No Way! Not another bad school year!

                                       (One minute read)
It happens. Sometimes kids have had one or two or three (or more) difficult school years. Does history have to keep repeating itself?

One of my students did some great work over the summer and I really don’t want him to go back to school and fall into the old pattern of his previous school years.

So we wrote a social story, which I’ll share below.

On a separate note, a parent asked me today why I’m so obsessed with social stories. I told her that it simply works! I’m sometimes even surprised myself what a difference it makes. I’d say that 9 out of 10 times when I’ve posted social stories that I’d written for kids, the parents came back and reported significant improvement shortly thereafter.

Anyway, since I like to do things that work, here’s another one…

How to have a successful year in 4th grade

My name is Jacob. I am 9 years old. I am going into 4th grade. This is soooooooooooo exciting!! I will have a new rebbe and a new teacher in my yeshiva – Yeshiva Bnei Torah.

How can I make this year awesome?
The first day of school is probably September 6th, on a Tuesday. The Sunday before, I will practice going to sleep at a decent time, say at 7:30, so that my body will be rested for the next day. I will do the same on Monday night so that I’m ready for the first day of school on Tuesday!

What’s going to happen on Tuesday morning, the first day of school? My bus will probably pick me up around 8:30am. I’ll be waiting on the porch with my new backpack at 8:25 just in case my bus comes a few minutes early. When I get to school at around 8:45, I will find out where my class is, and I will follow my classmates to our new classroom.

I will go into my new classroom and I’ll take a seat. The trick is to do greens.

Here are some reds and greens in 4th grade:
· Sitting vs. getting out of my seat
· Praying vs. being silly
· Doing work vs. disturbing the class
· Talking to kids vs. Jumping on kids
· Playing what other kids like to play vs. Insisting that they have to play
what I want to play
· Negotiating and compromising vs. my way or the highway
· Calm vs. wild
· Cooperating vs. Uncooperative
· Hands to myself vs. Touching other people or stuff

 

I want to make a good impression this year so that my rebbe and teacher will be proud of me. I’ll also be proud of myself. So will my parents! I will try to do greens and stay away from the reds. This way I will have an awesome year!!

Yours,

Dr. Devora