Running head: CASE STUDY: PRINCIPLE 14 1

Case Study: Principle 14

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Introduction

Jeremy is a 4-year-old who attends PreK for half days Monday thru Friday. Jeremy

struggles with being extremely emotional and then letting those emotions get the better of him.

He has been in trouble for hitting, biting and scratching classmates and his general education

teacher is at her wits end. She is struggling and does not know what to do to help him. She

asked if I could help her out and maybe watch him and see what my thoughts were on the

subject.

AIMS

The purpose of this case study is to determine what might help a general education

teacher better connect with her student who is struggling with emotions and sometimes violent

behavior. What I observed was a lack of interpersonal relationship between this teacher and her

student.

Methods

The teacher requested that I sit in and observe her class during a few of my conference

periods. I was happy to oblige her this request. I took a notebook and did a few observations

between her and the student in question. I wrote down the times the student had struggles with

emotions and behavior. It was also important for me to make note of the interactions prior to and

immediately after the student had these emotional episodes. What I noted was that the student

seemed to be off by himself many of the times that the teacher would then ask in a very soft

voice for him to join the class. He would then tell her “no” or back talk her in some way. I did 4

different observations throughout a week for 30 minutes each. While I observed I was also able

to ask the student a few things. I started off with, “Hey there, my name is Mrs. McKinley. What
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is your name?” He immediately responded with “My name is Jeremiah.” Yes, that is right. This

child was being called the wrong name by the teacher.

Results

After finding out this student’s name was in fact Jeremiah and not Jeremy, things started

to make more sense. The lack of a relationship I noticed earlier was clearly evident between the

student and teacher. It was a sad thing to watch. This was a brand-new teacher (her first year)

and she had 26 students in her class. That is a lot for your first year. She also had 23 students in

the second part of the day. So, she had a lot of names to remember. I get it. Its hard but if you

see a student that is struggling you might want to take a step back and find out why, which is

what she did by asking me to observe.

Discussion

It is important to build a relationship with students because they learn better this way. In

fact, there are many TED talks out there that go into detail about students who have a

relationship with the teacher do not tend to struggle academically. In our district we use

Capturing Kids Hearts and PBIS. It doesn’t take much to build a relationship with a student

whether they are struggling or not. It is simple, ask them a personal question such as, “What did

you do this weekend?” Offer a high five and a smile when you see their faces. Every kid gets a

choice when t hey walk into my class. They get a choice in how I greet them, high five, fist

bump and a hug. It lets them know that you are glad they are there, and this puts them in the

right mindset to learn. I watched a video, PBIS (2012), it asks the question, “Are you more

likely to respond and work with a boss who cares about you, knows something about you, and is
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happy to see you every day?” The same can be said about students. Everything goes back to

what Rita Pierson said about kids not wanting to learn from people they don’t like.

Recommendations

My first recommendation would be to find a way to remember your students’ names. It

is their identity. It is important to them. By not remembering a student’s name, you are

essentially telling that student that he or she is not important. This may not be your intention, but

I assure you that this is how they view it. If you need to use name tags for the first few weeks of

school, do it. In PreK we have so many students because we have a morning session and an

afternoon session that we have to do this to make it work. We sometime use anagram name tags

(PBIS, 2012). We have the student think of an adjective (great teaching point) that starts with

the first letter of their name. My anagram name tag was always “Amazing Angela.”

My second recommendation is to really get to know each student on their level. What I

do is pick out at least one thing about each student that will help me get to know them better. A

talking point if you will. One of my students it was Marvel. He loved Marvel and once he found

out I knew a little bit I was his best friend. Find a common ground between the two of you.

Make a connection. Those interpersonal relationships are not going to build themselves. We as

teachers have to put in much of the work. But the outcome is more than worth it when you have

a student who likes you and likes to learn from you. Rita Pierson said it best when she said,

“kids don’t learn from people they don’t like” ("Every kid needs a champion | Rita Pierson",

2013).

Another recommendation would be to have student fill out (or parents) a survey of the

students’ interests (PBIS, 2012). It may be something as simple as you like the same color or the
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same candy bar. You just have to find that connection and make an effort to build that

relationship. We are the adults, we need to make that first step. The student is not going to put

themselves out there. We need to probe and ask questions to find that thing that connects us.
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Reference

PBIS, M. (2012, November 28). Building Relationships within the Classroom (PBIS). Retrieved

August 1, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgWj6Zt2Gc

TED. (2013, May 03). Every kid needs a champion | Rita Pierson. Retrieved August 1, 2019,

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw