My name is Izzy Ramras, and I am a current senior at Tulane studying psychology and education. Next year, I will be attending grad school to continue my studies in school psychology. I have been working with Project DIRECT for the past 2 years, and have since gained interest in trauma-informed care and evidence-based interventions. 
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This semester, I have spent the majority of my lab time working at the preschool. I have truly enjoyed my time at the preschool each week, as the students and I have gotten to know each other. That being said, it is definitely not always easy. The classroom I have been volunteering in has had a lot of turnover and rotating staff and teachers throughout the year. This makes classroom management very difficult as routines in the classroom are constantly changing. The past few weeks have started to settle down in terms of increased consistency which has led to a huge improvement in class-wide behavior. Students are now able to complete a morning routine, partake in ‘quiet’ reading time, and participate during morning meetings. I have noticed that the increased use of positive reinforcement via sticker distribution has effectively enhanced participation and desired behavior of students. I think that finding new strategies for classroom wide behavior interventions will be necessary to continue this progress and will ultimately allow students to learn content more effectively. ​

It's been a while since Project DIRECT was able to send students to Pre-K classrooms, and I feel so honored and excited to be a part of the team especially now that we are back in schools! I have been working in a Pre-K classroom for the last four months, and it has quickly become my favorite part of every week. It's been a long time since I've worked with children this young, so the learning curves I experienced during the first few visits were all over the place. I had to acclimate to the classroom environment and figure out how to speak to, hang out with, and set boundaries with four year olds. It was really strange! 

One of the challenges I faced immediately was trying to toe the line between helping the teachers and hanging out with the students. The women who work in the classroom are incredible, they've created a great learning environment and the students clearly love and respect them so much. I want to help them as much as possible when I'm there, as my work in the lab has taught me the importance of supporting the educators who are absolutely instrumental to child development in schools. However, sometimes these kids just want to hang out! Being four is really hard, and when learning their colors, shapes, and letters gets too overwhelming, they often look to me. I'm an adult in the classroom so I have some say in what they can and can't do, but I have no true authority and I don't like to cut them slack when its time to learn. It disrupts the lesson that the teachers worked hard to put together and makes it more difficult for other students to pay attention. 

Fortunately for me, I have a great support system in the lab and in the classroom, and with time I've gotten much better at understanding my role, which helps students understand why I'm there as well. I do lots of fun things with them, and one of my favorite ways of helping out is teaching the students how we recognize our feelings and calm down safely when we get upset. Spending time with them and learning about how children develop emotionally and cognitively has been so interesting, and I feel so privileged to be able to learn first-hand with students and educators I care about. These kids are so cute and intelligent, and watching them grow has been so rewarding. I am so grateful to the teachers who let me come hang out with them every week and the students who always make me feel like a celebrity when I walk through the door. 

For the last two semesters, I’ve been going to a preschool classroom every Friday morning and acting as a classroom assistant. I’ve absolutely loved working with the children in this classroom. Although there are times when the kids get a little too excited, they’re all very sweet and very smart. At this point, I think that most of them see me as a big sister rather than as a teacher figure. Although this allows the students to feel more comfortable around me, this also causes them to use me as a form of distraction for when one of their teachers tells them to do something.  
 
This semester, I was asked to work one-on-one with a student in the class who’s been exhibiting some problem behaviors. At first, it was a little difficult working with this student since some of their problem behaviors can be very extreme and too much for two teachers to handle, let alone one student volunteer such as myself. Although it was a challenge, I think that this student has shown some improvement over the past couple of weeks.  By working with this student one-on-one, I’ve learned more about his likes and dislikes which allows me to know how to help improve this student’s behavior. Some improvements include him playing with other students more, not running out of the classroom, and being more of an active participant in class. I am very proud of the improvements that this student has made and hope that he continues to do well in the future.
 
Since my last day at the preschool will be next week, I’m starting to get very sad. I am really going to miss walking into class every Friday morning and seeing all of their smiling faces. I wish for nothing but the best not only for the students but for the teachers as well!

​As young children develop, many experience behavioral issues. For most children, these issues diminish and eventually disappear, but for others they continue into early adolescence. Cross-sectional studies have been conducted to examine the group of young children who exhibit such problems in order to find possible causes for the behaviors, however few longitudinal studies have been conducted. Conducting such longitudinal studies aims to locate possible reasons behind childhood behavioral issues and in turn may suggest ways that childhood behavior problems can be prevented.
 
