructure that is the foundation of a well-run classroom, an organized...

Are you worn to the bone with playground disputes? Here's help.

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There are lots of ways kids [knowingly and unknowingly] sabotage recess time and turn it into anything but fun. From cheating to tattling to flat-out rule-breaking, recess this time of year can become a battlefield and everyone's taking sides.

There's no reason for you or your students to suffer or miss out on having a fun break every day instead of heading into battle. Or worse, dragging those playground disputes back into the classroom after recess is over.

Today's episode is all about …recess and how to train your STUDENTS to not only problem solve with diplomacy but to be proactive in avoiding problems by setting up rules of play BEFORE starting a game. 

Just because this solution is simple, doesn't mean it's not powerful!

Listen in. 

In this episode, find out: 

• How to train students to establish Fair Play...

As a mom, I make mistakes every single day – big ones, small ones, and in-between ones. It’s unavoidable. 

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The key is to reflect and learn from them so you don’t keep making the same ones all the time. That’s when you know you’re stuck.

Today's episode is all about mistakes. Seriously! We talk about mistakes, personal reflection, and how important they both are for our students and our own kids' growth. But... do we own our mistakes and consciously learn from them in the same way? It's so much harder to do than we think!

As a mom and an educator, I have to say taking the time to pause, reflect and learn from my mistakes is much harder than it should be. However, I have found that I not only quit making the same mistakes over and over when I do take the time to reflect, but I can dump of the mom/teacher guilt too. That might not be a win in your book, but it is in...

I’ve found that sometimes we’re making the classroom management problems worse without even knowing it! 

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As hard as it is to admit that we're part of the classroom behavior problem in our own classrooms, it's often true. It is hard to look at ourselves and what we are doing and saying each day for lots of reasons. To begin with, life in the classroom is so very busy. There's just not a spare moment in our day most days. In addition, self-reflection can be HARD, especially when we are our own worst critics. 

I'm not asking you to beat yourself up. In fact, you better NOT beat yourself up over it. Just become more self-aware at the moment when things aren't going well. So with that thought... today I have 7 ways you MIGHT be [unintentionally] reinforcing poor classroom behavior. I promise they're easy to fix [and you're not alone in this]!

Listen in.

In this episode, find out:

• 7...

Helping with students with Autism or ADD succeed in your classroom can seem like a daunting task. 

So many students have trouble with self-managing and self-monitoring their own behavior these days. Emotions can run high for both students and teachers and then things can spiral out of control. But, some students seem to struggle more than others, and can come with behaviors that range from baffling to extremely disruptive.

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Before you get too deep into this school year, I thought I'd bring in the calvary. My guest today, is Laura Cornish. She's an author, a mom of 2 and a Speech and Language Pathologist. Her specialty is working with children with Autism, and she excels at it! In fact, there are families who have followed her when she's moved schools or school districts because she's THAT good!  Whether you have a student with autism or not, every strategy she talks about in this episode can be used for any...

Do you ever feel like you are struggling to maintain your boundaries or set limits in your classroom? 

If you've ever struggled with maintaining your boundaries and helping students understand limits so you can just teach, this is the episode for you! 

I'm so excited for you to share in my conversation with Psychologist and a Parent Coach, Juila Pappas. 

You can listen to this episode here.

It's an eternal truth that we cannot control another human's behavior. We can try and often do, but it just results in a power struggle where no one wins. However, helping  our students find success by teaching and maintaining boundaries and setting limits does work.

Today's guest, Julia Pappas, is a Psychologist and a Parent Coach, and is also the host of The Parenting Presence podcast. Julia has over 15 years of experience working with parents and their children, working in schools and has particular expertise in child development, behavioral regulation, and learning...

Classroom teachers have battled behavior issues as long as there have been schools.

Whether you're going to be teaching online or preparing for next year in the classroom, teaching students your expectations is important in creating a smooth running classroom and students who know the boundaries and expectations. That doesn't change no matter where you teach. Your students will be happier and so will you!

Using read alouds is a simple strategy to help you teach all the important norms in your classroom and begin to develop a positive culture. Picture books are an engaging and fun way to open the conversation about expectations.

This episode might be short, but it deals with an important piece to starting your school year.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Before you jump into book selection, make sure you know exactly what you want to teach and check each book to make sure it's not preachy. 

Here's a peek at what's inside this episode:

• Why I use picture...

Do you ever act in frustration when your students are misbehaving and then regret your words it later?

I have a simple strategy to help you avoid that mistake. Here's a simple strategy to help you apply what we know about the power of words to your classroom management. 

This episode is actually a recording from a talk I gave awhile back about how to prepare your words so you'll have the right thing to say at the right time when behavior goes south in your classroom. 

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Before you begin, you need to get your mindset right. I call the whole process Velvet over Steel. The steel is the backbone - your boundaries and commitment to consistency. I'm sure you've heard it all before. 

The velvet is the key here. It's your approach to any given situation. My strategy for you today addresses your approach. It's simple, easy to incorporate and sets you up for success, and...I call it the Power Phrase.

Here's a peek at what's inside...

Has classroom management ever worn you out? Nearly every day? For a good part of the year?

Today is all about helping those students who struggle with their behavior nearly every single day. Now, let me just set the stage for you for a minute. If you've ever spent for an entire school year struggling to help a student [or students] regulate their emotions [and therefore their behavior], you're on a first name basis with overwhelm and exhaustion. Well, this episode will help you step on the path to begin to understand what is really happening and help your students begin to learn how to help themselves. 

You can listen to this episode here.

I've never liked the terms classroom management or behavior management simply because they imply that we, the teachers, are in charge of students' behavior. But nothing could be further from the truth. Ask any parent of teacher who has tried to control a child's behavior. We cannot control another human's behavior. We can help...