Ross Local Schools Behavior Toolkit (A Guide to Educating the Whole Child)

May 2012

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A Teacher’s Promise I promise to educate and work with all students including those who act out, disrespect me or don’t make me feel that I am an important part of their life. It is a matter of educational grace. The student may not always deserve my attention, effort, or care; however, it is what the excellent teacher always does. For I see the future of the child, not his/her current poor decision making as my focus. Anonymous

The greatness of a teacher is not what they take in and manages, but what they send out!

“Teachers have two great dreams, to work with students who try to learn, and to escape from the constant struggle against misbehavior.” C.M. Charles, The Synergetic Classroom

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Table of Contents

Page Dedication ......................................................................................……............. 4 Acknowledgement ..........................................................................……............. 4 Toolkit Purpose ...............................................................................……............ 4 What You Will Gain .........................................................................……........... 5 Introduction ......................................................................................…….......... 5 Background of the Problem ...........................................................……............. 6 Accepting the Challenge for Change ..............................................……............ 8 Research Supporting a Change in Instructional Practices ...........……............ 9 Whole Child Education .......................................................................…......... 10 RttT and Whole Child Education ........................................................……...... 11 Different Conditions That Lead to Acting-Out Behaviors .................……...... 11 Knowing the Child is the Second Most Important Step ......................…….... 11 Know Who You Are As a Teacher is The Most Important Step ........……....... 13 What Great Teachers Do ...................................................................……........ 14 Behavior is a Learned Habit ..............................................................……....... 14 What are Emotional, Mental Health and Behavioral Disabilities ...……....... 15 Social Emotional Learning (SEL) .........................................................…...... 18 The Rage Curve .................................................................................……........ 19 Rumbling Stage .........………....................................................……....... 19 Rage Stage .........................………..............................................……..... 20 Recovery Stage ........................……….........................................…....... 21 Punishment Vs Discipline .......................................................................…..... 22 Motivation and Punishment ...............................................................…..….... 25 It’s Not Your Mother’s Car ..................................................................…........ 28 Progress Monitoring A Change in Behavior ........................................…..... 28 Understanding the Brain and How It Learns Differently When Technology is Used ................................................................................…...... 29 The Digital Brain ..................................................................................….…... 31 Using Technology to Keep Students Engaged in the Learning Process ….... 33 Perspective From Your Own Experiences ............................................…...... 35 Willingness to Help All Students Regardless If You Like Them or Not ….... 36 Helpful Hints For Working With Non-Compliant and Acting-Out Behaviors ................................................................................................…..... 36 Classroom Management ........................................ ................................….... 36 Using Behavioral Instructional Practices to Manage Learning …... 37 Proactive Teaching Strategies .............................…................…....... 37 Teach Pro-Social Skills ............................................................…........ 38 How to Get Commands Obeyed in the Classroom ................…......... 39 More Than a Teacher ............................................................….......... 40 Never Let Them See You Not Smiling ................................................…...…... 40 The Horse That Won’t Drink ...............................................................….….... 41 Conclusion ..........................................................................................….…...... 42 Appendix A – Student Surveys and Samples...................…................…......... 43 Appendix B – Practical Functional Behavior Assessment ....................…..... 44 Appendix C – 14 Things That Matter Most To Be An Effective Teacher …... 50 Appendix D – Rutgers University Research, Dr. Elias ......................….….... 55 Appendix E – Interventions During The Rumbling Stage ..................…....... 56 Appendix F – What is Sensory Integration/Sensory Strategies .................. 58 Appendix G – Education Quotes...........................................................…....... 56 Appendix H – Food For Thought, Understanding Acting-Out Behaviors.... 65 References and Resources .................................................................………..... 66

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Dedication This toolkit is dedicated to all the classroom teachers who are making a positive impact on all their students and strive to find a way to help each student reach their full potential academically and personally. It is also dedicated to administrators and support staff who consistently go beyond the call of duty in supporting students, parents, and teachers.

Acknowledgement A great deal of gratitude and appreciation to Donna Maybury and Debbi Johnsen for their care in editing this document.

Toolkit Purpose The purpose of this toolkit is to help classroom teachers and support staffs break down the educational barriers caused by students not engaged in the learning process and with students who display acting-out and disruptive behaviors. The toolkit emphasizes the importance for all educators to work collaboratively in developing instructional practices that effectively address the whole child behaviorally in the instructional environment. Throughout the toolkit there will be many suggestions and practices that teachers can use in coping with, intervening with, and effectively use to eliminate the unwanted disruptive behaviors that are so annoying to the teacher. Teachers will be given adaptations for success in the general education setting, suggestions for technology implementation, finding how student interests can develop the intrinsic motivators for students, and how to keep taking that annoying and obstinate horse to the watering hole each day and encouraging it to drink.

What You Will Gain This toolkit is designed to cover four critical areas to help teachers to: 1) Understand the different conditions that lead to acting out behaviors and recognize the characteristics of these conditions to be able to respond in a positive proactive manner; 2) Learn how to effectively deal with classroom 4

disruptions within a classroom setting for both academic and behavior issues; 3) Provide educators with the background and knowledge on how the use of technology is affecting the brain differently for today’s students; therefore, revealing the need to look at different ways to help students learn, and 4) Understand motivation and the development of intrinsic values to motivate the ill-motivated and at-risk population. The overarching outcome when combining these four themes is that all students will be presented with an opportunity to learn and thrive in all educational settings regardless of the student’s cognitive, behavioral, environmental and/or social-emotional status.

Introduction Helping students behave at school in a way that supports learning outcomes and a safe environment continues to be one of the most critical issues facing schools today. With more cultural differences entering the school, the over labeling of behavioral conditions and economic difficulties, classroom management techniques of yesterday are not nearly as effective or relevant as they once were. Schools are being mandated to address the needs of the whole child, not just the academic acquisition and application of knowledge, but the development of positive and appropriate student behavior is also a mandated skill set that educators are responsible for in teaching students. Educators are being asked to provide 21st century skills to their students. Mastering state content standards, analyzing individual student achievement, collaboration, communication, applying pedagogy, and using technology in the learning process must be considered. However, when looking at the need for a student’s behavior in the 21st century, the need is quickly moving away from managing student behaviors to teaching, monitoring and corrective teaching of social and emotional skills to students on a regular basis. In country music artist Bucky Covington’s song, “Different Time, Different World,” it is clear that adults recall their childhood much differently than what the youth of today are experiencing. To say 5

things have drastically changed over the past twenty to thirty years is an understatement. Below are the words to his song: We were born of mothers who smoked and drank, Our cribs were covered with lead-based paint, No childproof lids, no seatbelts in cars, Rode bikes with no helmets and still here we are, still here we are. We got daddy’s belt when we misbehaved, Had three TV channels we had to get up to change, No video games and no satellite, All we had were friends and they were outside, playing outside. It was a different life, When we were boys and girls. Not just a different time, It was a different world. School always started the same everyday, The pledge of allegiance then someone would pray. Not every kid made the team when they tried, We got disappointed but that was alright;, We turned out alright. It was a different life, When we were boys and girls. Not just a different time, It was a different world.

