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seek proper evaluation and guidance for teaching the student and/or helping the parents do so as well.

Creativity and Humor

Creativity is a must for teachers. Keeping a student's attention especially in kindergarten or first grade is tough. Adapting classroom projects into fun ways of learning, or interesting challenges for students helps them "think outside the box" and develop their own creative learning processes. This teacher is less likely to ask all students to fit into a narrow framework for learning. Without a sense of humor, the teacher is not likely to survive student antics.

Listener

The ability to listen is not only important for teachers to evaluate student progress, but to help target potential problems. My grandson was in kindergarten when his mother became pregnant with his baby sister. During his mothers pregnancy she had to be hospitalized for a while due to an inflamed gall bladder that was full of stones. It also involved a risky surgery because was right at the end of the first trimester. So his father stayed close to his mother's bed side. My grandson knew mommy hurt.

There was obvious strain in the house because of the surgery, recovery, and then waiting for the new arrival. The baby arrived in summer so my grandson was out of school, but adjustment to a new sibling takes a while. His mother injured her eye with an accidental puncture on the next New Years day. The events sequenced a long period of stress on my grandson.

Did he act out in the classroom? You bet he did. My daughter and son-in-law explained the strain the child was feeling. This helped the teacher understand his behaviors. That understanding helped her to listen to his concerns more and offer some reassurance at school.

Patient yet Firm

Teachers need to be patient, but they also need to be firm. Most children are reassured and feel safer if they know their limits. If a teacher does not remain firm on some set boundaries in the classroom, children usually retaliate through behaviors. Firm does not mean screaming at a child, it means letting them know your limits and holding to them. Patience is a part of being firm. Children cannot learn a teacher's boundaries and rules within a day, and some will test even longer. The teacher often writes classroom rules on the board and/or may have a reward system to stimulate a desire for displaying good behavior.

Patience comes in giving students time to absorb the reality of boundaries. Firmness is in correcting the student through reminders.

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