At the 2025 Proficio Conference in Chicago, Safety-Care by QBS Master Trainer Michaela Newton, MS, BCBA, LBA, delivered an inspiring and practical session on how educators can reshape classroom environments to better support student safety, regulation, and learning. Her presentation, The Kaleidoscope Classroom, asked educators to re-examine their assumptions, rethink the function of classroom spaces, and embrace tools that align with students’ changing needs in a post-pandemic world.

Why Classrooms Must Evolve

Newton opened with the “elephant in the classroom”: today’s learning environments are more diverse and complex than ever. Students with conflicting needs share the same space, staff are navigating rising behavior challenges, and the lingering social and emotional effects of the pandemic continue to shape daily interactions.
Educators are expected to support regulation, foster belonging, and maintain safety while teaching academics in classrooms that were not built for this level of complexity. This is where intentional design and preventive strategies become essential.

A New Look at Student Needs: Beyond Maslow

While many educators are familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Newton offered a more school-centered adaptation that reflects what students require to engage in learning each day. This “Student Hierarchy of Needs” includes:

• Physical comfort: sensory supports, hydration, rest, and predictable structure.
• Safe regulation: clear expectations, safe items, escape or delay options.
• Emotional engagement: warm interactions, peer connection, and cultural responsiveness.
• Success experiences: appropriate challenges, help when needed, and opportunities for self-advocacy.
• Academic stamina: the ability to engage in difficult tasks consistently.

These tiers help educators reflect on student needs to identify where breakdowns occur before behavior escalates.

Understanding Student Capacity: Spoons and Forks

To explore how students manage stress and energy, Newton introduced two well-known metaphors from the disability and mental health communities:

Spoon Theory

Students begin each day with a finite number of “spoons,” representing their available energy. Stress, demands, transitions, noise, and academic tasks can each use up a person’s spoon. Once the spoons are gone, the student’s capacity for learning and self-regulation drops sharply.

Fork Theory

While spoons represent internal resources, forks represent external stressors. Each “fork” is something difficult, frustrating, or overwhelming. Too many forks can push a student into crisis, even if they started their day with plenty of spoons.

These models help educators reframe behavior: not as defiance, but as the body’s response to environmental factors.

Designing Supportive Environments

Newton emphasized that supportive environments meet needs before behaviors arise. This requires a blend of physical design and relational practice.

Physical Supports

• Quiet or private areas for decompression
• Predictable routines and accessible visual supports
• Preferred or calming items available as needed
• Minimizing triggers where possible

Social Supports

• Consistent and calm communication
• True choices and student ownership
• Interaction built on patience and respect
• Rewards and encouragement that feel meaningful

The key question: Does this teaching space help every student regulate, belong, and learn?

The Classroom as the Main Environment for Prevention

Newton highlighted how quickly classroom design can either support or impede student success. Clear, accessible layouts reduce confusion and overwhelm. Conversely, crowded walls, cluttered surfaces, and ambiguous spaces can heighten stress.

She offered straightforward guidance:

• Add: visual schedules, expectations, social emotional learning (SEL) messaging
• Remove: clutter, unnecessary materials, overstimulating decor

The goal is to eliminate visuals that are purely there for aesthetics and enhance a space with materials that provide clarity, safety, and function.

A Hard Look at Item Safety

Not all classroom materials are safe for all students. Newton urged educators to assess items through a safety lens:

• Could this item injure someone if thrown?
• Is it breakable? Sharp? A swallowing hazard?
• Does it pose allergy or toxicity risks?

Unsafe items should be stored in locked cabinets, teacher areas, high shelves, or covered spaces. Prevention begins long before a behavior escalates.

Using Tools to Assess Safety and Resilience

To support classroom-wide prevention, Newton recommends evidence-based tools such as:

• DECA Resiliency Assessment
• TPOT (Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool)
• SEAT (Structured Ecological Assessment Tool)

These assessments help teams evaluate how well the environment supports regulation, emotional needs, and safe behavior.

Seeing the Classroom Through “Kaleidoscope Eyes”

Throughout the presentation, Newton used the metaphor of a kaleidoscope — a shifting lens that changes what we see with every turn. Educators must be willing to change their perspective, observe with curiosity, and recognize that surface-level behavior often reflects deeper environmental mismatches.

Sometimes what a student needs looks different from what we expect. Sometimes what is necessary for some becomes beneficial for all.

The Heart of the Message

Newton closed with a powerful reminder: crisis prevention is not about reacting quickly; it is about designing environments where crises are far less likely to occur. When classrooms are safe, predictable, flexible, and affirming, students have the capacity to thrive academically, emotionally, and socially.

The kaleidoscope classroom honors every student’s needs and allows educators to support them with confidence, compassion, and clarity.

About Michaela Newton

Michaela Newton is a Master Trainer for Safety-Care by QBS. She equips educators with tools that increase safety and reduce restrictive practices such as restraint. Michaela has nearly a decade of experience supporting individuals in crisis across schools, clinics, homes, and community settings. She has served as a Program Manager in Behavior Rehabilitation Services foster care, a Registered Behavior Technician, and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Her professional focus includes trauma-informed care, neurodiversity-affirming practices, and cultivating safe and inclusive learning environments.

Michaela lives in Washington State with her husband and three pets. She enjoys rock climbing, playing Nintendo Switch, and exploring the outdoors with her dachshund.