This may be a simplistic way of looking at change over the past several years. It does though drive home the point that no matter how good things were or perceived to be in the past, we cannot expect to educate children today in the same manner as previous generations did. As you read through this toolkit, keep in mind that we have to think outside of yesterday’s box of educational practices. Not only think outside that box, but also perform outside of it as well. This is not always an easy task! However, if educators are truly interested in helping ALL children succeed and be productive adult members of our communities, adapting and changing to meet the needs of ALL students is an essential understanding that we must embrace with enthusiasm and resolve. On April 13-14, 2011, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) hosted approximately 100 national leaders in the fields of education, scientific research, philanthropy, and policymaking at a forum in Washington, D.C. The third in a series of CASEL events that take place once every two years, the forum was titled “Expanding Social and Emotional Learning Nationwide: Let’s Go!” The following are excerpts from the forum:

Background of the Problem During the last century, society and the life experiences of children and youth have changed drastically (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2007c; Greenberg, Weissberg, OBrien, Zins, Fredericks, Resnik, & Elias, 2003). Families are experiencing increasing economic and social pressures with the presence of more children living in households with both parents working fulltime and fewer children living in two-parent households (Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, as cited in CASEL, 2007c). Regardless, many of these children and youth are

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spending more time alone or are being cared for by someone other than family members (CASEL, 2007c). However, the easier accessibility of media messages that encourage and promote healthdamaging behaviors and the lack of community institutions that nurture the social, emotional, and moral development of children have also contributed much to these changes (Greenberg et al., 2003). The more economically, racially, and ethnically homogeneous school populations of the 1900s have been replaced with student populations who are increasingly multicultural and multilingual (CASEL, 2007). This occurrence poses an even greater challenge to educators who also have to address the growing social and economic disparities in today’s society. Yet, the difficulty involved in serving today’s student populations is also fueled by the various needs, abilities, and motivations to learn that are just as diverse as the students (Learning First Alliance, as cited in Greenberg et al., 2003). It comes as very little surprise that schools today are expected to do more than ever before, which was confirmed by 80 percent of the respondents in a 2006 national poll conducted by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (as cited in CASEL, 2007c).

Research results have proven that traditional academic skills taught in our schools over the past 20 years are no longer enough, and it is imperative that additional skills be taught, including “critical thinking and problem solving, ethics and social responsibility, teamwork and collaboration, lifelong learning and self-direction, leadership, creativity and innovation, and global awareness” (as cited in CASEL, 2007c, para. 4). However, the bridge between the results of this needs assessment and implementation of these skills cannot be easily crossed because of the long list of issues and harsh realities facing our schools in communities all across the country. In conjunction with these disturbing statistics, teachers, administrators, and the general public still rank student discipline as one of their highest concerns (SpeakingtheTruth, 2008). Although disrespect, disruption, insubordination, and violence have become major problems in our schools (SpeakingtheTruth, 2008), incidents of bullying have risen and are now also considered a topic of concern, as indicated by the 2006 Indicators of School Crime and Safety report from the National Center for Education Statistics (as cited in CASEL, 2007c). This report clearly stated, “27 percent of schools report daily or weekly bullying incidents. . . . more than a quarter of students ages 12-18 reported being bullied within the past six months, with 58 percent of these students bullied once or twice during that period, 25 percent bullied once a month, 11 percent bullied once a week, and 8 percent of students bullied almost every day” (as cited in CASEL, 2007). This is quite frustrating for educators when one of their main goals is to make sure every child receives the best education available (SpeakingtheTruth, 2008). But until identified behavioral problems are addressed in a manner similar to the support provided for academic deficiencies, this goal will continue to seem unreachable. While there seems to be an abundance of successful reading and math intervention programs that can be incorporated to meet the various needs of a school’s population of students; these same services that an academic Response to Intervention (RtI) process can provide can also be accomplished through the Ross Child Study Process (CSP). This is not the case for those students who repeatedly exhibit unacceptable behaviors in the classroom. One major issue is that teacher referrals are generally the only viable measure for identifying discipline-problem behaviors. Unfortunately, many teachers are at their wit’s end because Saturday school, after-school detentions, In-School Suspension (ISS), and Out of School Suspension (OSS) programs are among the few options used to address this overwhelming problem with discipline (SpeakingtheTruth, 2008). Inevitably teaching time is interrupted, and the very students who need to be there are missing valuable class time, which both hinder school districts’ ability to obtain and maintain Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and negatively affect the morale of those educators within the system who are being held accountable. It doesn’t take rocket science to conclude that this problem cannot be solved until the root of the problem is addressed. Effective responses to inappropriate student behavior means not only addressing the specific behavior but also offering skills that encourage changes

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in the mindset from which the behavior stems. In addition, those who are held accountable for behavior intervention must be provided access to an educator-friendly method for progress monitoring and accurate data collection that is recognized as a useful tool rather than a hindrance that must be added to their growing long list of responsibilities. Brain research has demonstrated that emotion drives attention, learning, memory and other important mental or intellectual activities” (McCombs, as cited in Fredericks, 2003) in school and at other times. While much attention is placed on students who are considered “at-risk” because of a combination of academic and behavioral problems, those students who have knowledge but lack compassion for others also must not be overlooked. People know all too well what smarts without social skills looks like in kids. It can look like two honors students from Columbine High School who methodically murdered 12 fellow students and an instructor before killing themselves” (Elias, as cited in Kendricks, 2003, p. 3). In other words, healthy development must include the acquisition of intelligence and knowledge along with compassion and caring.

