by Chase Weisberg, Adath Israel There are many different types of attention. By having knowledge of these types of attention we can help our students, as aids, be in the best environment to have the most successful learning experience. The different types of attention are: sustained (A continuous attention span; most likely in long time periods), alternating (shifting of the attention focus), and selective (selecting a certain thing to focus on while suppressing irrelevant information). In this session of TAP we learned how to utilize our knowledge of different types of attention to make a successful learning environment. In the [...]

by Elliot Perlis, Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El   Communication is key in any situation. Being a teen aid is not exempt from this rule. Whether it is verbal communication or nonverbal, communication is important to ensure that we, as aides, are doing the best we can do to keep students engaged and learning. In this session of the TAP program, we learned not only how to communicate better with students, but also how to best listen to and understand the communications from students. Early in the session, we discussed the phrase “All behavior is communication”. This phrase applies to everyone, [...]