The current study examined predictors of behavioral issues in preschool age children, including lax and overreactive discipline, single parent status, social support, parent involvement, and parent depression near the beginning of childrens’ last year of preschool. These behaviors were examined across sex as well as ethnicity and were reported by both parents and teachers. The children in the study came from seven childcare centers in two urban New England areas. Five of the centers served predominately low-SES families with ethnically diverse backgrounds while the other two facilities served predominately higher-SES European American families. The children in the study were approximately 26% African American, 32% Puerto Rican, 34% European, and 8% mixed ethnicity. Nearly all of the higher-SES families were European American, leading to a confound between SES and ethnicity. Parents and teachers completed survey items 2 months into the school year and again on average of 5.32 months later in order to document changes in behavior problems exhibited among the children.
 
This study found that parental discipline did not predict changes in behavior problems for boys, for girls, or for the sample as a whole. Children of single parents showed a smaller decrease in behavior problems compared to children of partnered parents, but this difference was not seen between genders or ethnicities. Social support was shown to decrease male behavior issues and increase female behavior issues. Parent involvement was a predictor for change in behavior problems but did not vary by gender. Levels of parental depression predicted increases in behavior issues for girls but not boys when parents were shown to be depressed.
 
Though this study was unable to replicate some of the findings from other research, it is important to keep in mind how a child’s environment can impact his or her behavior. This study also emphasized the importance of looking at predictive relationships over time as an important way to understand behavior problems in young children, as well as how and whether they change. This study focused on diverse families and used multiple strategies to look at how behavior problems might be amplified or reduced over time. All of these are strengths of the study with the potential to prompt future research. 

Preschool visits have definitely been my favorite part of working in the lab so far. Every week, I feel such warmth and love from the teachers and the kids. Initially, I was a little unsure of my role in the classroom, as I wanted to get involved, but I didn’t want to take away responsibility and authority from the teachers. However, as time has gone on, I’ve become more comfortable asking to help with tasks and developing my relationship with the kids.

As the school year unfortunately comes to an end, I have come up with a project to engage the kids and help me remember them as I say goodbye. I planned an art project called “the yearbook,” in which the children draw themselves and illustrate a fun fact about them, which will go alongside a photo of them. These pages will be tied together to form a book. This book will be copied, so that I, along with the kids and teachers, have a collective memory of this class.

I feel a very strong bond with the teachers and children in this classroom, and I will be extremely sad to say goodbye to them in the coming weeks. I am very grateful for what I have learned about early education and for all the laughs I’ve shared in this learning environment. 

This school year, I’ve had the wonderful experience of working with kindergarten kiddos and third graders. I spend a few hours every Monday at a wonderful charter school in Uptown New Orleans, doing different activities with each group. 

In the third grade classroom, I mainly provide academic interventions with kiddos that especially benefit from a one-on-one teaching environment. Through these academic interventions, I’ve been able to get to know a few students very well, in addition to getting to know the class as a whole during group activities.

After spending time with the third grade, I head downstairs to spend the rest of the afternoon with a couple kindergarten classrooms. The majority of the time I’m working with kindergarteners I stay in one classroom, but once things get a little hectic at the end of the school day I pack up backpacks and pass out snacks wherever the extra help might be needed. Mondays can be quite long sometimes for the kindergarten lifestyle, so I’m always happy to bop around and ease the load.

I’ve been working at the same school for the past three semesters that I’ve been an RA in the Project DIRECT lab, and am so grateful for this opportunity. The time I spend each Monday with these students is absolutely the highlight of my week!

​Working at my preschool this semester has been an absolute pleasure. The two hours that I am there each week are usually occupied by the morning meeting and stations. The morning meeting is where we say the pledge of allegiance, talk about the day of the week, and learn a new rhyme family. This weeks rhyme family was -ing words, which was particularly exciting because -ing words are a personal favorite of mine.
 
After we discuss the rhyme family, I lead the class in a riveting game of “Mr. Adam Says.” I like to keep the kids on their toes, so I usually vary my instructions from simple actions like “Mr. Adam says stick out your tongue,” to more complex instructions like “Mr. Adam says show me your favorite dance move.” Occasionally, if I am feeling goofy, I will include a trick instruction, such as “Mr. Adam says make the sound of a tree.”
 
After this short “brain break,” we move into stations. There are various activities around the classroom that the kids can do, such as phonemic awareness activities on the iPads, and finding rhyme family words around the class. During this time, I usually walk around the classroom monitoring the students and assisting when necessary.
 
I am very impressed with the school I work at. The school day is so well-organized, and the students are so responsible that I hardly have to go out of my way to help out. I always have a blast spending time with the kids, and I look forward to it each week.