Accepting the Challenge for Change “If we teach students the way we taught them yesterday, we are robbing them of tomorrow.” John Dewey Hodges Education is no different from other workplace environments in understanding the norm of continual change. Organizations can no longer expect workers to accept change; they have to get people to embrace change enthusiastically in order to remain competitive in today’s fast-paced world. Charles Darwin expressed this very concept in 1859 when he said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” To use this toolkit effectively a mindset for accepting change is imperative. Most educators chose the teaching profession because they wanted to help children learn. Not many educators could visualize teaching students appropriate behaviors would also be of paramount importance intertwined within the academic setting. The movement of teaching the whole child along with the continual mandates to address community interests and expectations has moved the compulsory educational world into a whirlwind. Knowing that a student needs to understand and display expected appropriate school behaviors is the responsibility of all school staff. Additionally, understanding the responsibility to teach and monitor student behavior is also a paradigm shift that must take place to effectively meet the needs of ALL students. It is an attitude that must be established by each and every staff member. For a classroom teacher to say they have been employed to teach a specific grade level or content area is a myth. All teachers have been employed to teach ALL students content and to make sure each and every student understands and can apply the content standards and can perform them at a grade and age appropriate level. This is a huge undertaking, but it must be an intrinsic force that drives teacher interaction with ALL students. No extrinsic force can instill in the individual teacher the desire to educate the whole child: not salary, not working conditions, not class sizes. These are irrelevant to the outstanding teacher with the mission to educate the whole child! Once a teacher has accepted this reality, it is imperative that they take a stance that a student’s behavior will not get in the way with the mission to properly educating ALL students. 8

This change cannot exist of beliefs only! Change is not effective or rational if the change is not driven by results. For educators, the change must be based on performance results. When working with a student who chronically displays acting out behaviors, it is important to document the change in performance by identifying the desired replacement behavior and the frequency at which it is to occur. Without doing this the teacher may not recognize the progress being made from inappropriate behaviors to appropriate behaviors. In the section “Behavior is a Learned Habit,” information about how learned inappropriate behaviors is developed over a long period of time and can only be changed over a long period of time is covered. As will be addressed, words and shortterm quick fixes will not change a student’s acting out behaviors. Misbehaving students is something that all teachers will have to deal with at one time or another. The role of the teacher is to give students solutions and choices to their behavior so that they will be able to make informed choices understanding that all of their actions carry a positive or negative consequence. Robert Marzano believes that a teacher must commit to a system that allows for individual student feedback of not only identifying specific academic learning goals, but individual behavioral goals as well. Marzano further explains the need to develop a common scale or rubric for each goal and address each student’s progress toward each goal at least every two weeks. Teachers should strive to get to an ideal progress-monitoring situation where students know their goals and continuously monitor their own progress.

Research Supporting A Change in Instructional Practices Preparing Students for the Real Tests of Life; A Research Perspective: Since the implementation of NCLB, it is no secret that “what gets assessed gets addressed” (O’Brien, Weissberg, & Munro, 2009). As schools are struggling to meet AYP, children are engaged in a life of test taking, and for teachers, the stress of improving academic achievement takes precedence over everything else. Although educators are concerned about their student’s social and emotional well being, they are reluctant to engage in activities “for which they cannot predict clear discernible benefits to student’s academic progress as reflected in their tests scores” (Zins, Bloodworth, Weissberg, & Walber, 2004). Yet many researchers are continuously finding that preparing students for the “tests of life” is just as important (Zins & Elias, 2006), and, furthermore, that the acquisition of these social and emotional learning skills (SEL), which include self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship skills, and responsible decision making (CASEL, 2003), is vital for many students if they are to become successful in school and productive citizens in the community (Elias et al., as cited in Zins & Elias, 2006). According to Shriver and Weissberg, authors of “No Emotion Left Behind” (as cited in O’Brien, Weissberg, & Munro, 2009), “the choice that many educators make between academic and social-emotional learning is a false one: The two kinds of learning are intimately connected which means that promoting students social and emotional skills plays a critical role in improving their academic performance. The strong evidence that supports this statement was produced from a meta-analysis of over 207 studies representing more than 288,000 students from urban, suburban, and rural elementary and secondary schools. 9

Research in 2009 funded by the William T. Grant and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health was conducted by Joseph Durlak of Loyola University and Roger P. Weisberg at the University of Illinois at Chicago, discovered that student achievement-test scores were up to 11 percentage points higher when students were involved in programs that promote social and emotional learning. In addition, classroom discipline and attendance improved, and students were less likely to engage in antisocial behavior such as bullying, fighting, and substance abuse. There was also a decrease in the number of students who experienced feelings of depression, anxiety, and alienation (Goleman, 2008).

Robert Gagne (1988) stipulates that there are several different types or levels of learning. The significance of these classifications is that each different type requires different types of instruction. Gagne identifies five major categories of learning: verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes. Different internal and external conditions are necessary for each type of learning. For example, for cognitive strategies to be learned, there must be a chance to practice developing new solutions to problems; to learn attitude, the learner must be exposed to a credible role model or persuasive argument for why specific behaviors and attitudes are required in certain settings for successful integration into formal and social settings.

Whole Child Education (It may take a whole village to raise a child...but it also takes a whole child to raise a village) We live in a global economy that requires our students to be prepared to think both critically and creatively, evaluate massive amounts of information, solve complex problems, and communicate well. A strong foundation in reading, writing, math, and other core subjects is still as important as ever, yet by itself is insufficient for lifelong success. Educators normally commit most of their time structuring coursework, instructional methods, and designing assessments that are still aligned with educational practices of a century ago. Our current definition of student success is too narrow. It is time to put students first, align resources to students’ multiple needs, and advocate for a more balanced approach that include social and emotional skills that will carry them throughout their lives. What works best for children to ensure their success? Answering this question redefines what a successful learner is and how we measure success. A child who enters school healthy and feels safe is ready to learn. A student who feels connected to school is more likely to stay in school. All students who have access to challenging and engaging academic programs and learn to work and live collaboratively within the guidelines of a community setting will be on track upon graduation to be college and career ready. These components must work together, not in isolation. That is the goal of whole child education. We can see this concept incorporated in the new Ohio Teacher Evaluation System’s (OTES) six (6) elements defining what an effective teacher is, they are: 1) Understanding student learning and development, respect diversity of all students, hold high expectations for progress. 2) Content expertise. 3) Various assessment methods. 4) Advance student learning. 5) Collaborative and communicate with students, parents, other teachers, administrators and community. 6) Professional growth and development

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Each element can be directly tied into the education of the whole child that goes beyond the acquisition of information and applying information to how a person’s demeanor has an impact on successfulness of what has been learned. Measuring academic achievement is important and necessary; no one is arguing otherwise. But if we fail to move beyond a narrow curriculum and accountability system, we will have failed to adequately prepare students for their futures.

