Blog #4 Lindsay Smith

 

Building Strong Social Foundations in a Special Education Classroom


During my internship in a middle school special education setting, I have seen how important social-emotional development is for student success. My mentor teacher prioritizes creating a classroom environment that fosters positive relationships, emotional regulation, and strong peer interactions. Through intentional strategies and a supportive atmosphere, she helps students build the social foundations they need to thrive.

Creating a Supportive Classroom Environment

One of the first things my mentor teacher emphasizes is getting to know students as individuals. She learns their names quickly, respects their preferred pronunciations or nicknames, and makes an effort to remember small details about them. This helps create a sense of belonging and shows students that they matter and most importantly they are heard. She also makes a point to praise positive interactions between students, reinforcing kindness.

To help students interact appropriately with their peers, she talked about actively coaching social skills. Whether it’s guiding a conversation, encouraging students to listen to each other, or reminding them to take turns, she ensures that every student’s voice is heard. By modeling and reinforcing these behaviors, she helps students develop stronger communication skills and more meaningful connections with their classmates.

Helping Students Recognize and Regulate Emotions

Emotional regulation is a key focus in her classroom. She teaches students to acknowledge and validate their emotions rather than ignore or suppress them. When a student is upset, she helps them name their feelings and helps them with strategies to manage them. Some of the tools and techniques she uses are:

  • Deep breathing exercises to help students calm down in the moment.
  • Visual supports, such as emotion charts or calm-down cue cards, to give students a concrete way to express how they feel.
  • Sensory tools like fidgets to help students self-regulate when they feel overwhelmed.
  • Providing space or a quiet break area where students can take a moment to reset.
  • Clarifying student needs by asking open-ended questions
  • Offering support options and allowing them to choose

Partnering with Families for Social-Emotional Growth

Family involvement plays an essential role in supporting students’ social-emotional development. My mentor teacher makes an effort to communicate with parents not only when challenges arise but also to celebrate positive moments. If a student demonstrates kindness, handles a difficult situation well, or makes notable progress in their interactions, she will send a message home recognizing their achievement. This helps create a positive connection between school and home while reinforcing good behaviors.

Advice for New Teachers

For teachers looking to foster strong social foundations in their classrooms, my mentor teacher offers this advice:

  1. Get to know your students as soon as possible. Learn their names, respect their preferences, and take an interest in their lives.
  2. Be intentional about coaching social interactions. Don’t always assume students know how to navigate peer relationships (model, guide, and reinforce positive communication)
  3. Validate students’ emotions. Teach them to recognize and express their feelings in healthy ways rather than dismissing them.
  4. Use tools and strategies that support emotional regulation. Visuals, sensory tools, and designated calm-down areas can make a big difference.
  5. Involve families in the process. Keep communication open and recognize students’ successes, not just challenges.

By focusing on these strategies, teachers can create a classroom environment where students feel safe, supported, and equipped to build strong social-emotional skills and healthy coping mechanisms.










Comments

  1. Professor CaloMarch 3, 2025 at 12:45 PM

    Glad you’re seeing how the environment plays a pivotal role in creating a sense of belonging for students, at all grade levels. That’s great that your mentor talks about actively coaching students by modeling and reinforcing positive social behaviors. Important point about recognizing and regulating emotions—great list of ways she supports them. Glad she also sees the value of partnering with families to support students’ emotional and social growth and development. Excellent advice for new teachers—these and the other ideas your mentor shared are all ideas you can use at any grade level you end up teaching.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog #1 Lindsay Smith

Image
Guiding Young Learners      Observing my mentor teacher so far, I have started learning what it means to support and nurture learners. Her approach to guiding young learners all ties back to meeting them where they are, understanding their needs, and fostering a growth mindset.   Meeting Students Where they Are      The first thing is the importance of recognizing each student's starting point. She emphasizes that the better you know your students, the better you can provide the services they need. She makes accommodations and resources easily available, making sure that each student has the tools they need for success. Whether it’s using printed-out texts, text-to-speech software, spell check, highlighters, reading trackers, offering sentence starters, or simply reading out loud to them,   she finds ways to support that are specific to them .        Beyond just providing materials, she fosters a positive mindset ...
Read more

Teaching File- Lindsay Smith

Image
T e a c h i n g   F i l e By: Lindsay Smith  F a m i l y   E n g a g e m e n t #1 🎨Message In a Backpack  The NAEYC article  “Encouraging Process Art at Home” https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/message-backpack “When children create art at home, they are more likely to take risks, explore materials freely, and build confidence in their ideas.” This values of open-ended, child-led art experiences and how these moments can grow and extend beyond the classroom. It highlights that when families are invited into their child’s creative process and most importantly without pressure to produce a perfect end product. Its all about the process as they become more confident in supporting their child’s development. This kind of home engagement fosters meaningful interactions, encourages children to express themselves freely, and builds a bridge between school learning and family life at home. Engaging families through art not only nurtures a child's imaginati...
Read more

Blog #9 Lindsay Smith

Image
  Field Day  Me and Riley led the class mural stamping with nature station. One thing I really tried to focus on at my station was letting the kids lead the experience. I didn’t want to overly prompt or direct them. I would just ask things like what their favorite color was or suggest picking one thing to start with. After that, I just gave lots of encouragement and praise and let them explore however they wanted so it was very student/child led. Hands-on art like this is so important because it gives kids the chance to express themselves freely, build fine motor skills, and feel proud of creating something on their own. It was really cool to see how different each child's approach was once they realized there was no “right” way to do it.  It was a fun and creative project that let the kids explore nature and art all at once. Getting Started & Challenges At first, a lot of the kids were a little hesitant about getting their hands messy. Once they got into it and saw h...
Read more