Educate yourself and fellow teachers on how to possibly prevent this from happening. Along with other common, and often troubling issues, APU is offering a handheld solution on preventing or alleviating these situations as they arise.
American Public University (APU) provides Tips for Teachers cards to individual teachers, counselors, principals, professional development providers, human resource departments, pre/after school coordinators, and superintendent offices as a complimentary resource for educators in order for APU to demonstrate its appreciation for all that today’s educators face and do in schools and the community.
They currently address five topics:
o ADD/ADHD in the Classroom
o Recognizing Child Abuse and Neglect
o Teen Depression and Suicide
o Bullying Intervention
o Autism Spectrum Disorders
While some of these topics are serious and may be considered a sad reality faced by educators in today’s schools, ultimately they empower educators to proactively be on the lookout for these issues and care for the total well-being of all their students and entire school community.
District and school administrators and counselors often provide these resources as a component of a school’s professional development program so that they become a classroom resource for teachers and other school personnel.
New and veteran teachers maintain these resources as a ready reference in their classrooms to be able to identify and rectify problems before they become more serious. School Counselors and Parent Liaison Contacts share them with parents of students suffering such issues.
ADD/ADHD in the Classroom
For ideas in supplying the ADD/ADHD card:
- It can be given to substitutes who can use the teaching tips included to aid them in their classroom instruction
- It can be used by IEP teams to identify teaching techniques that may be applicable for other special needs students in addition to ADD/ADHD students
- Teacher and school counselor educators can provide them to their students
- School sanctioned day-care and after school providers may maintain these cards for their counselors
ADD/ADHD cards are both descriptive, providing tips on how to recognize symptoms, and prescriptive, recommending numerous best-practices on how to best serve the needs of these diverse students. The ADD/ADHD cards also identify the three major classifications of ADD/ADHD, and list professional criteria for diagnosis. They also provide 33 teaching tips for ADD/ADHD stuffers. Incidentally, these tips, while meant to assist ADD/ADHD students, may be used to enhance instructional strategies for all students
Bullying Intervention
The Bullying cards provide a simple definition of bullying and cyber-bullying. The cards also contain information that recommend immediate intervention and follow-up strategies intended to both support the victim and modify the bullying student(s) and school environment.
Recognizing Child Abuse and Neglect
Recognizing Child Abuse and Neglect cards are strictly descriptive providing a summary of the major types of abuse and their most common indicators.
Teen Depression and Suicide
Teen Depression and Suicide cards are predominantly descriptive, but do include recommendations on how to talk to a depressed teen.
- signs and symptoms of depression in teens
- suicide warning signs in teenagers
- difference between teenage and adult depression
Autism Spectrum Disorders
APU’s newest edition to the Tips for Teachers program are the Autism Spectrum Disorders cards. They are predominantly descriptive on the disorder, including the DSM-IV-TR Autism diagnosis criteria and a narrative comparison to Asperger’s Disorder. A few classroom accommodations are referenced.
As reporting procedures and requirements vary from district to district and state to state, the Recognizing Child Abuse and Neglect and Teen Depression and Suicide cards do not proscribe any intervention, but include the recommendation to “always handle suspicion of student depression in accordance with your local school authority guidelines.”
Content for each card was drawn from expert sites, which are referenced on the cards for purposes of giving credit to the sites and providing educators the URL for further investigation.
- ADD/ADHD: www.helpguide.org, Helpguide.Org
- Bullying Intervention: www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov , Health Resources and Services Administration
- Recognizing Child Abuse and Neglect: Child Welfare Information Gateway
- Teen Depression and Suicide: www.helpguide.org, Helpguide.org
These contacts empower educators to become more complete stewards of today’s students by incorporating them into their professional learning communities.
Designed by APU’s Craig Gilman, M.S. Education, based on his years of experience as a domestic public school and international educator in a wide variety of diverse classrooms including alternative, special needs, inclusive, ESL, mainstream, and gifted students.
To request these cards for your faculty, visit http://www.studyatapu.com/tips-for-teachers or contact Craig Gilman at cgilman@apus.edu. Provide your name and title, contact information, mailing instructions, and number of each card requested.
– Craig Gilman, guest writer
Comments are closed.