RttT and Whole Child Education In Ohio’s participation in the Race to the Top (RttT) education improvement initiative, which Ross Local Schools is a full partner; we can understand how whole child education is linked to the RttT goals. The goals of increasing graduation percentages especially when it comes to the sub-groups of economic disadvantaged and non-white students, the reduction of performance gaps for economically disadvantaged students compared to non-disadvantaged students, and reducing the performance gaps between Ohio and the highest achieving states all can be linked directly with the need to educate the whole child. Statistically these sub-groups have a higher percentage of students who display negative behaviors and/or emotional issues that prevent the student from achieving grade and age appropriate performance levels. Regardless of the reasons why this is true, if school districts are to reduce these gap percentages those students who have behavior and emotional issues interfering with their education will have to receive direct instruction, progress monitoring and corrective teaching for social and emotional deficits to effectively reduce these targeted performance gaps. The overarching theme of the RttT is for all students to, “Achieve, Graduate, Succeed.” To do this effectively all school staff must play an integral part in helping each student experience the “whole” of education.

Different Conditions That Lead to Acting-Out Behaviors Before considering what to do when a student begins to act out in a disruptive manner in the classroom, let’s consider some of the conditions that may exist that if recognized can deescalate the acting out behavior and avoid a crisis situation for both the student and the teacher.

Knowing the Child is the Second Most Important Step: Every teacher needs to know who he/she is teaching. To assume that all students in every class every year will learn the same, have the same interest level, and respond to the same instructional practices is a misnomer that many educators subconsciously adhere to far too often. It is common for teachers to describe the nature of a grade level of students. You may hear comments like “this 11

group of students is very studious” or “this class as a group is not as bright as most” or “this group of students is the chattiest group I have ever taught.” Just knowing the aggregate demeanor of your class is not enough when you have acting out students in the classroom. Students come to school each day with traumas real or imagined. These traumas usually don’t go away just because the student is in a safe school environment and in the care of school staff. Students who have hidden traumas usually are craving attention and acceptance from their teachers and/or peers. When the teacher knowingly or unknowingly adds to the student’s trauma, then we can expect an escalation of acting out behaviors. The student’s once safe place is no longer safe and the student resorts to the only escaping behavior they know in the other environments and that is usually acting out. Attention from others is a motivator for many students. Some students are willing to gain negative attention because from their perspective, negative attention is better than no attention! Acceptance is so important for some students that acting-out to entertain his/her classmates is a means of feeling accepted. In most cases peers do not accept the acting out student in these situations; however, the student is receiving a false positive of acceptance when students laugh at their negative behaviors or the negative behavior becomes the “talk of the school.” At the beginning of each school year to help develop positive relationships with each student in the classroom, teachers can conduct a simple student survey (Appendix A) to learn each student’s interests and likes. Gaining knowledge of the students interests can be used to set incentives in place to help curb or deter acting out behaviors. Having this information is a great advantage when a teacher recognizes that a student is escalating into acting out behaviors that are going to be disruptive. Being able to refer to the student’s interests or a predetermined incentive plan that involves the student’s interests can prevent acting out episodes and also reinforce the student that he/she is valued. This also helps build the all-important positive relationship between the student and the teacher. The development of a positive relationship between the teacher and the student makes it easier for the teacher to put motivators in place for behavioral changes. This strategy must provide the student the opportunity for engagement with peers and staff in an environment where motivators are in place and used each day with documented results, incentives and fidelity. A parent survey of how the parent perceives their child is also very helpful. A parent survey can facilitate in helping prevent a student’s acting out behavior from developing or moving into the “Rumbling Stage” of acting out. (More on this later in the toolkit). Knowing the parents’ perspective of their child will give the classroom teacher a better understanding of the student and how they are perceived in their home culture. A parent survey is also a very positive way to start the school year in developing a home-school partnership. Parents need to believe that the classroom teacher has a real and personal interest in their child and, thus, support the teacher in their child’s education. Surveys do not need to be lengthy. A short survey that gathers basic personal information from the student and the parents is all that may be needed to help the classroom teacher have a better understanding of each child. For elementary students who don’t have the ability to express their interests in writing, prepare a survey of choices using pictures for the student to circle which picture is of greater interest to them or they like better than the provided choices. (Appendix A).

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Misbehaviors are always an indicator that something in the emotional pot of the child is stirring. If a teacher only focuses on the actions of the student and not the source (function), the student will be left to suffer with issues that they may not be able to handle in any other manner than misbehaving. Some students have sensory awareness issues that lead to misbehavior. Sensory integration affects the student’s ability to receive sensory input and then sort out what sensory stimuli is being presented. The student then needs to process the stimuli by organizing the sensation input for his/her use. Senses give information about the physical conditions of the body and the environment around the student. These sensations flow into the brain like streams flowing into a lake. Countless bits of sensory information not only enter the brain from the eyes and ears, but also from every place in the body. The brain must organize all of these sensations if a person is to move and learn and behave normally. Not knowing how to recognize these sensations and react to them can be a major reason why a student begins to act out. (Appendix F)

“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Know Who You Are As a Teacher is the Most Important Step “If there is anything that we wish to change in a child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could be better changed in ourselves.” Carl Jung

Focusing on the second most important step in teaching students with behavior and emotional problems was shared first because that is were the majority of educators look first in solving or eliminating negative student behaviors. This section is going to focus on what essential teaching skills are used by outstanding teachers when working with the whole child concept. When students with acting-out behaviors are in your classroom, their misbehavior becomes more than what teachers bargained for. Teachers can be certain that these students will bend, stretch or test the rules and expectations that have been established for the classroom. This doesn’t mean that the student is bad, it just means that they are in the constant process of evolving and learning to adapt to a world that encompasses much more than just them. As adults we have learned to curb our attitudes and aggressions as a matter of conformity rather than choice. Children are still developing their abilities. This is why it is an educator’s responsibility to decipher what triggers the function of a student’s negative behavior. The best person to be able to lead this investigation is the classroom teacher who sees students daily in all school environments. This is not to say that the classroom teacher should ascertain the function of the negative behavior on his/her own. What it means is that the classroom teacher must play the key role in helping discover the function of the behavior. Using the Ross School District’s Practical Functional Behavior Assessment (PFBA) process lead by members of the CSP Core Team for your respective building is the process that should be used once a classroom teacher has determined that typical classroom strategies are not producing the expected behavior outcomes as anticipated. (See Appendix “B”) 13

