I pulled up in front of the large, antiquated, brick school building. I truly had no conception of what the day might hold. I only knew that I was hired for the day to be a substitute classroom aide. I pushed the heavy glass-and-steel doors aside and found myself in the front office.

What is a happy class? A happy class begins with a happy teacher. A happy teacher is part of a happy school community. The classroom, the teacher, and the school help to cultivate happy and successful students.

The first step to a happy classroom is being organized for success. With the demands of ongoing instruction and assessment there is often little wiggle room in the day for extra time. In order to maximize time and ensure that learning can happen from bell to bell, it is crucial to be well organized and well prepared.

It has likely been a long time since you have been in kindergarten. If you haven’t been in a kindergarten classroom in a while, then you really should visit one soon. Kindergarten classrooms are like well-oiled machines. There is little downtime, high amounts of structure, and a lot of happy, positive, and consistent feedback. Whether your students are five or fifteen, the lessons of a...

For practical purposes, it is important to understand the four basic functions of behavior. So, let’s take a trip into Function Junction.

One of the biggest myths in education is that consequences are effective. The first thing that is important to understand is that in behavioral theory, a consequence is what occurs after the target behavior, typically within thirty seconds. Consequences can be positive or negative. You have to take the connotation away from the word. The consequence is merely the result or outcome of the behavior.

This chapter is going to walk you through several common challenging behaviors, the matching desired behaviors, and several strategies to use to address the behaviors. The idea is that for most challenging or disruptive behaviors, there are easy-to-implement techniques to decrease the behaviors. There is nothing magical here; these are merely suggestions to add to your toolbox—approaches to...

4 + 2 = 6

In the world of accountability, evaluation and assessment data have become more like curse words than parts of a helpful strategy to use in the classroom. Data-based decision-making has become more of a trendy term than a truly useful process for teachers and students. For data to be helpful it is necessary to understand why we collect data and what we can do with it.

Your health and happiness are the most important components to a long-lasting and fulfilling teaching career. Think of the last time you flew on a plane. You were likely reading a gossip magazine or getting in one more round on your candy game app while the flight attendant provided the in-flight instructions. One of the most poignant and important pieces of advice is given hundreds of...

Remember that you are the key to your happiness. You cannot rely on any other person or thing to bring you joy, hope, optimism, and happiness. The happiness that you carry with you can spread like moss on the sunny side of a tree. Each person can be touched by the happiness that you create.

Authentic Happiness: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu

Dr. Jenna Sage has worked in multiple capacities in the field of education for nearly twenty years. She began as a classroom paraprofessional for a student with special needs. She then went on to graduate with a bachelor of science in psychology with a specialization in behavior analysis, a master of education in special education, a doctorate in special education with a focus on systems...