What Great Teachers Do In Todd Whitaker’s book, “What Great Teachers Do Differently, 14 Things That Matter Most,” he shares the focus on beliefs and behaviors, attitudes and interactions that form the fabric of life in classrooms and in schools”. He emphasizes that teaching happens between people and effective teaching calls for people skills to be practiced every day with students. Whitaker’s overarching theme is that, “Educators who want to promote good teaching find value in examining what effective teachers do that other teachers do not. He acknowledges that working with students is never as simple as yes or no, bad or good, true or false. Good teachers know this and avoid using sarcasm, yelling at students, or argue with students in front of their friends. He builds his entire premise on the fact that relationship building is the key to teaching and acquiring students to respond in a positive way both academically and behaviorally. To be able to do this he advocates for teachers to self-reflect. He acknowledges the importance of knowing one’s subject matter but points out that there are teachers who know their subject matter inside out, but fail to know their students. That is why it is important to not only reflect on the teaching of content, but to focus on what teachers do in the instructional process. For veteran teachers, awareness that they may be teaching their 20th or 25th year in sixth grade is not as important as being aware that for the students this is their first year in sixth grade. Appendix “C” outlines Whitaker’s 14 Things That Matter Most for effective teachers.

Behavior is a Learned Habit Before reading any further in this section, take time to view the You Tube video, “All Washed Up!” by VitalSmarts video. This six-minute video is brilliant at explaining how the influence of peers has a greater influence on behaviors than those who are in an authority position. Teaching requires us to positively manage student behaviors in order to promote participation in the learning environment. If a student’s peer can help develop positive behaviors, by all means implement some strategies that include peer support. Words do not change behavior! If they did, we would not have any acting out behaviors in school. A common phrase heard in both the home and school setting is, “I have told him ten times not to act like that, and he continues to do the same thing over and over again.” Positive proof that words do not and will not change behavior! For a change in behavior to occur there has to be a reason or intrinsic motivator. Intrinsic motivation will be covered in greater detail in the “Motivation and Punishment section.” Unfortunately, the changing of acting out behaviors is not a quick and easy task. Change comes in stages. Think of someone who has the habit of biting his or her fingernails, overeating, or smoking. How easy is it for these individuals to stop biting his fingernails, adhere to a balanced and lowcalorie diet or stop smoking? Acting-out behaviors are much like the examples above, they have 14

developed over a long period of time; therefore, a habit is born. Acting-out behaviors could be satisfying the need for attention of peers or a means to handling stress much like a smoker will admit that smoking calms his/her nerves. Understanding that acting out behaviors are developed habits helps one to acknowledge that the student probably will be very resistant to changing his behavior. The student is comfortable resorting to his acting out behavior when stressors arise that he doesn’t know how to cope with. Think about a student who is experiencing a trauma at home with parents fighting and yelling at each other frequently saying they want to get a divorce. The student comes to school, has trouble with an academic lesson, becomes disengaged in the lesson and is caught day dreaming. The teacher from the other side of the room yells out the student’s name and draws the entire class’ attention to the student. If you were this student how would you respond? Regardless if the student became withdrawn or threw an emotional fit, the educational process is now interrupted for everyone and the time lost for the acting out student will be much greater than if addressed privately. Now the teacher has three problems to deal with rather than just one of the student being disengaged. A person cannot learn new skills, behaviors, relationships without using them. A student must experience and live the replacement behavior (change) if they are to take responsibility for their behavior in meeting the school-setting behavioral expectations. This is the only way to assure a broad-based behavior change will take place. The outstanding teacher knowing this builds into the instructional process opportunities for the individual student or whole class to practice the identified replacement behavior skills. What if the behavior becomes more disruptive after everyone’s efforts? Many times this needs to be the anticipated outcome of a newly implemented behavior plan. It is likely that when a new intervention plan is put in place, the acting out behavior will increase to some degree. However, if the plan is consistently followed with fidelity by all team members not just in words but also in action, the motivation for the acting-out behavior will begin to surface. Everyone is then rewarded for their efforts.

What are Emotional, Mental Health and Behavioral Disabilities? When a student is displaying behaviors outside of the grade and age level typically expected behaviors, it can create challenges for the classroom teacher. Emotional or social deficits are not always medically diagnosed. Parents may not believe their child has an emotional or social deficit or have the means to acquire a medical opinion. Regardless of a medical diagnosis or not, many students with and without medical diagnosis display behaviors that are disruptive to the educational process that cannot be ignored. Understanding how a student is determined to have an emotional disability or label in the case of special education, it is important that teachers know the basis for such a determination. Students with an emotional or behavioral deficit skill set is defined as whatever a culture’s chosen authority figures designate as intolerable. The definition provided by the Individual Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for a school setting defines an emotional disability as: a) an inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors; b) an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationship with peers and teachers; c) inappropriate types of behavior or 15

feelings under normal circumstances; d) a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; e) a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. When a teacher has a student who has or is suspected of having an emotional disability, there are some important things that teachers need to be aware of to properly work with a student with an emotional or behavioral disability. A student with an emotional disability has to not only manage his/her disability, they must do so while at the same time managing other major experiences such as biological, educational, and social role transitions. To understand this one only has to reflect on a major trauma event in their life and try to remember how they had to deal with the trauma while trying to maintain normal routines of family, work and social encounters. Put in perspective, we can easily see that a student with an emotional disability has to work much harder than a typical student to meet expectations in a classroom setting. Students with emotional difficulties academically perform at least one year below the standard grade level (Cullinan 2002) and have difficulty mastering academic skills and content material. It is also more difficult for them to develop a positive and healthy identity of themselves and perceive how others see them. Behavioral and emotional issues of students may be caused by genetic factors and/or life experiences that are not visible to the student, his/her family or teachers. Regardless of being able to detect the cause, it is the responsibility of the student’s teachers to help the student properly deal with the displayed emotions. A trauma or a negative emotional experience is not likely to go away in the short-term. Therefore, teachers and school staff need to help the student practice the necessary coping skills in preventing the escalating emotion from becoming an emotional outburst. (Figure 1). Likewise, educators must assist the student in recognizing the characteristics that are leading up to potential emotional outburst, how to cope when the outburst presents itself, how to bring the outburst to an end as quickly as possible, and finally, how to reflect on the outburst and prepare to better handle the negative emotions the next time they begin to occur. Research has proven that 25 percent of adults have a diagnosis of mental health issues. This means that 25 percent of our parents, on the average, have mental health issues. Knowing this helps educators understand the desperate need to teach pro-social skills to our students who display emotional behaviors. For those students who are identified as having an emotional or mental health problem, only about 20 percent of these students receive the necessary professional attention they need, and 70 to 80 percent of these students receive that attention in the school setting. This means that approximately one-third of our nation’s students are having their chances for a successful future jeopardized as a result of poor decision-making that is directly related to the student’s emotional deficits (Dryfoos, Greenberg et al., 2003) because they are not getting the appropriate social and emotional training they need during the most critical stage of their lives: school years! A key in preparing to work with students with emotional and mental health issues is to understand the function of the inappropriate behaviors. Some common things that students are communicating when in the “Rumbling Stage” (Figure 1) are that they just want someone to listen to them without judging them or trying to “fix” them. This is difficult because most teachers have not had to experience what the student is going through when they were an adolescent, nor has the teacher been trained to recognize the difference between simple misbehaviors and the effects of mental and/or emotional deficits. 16

Students who are experiencing emotional episodes on a regular basis typically have low selfefficacy which affects how they motivate themselves and their perseverance to face difficult situations. It causes them to quickly give up on themselves. This is when the student needs a great deal of positive encouragement. Let’s look at what a teacher is to do when they detect characteristics of an emotional disability in a student. First and foremost the teacher must set a goal to help the student develop the necessary coping skills. This means strategies must be developed to help the student recognize and process the stimuli that leads to the acting out behaviors in a positive way so as to maintain the ability to learn. A single teacher can do this but it is more affective to have more than one adult help develop the strategies. After the strategies are developed, an instructional plan for teaching coping skills, practicing coping skills and monitoring progress for proper use of the coping skills must be developed. Having the parent serve as a team member in developing these strategies can be beneficial in getting the home to assist in the student developing and using the coping skills. The natural first step when classroom behavioral interventions have been ineffective is to follow the district’s Child Study Process (CSP). Keeping in mind that words do not change behavior nor will words change a student’s mood. A student must practice how to properly respond when negative feelings begin to develop and have a safe place to go or a safe person to talk with. Teaching the student how to develop replacement behaviors is covered in greater detail later in the toolkit. Remembering the second most important step for the teacher is the development of a trusting relationship with the student. This comes right after a teacher’s self-assessment that helps the teacher understand that a student’s behavior can be disliked and unacceptable, but the student will always be cared for and accepted. However, a student can and should be held accountable for his/her actions. To ignore the natural consequences would be a disservice in itself in helping develop positive replacement behaviors for the student. A teacher can help build a trusting relationship with a student by displaying personal items in his/her classroom such as family pictures, personal accomplishment or hobbies. These can be used as an icebreaker for students to begin developing a positive relationship with the teacher through conversation. Using the student survey to have the student coordinate a classroom assignment with an area of interest lets the student know you are looking at them as an individual. Listening to music during guided practice or individual seat time is also a good way to build a positive relationship with students. As an educator you may spend as much waking time with students as their parents do. As a result, you will often be among the first to observe potential problems. While it’s important to avoid rushing to judgment, a teacher’s ability and willingness to share concerns with parents is crucial. Early intervention in mental health concerns can mean fewer and less severe academic, emotional, or behavioral problems developing later during the school year. With the increase in knowledge of civil rights, parents are becoming increasingly more aware of their rights and their children’s rights to acquire a beneficial public education, thus assuring that an educational disability does not hinder the child’s access to learning. This is also true for students who display anti-emotional and social behaviors. In the legal world these students could be considered “regarded” as having a disability under Section 504 of the American with Disabilities Act Amendment Act (ADAAA) and afforded the protections of being discriminated against as a 17

result of this determination. If a student’s behavior has escalated to a chronic disruption of learning for the student and/or others, as well as the delivery of instruction by the teacher, then there is a pattern and a record of the student’s behaviors that could be regarded as having an emotional disability and, therefore, requires an intervention plan to address the regarded emotional disability.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Social emotional learning (SEL) is a process for learning life skills, including how to deal and work with oneself, others and relationships, in an effective manner. In dealing with oneself, SEL helps in recognizing a person’s emotions and learning how to manage those feelings. In dealing with others, SEL helps with developing sympathy and empathy for others and maintaining positive relationships. SEL also focuses on dealing with a variety of situations in a constructive and ethical manner. During the mid 1990’s, Daniel Goleman published his book “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ”, which popularized the concept of emotional intelligence. The term social emotional learning (SEL) emerged from this research in social competence programs that could be applied to emotional intelligence. This research also helped develop the 15 key skill areas that are recognized and promoted for SEL, they are: 1. Recognizing emotions in self and others. 2. Regulating and managing strong emotions. (Pos & Neg) 3. Recognizing strengths and areas of need. 4. Listening and communicating accurately and clearly. 5. Taking others’ perspectives and sensing their emotions. 6. Respecting others and self and appreciating differences. 7. Including identifying problems correctly. 8. Setting positive and realistic goals.

9. Problem solving, decision-making, and planning. 10. Approaching others and building positive relationships. 11. Resisting negative peer pressure. 12. Cooperating, negotiating, and managing conflict nonviolently. 13. Working effectively in groups. 14. Help seeking and help giving. 15. Showing ethical and social responsibility.

Veteran teachers may recall a time in their teaching career when the majority of these skills were taught and developed in the home! Today it has become the school’s responsibility to address these skills and [hope] that they are at least reinforced in the home setting. The 21st Century teacher acknowledges these 15 skills and embraces three goals for teaching and monitoring SEL: 1. Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success. 2. Use social-awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships. 3. Demonstrate decision-making skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community contexts. When a teacher adopts these three goals, it is just a matter of integrating the goals into regular instructional practices. It is not more work for the teacher, just different work making sure there is an instructional process for SEL. Remember, “think outside the box and then perform outside the box” will help in looking at SEL with an open mind.

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SEL improves positive behaviors while reducing negative behaviors. Positive behaviors will include improved social emotional skills, improved attitudes about self and others, and improved behavior within the classroom. Negative behaviors that are reduced include conduct problems and emotional distress. Furthermore, SEL skills are maintained throughout life; even into adulthood, they do help foster future success; therefore, meeting our goal of assuring every student upon graduation is college and career ready. Moreover, SEL can help to improve several skills including nonverbal communication skills, socially competent behavior, and social meaning and reasoning. Nonverbal communication is important because the majority of emotional meaning is conveyed without spoken words, and instead utilizes paralanguage facial expressions, gestures and postures, and interpersonal distance. Social skills also play an important role in interpreting, encoding and reasoning social and emotional information that is associated with the social behavior exhibited by others. Finally social meaning and reasoning are important in problem solving. Social meaning is the ability to interpret others’ emotions and language, and to be able to respond appropriately, whereas social reasoning is the ability to identify a problem, set goals and evaluate the possible solutions available. Learning social and emotional skills is similar to learning other academic skills. Implementing a prevention program in the classroom (or in a school-wide initiative) can help to increase competence and learning in students, which may be applied to more complex situations in the future. Teachers can accomplish this in the classroom through effective and direct classroom instruction, with student engagement in positive activities evaluating and implementing social and emotional activities. SEL activities lead to the skills needed for successful participation in the 21st century for students. (Appendix D, Maurice J. Elias Research)

The Rage Curve There are three main stages to the Rage Curve. Within each stage there are variables that contribute to the individual’s acting out behaviors. The first stage is the rumbling stage, followed by the peak of acting out called the rage stage. Finally the third stage is the recovery stage. Look at Figure 1, the rage curve is broken down into different levels of acting out behaviors. For each stage there are certain things that can take place as well as certain things that must be avoided. The following information will help teachers understand what is happening with the student in each stage and what a teacher should and should not do for each stage.

Rumbling Stage: In this stage, the behaviors exhibited are the beginning signs that usually lead to acting-out behaviors. Some minor signs are when students are wiggling in their seats, biting fingernails, tapping feet, tensing muscles, grimacing, biting lips and voice fluctuation. More pronounced signs are withdrawal, lashing out, and threatening. These are usually accompanied by students challenging authority figures and trying to establish a power struggle. During this stage it is important to intervene with the student immediately making sure not to create a power struggle. Interventions during this stage are: proximity control, signal interference, touch control, use of humor to de-escalate behavior, address student interest, redirecting, non-punitive time-out, listen and acknowledge the student frustrations, and just walk and talk. (See Appendix E for description of some of these interventions) 19

Teacher behaviors during the Rumbling Stage for the most success in de-escalating the behavior are remain calm, use a quiet voice, take deep breaths, prevent power struggle, be flexible because the student cannot. Whenever a student begins to move into the rumbling stage there is some kind of trigger that initiates the rumbling behaviors. In some instances, it is easy to pick up on what these triggers are and the teacher can plan ahead to make sure the triggers don’t occur or are addressed before the student engages in a class activity. For example, some students have a test phobia. In these cases the teacher knowing that the student has this trigger can prepare the student for an upcoming test, modify the test or allow the student breaks during the testing time. Another example would be for a student who is a poor reader. The teacher can make sure that the student is not asked to read out loud without notice or allowing the student to practice for the part. Recognition of these triggers will greatly enhance the chances of the teacher to de-escalate the behavior before it reaches the next stage, rage stage. Agitators are very much like triggers and in some cases can be the same. The big difference is that with triggers the teacher can be more proactive once they are discovered. With agitators the teacher usually has to address the issue as it happens. For example, whenever someone teases a student or calls their name out loud in the classroom, the student will start rumbling behaviors. With agitators the teacher has two intervention plans to work through. One for the student who has emotional deficits and one for the student who is the agitator. Not all agitators are other students, however, most are. Escalation refers to the point that the student usually can’t turn back to the calm stage without entering the rage stage. Knowing this the teacher can be proactive and begin to plan for the emotional outburst that is more than likely going to develop. The teacher can also prepare the other students in the class for pre-determined steps to follow when the student is in the rage stage.

Rage Stage: When a student has completely lost his/her ability to control their emotions, they move into the rage stage. The student at this point believes they have nothing to lose. Therefore, rational thinking of natural consequences for acting out cannot be formulated. It is not uncommon for students during this stage to completely withdraw and shut down from any interaction with adults or peers. The student may also display just the opposite types of behavior by openly challenging the teacher, refusing to follow any teacher directives and/or become a physical danger to self and others by throwing and kicking. Irrational verbal assaults are also common when a student enters the Rage Stage. How the teacher reacts to the student in this stage is critical as to how quickly the situation can be brought to an end and the student enters the Recovery Stage. The following are key things Dr. Smith-Myles insists that teachers must avoid if they want the Rage Stage to end quickly and to help the rage stage from reoccurring, avoid: - Raising voice or yelling - Backing the student into a corner - Insisting on having the last word - Bringing up unrelated events

- Making assumptions - Saying, “I am the boss” - Using tense body language - Nagging 20

- Make unsubstantiated accusations - Acting superior - Insisting the adult is right - Rewarding student - Using unwarranted physical force - Commanding, demanding, dominating - Preaching - Using sarcasm - Holding a grudge - Pleading or bribing - Having double standard, “Do what I say, not what I do” - Making comparisons with siblings, other students - Using degrading, insulting, humiliating or embarrassing putdowns Some of the above suggestions may seem directly contrary to practices teachers have used in the past with success. It is probably best to assume that these intervening practices worked because the student was testing new behavior strategies to control, get, or avoid something. These recommended “avoidance” behaviors only add fuel to the fire when used to try and control the student’s acting-out behaviors during the Rage Stage. The best way to respond to a student in the rage stage is to get the student to a non-punitive time out setting without using physical force. Once the student is in the time out area, a predetermined plan of action must already be in place and implemented immediately. The fewer words used during the rage stage the better. Students in the rage stage are not thinking, they are reacting so words will have little or no effect. Over verbalizing toward the student only makes the adult feel better or believe that they are beginning to regain control of the student. Key interventions to help the student in the rage stage are: - Protect the student - Protect others - Protect the environment - Use few words - Follow a plan - Remove the audience - Be flexible, the student cannot - Plan a graceful exit strategy - Be non-confrontational

- Don’t discipline - Set a time limit - Obtain assistance -Use time out area

Key teacher strategies during the rage stage are: - Less is more - Control flight or fight - Do not take behaviors personally - Take deep breaths - Be conscious of non-verbal cues

- Remain calm/quiet - Disengage emotionally

Last but not least, once a student enters the rage stage it will run its course. At this point the focus from teachers should be how to help the student regain control with dignity. Always remember, it is not a personal thing, it is just how these students handle the triggers that set off their emotional outbursts.

The Recovery Stage: Also known as the De-escalation Stage, this stage is the start of getting the student back to a calm demeanor. This stage must be handled with care, if not it could rekindle the rage stage. Students exiting the rage stage usually have contrite feelings and are apologetic. Addressing the outburst behaviors at this time is not wise as the student may not even recall all of the negative behaviors he/she displayed during the outburst. The student is not ready to learn so caution should be used in returning the student to academic activities or implementing a behavior action plan.

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In some instances, students are so physically and emotionally drained that the student resorts to sleeping or total withdrawal denying any acting-out behaviors. Depending on the student, it may be best to give the student some individual space to reflect. If the student is able to do academic work, it may be best to give the student the opportunity to do independent work until he/she fully recovers.

Key interventions for the student during the de-escalation stage are: - Allow to sleep, if necessary - Support with structure - Support use of relaxation techniques - Consider the student as fragile - Do not make excessive demands - Check to see if the student is ready to learn - Do not refer to rage stage behaviors - Interventions presented at or below student’s functioning level Key behaviors for the teacher during the de-escalation stage: - Remain calm and quiet - Take time for self to regroup Teachers are also negatively impacted by the student’s behavior during the rage stage. Getting a coteacher or administrator to cover your class for a few minutes is a great way to help regroup and get back to the instructional process.

Punishment Vs Discipline “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” Robert Collier

Punishment is not a motivator! If punishment is going to change behavior it will happen in one or two applications after that punishment doesn’t work. At best punishment produces short-term changes as long as the threat of punishment is immediate. Once the immediate threat is gone, the misbehaviors usually resurface and the student is no longer affected by the punishment. For those students who receive punishment for their chronic misbehaviors in the school setting, they most likely have had plenty of punishment at home; therefore, punishment techniques will have little or no long-term effects. These students have become immune and desensitized to punishment. Bottom line, punishment simply does not work in an effort to change acting out-behaviors. For that student who has had recess taken away, privileges lost, written a mountain of “I won’t do it again” sentences or has spent countless hours in the principal’s office and is punished for his misbehaviors, one must come to the conclusion that the punishment approach is not an effective discipline. Another reason that punishment is an ineffective motivator is that students tend to associate the punishment with the punisher, not with the acting out behavior. We all have heard student say, 22

“Mr. Smith took my recess away.” How nice would it be to here students say, “I called Sally names again and I lost my recess for being unkind to Sally?” There is a difference between punishment and discipline. Below is an outline listing the main differences between the two: Punishment: the act of punishing, suffering, pain, or loss that serves as retribution, a penalty inflicted on an offender, severe, rough, or disastrous treatment. Punishment Characteristics: • • • • •

Quick fix, doesn’t solve behavior problem. Doesn’t address student’s beliefs or thoughts. Has little or no value to student learning. Focuses on action not the cause of the behavior. No long-term results/benefits.

Discipline: To train or develop by instruction and exercise especially in self-control, to bring under control, penalize for the sake of enforcing obedience and perfecting moral character. Discipline Characteristics: • • • • •

Strategic approach to changing behavior through planning, teaching and evaluating. Provides logical consequences and focuses on long-term changes in behavior. Doesn’t focus on an isolated behavior, but develops skills to choose positive behaviors. Addresses the cause of the behavior and creates a safe and positive learning environment for all. Takes commitment, planning and on-going problem solving.

Below is a short true-false quiz to help you get a measuring on your understanding of student acting-out behaviors: (Answers at the bottom of page 26)

1. Children are born knowing proper behavior? 2. Societal changes have lead to more and more children coming to school lacking social and emotional skills to properly function in the school setting? 3. Students cannot learn if they cannot control their behavior? 4. Acting out behaviors will continue unless the discipline to avoid having to do it again is the motivator for the student? 5. Detentions, In-School Suspension and Friday School programs are punishments that are changing negative behaviors to positive behaviors? 6. It is not the role of the classroom teacher to address acting out behaviors and/or teach appropriate school behaviors? It is obvious that children are not born knowing how to behave. All behavior is learned! If a student is acting out in class using inappropriate behaviors, he has learned the behaviors somewhere along the way to that classroom. It may have been learned outside of the school setting or within the school setting. It doesn’t matter where it was learned, what matters is the reorganization of the negative behaviors and the need for a plan to teach replacement behaviors.

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It is becoming more apparent that social-economic status is no longer the main reason why certain students display inappropriate behaviors at school. The change in parent and community views on education, the negative press on the operations of schools and the shift to entitlement expectations are having as much of an impact on student behavior as that of the students who come to the school setting with little or no educational stimulation outside of the school. When students enter the classroom and cannot meet the expectations of the teacher, they resort to acting out-behaviors to mask their inability to do the schoolwork. Additionally, when a student can’t get along with others, aren’t accepted by peers, not being showered with individual attention that they are use to getting outside of the school setting, or just don’t get things their way, acting-out behaviors will surface. Knowing this makes it obvious that helping students properly behave in a school setting is the teacher’s responsibility, regardless if the parents participate in helping develop the replacement behaviors or not. Finding the intrinsic motivator via replacement behaviors and self-regulation of behaviors is not an easy task. It is one that takes a great deal of planning and perseverance. Teachers need to use other staff as a resource in finding a student’s intrinsic motivator. How others see the student and his/her behaviors may be different in different environmental settings. What is happening in a math class may not happen in art class. Again, getting to know the student as an individual is important to be able to help determine why a student may be displaying inappropriate acting out behaviors. There are numerous cases of students who display acting out behaviors on a regular basis that have had all of the traditional punishments of detentions, in school detention, Friday/Saturday School and out of school suspension. The percentage of students who find these punishments as a deterrent to not repeat acting out behaviors is very small. It is not suggested that these punishments should not be used; however, it is necessary for the chronic acting-out student to have additional support in changing negative behaviors. Not only do words not change behavior, repeating the same punishment activities over and over again for a student will not change behavior. As with words, if a punishment were effective once given, there would not be any more acting-out behaviors by a student. To help every student learn, meet the curriculum levels, pass state tests and be ready to move on to the next level of education, it truly is the responsibility of the teacher to make sure each student has the tools to be successful in all of these areas. If, as mentioned earlier, behavior is interfering with a student’s ability to learn, it is the responsibility of those teachers who work with the student to provide that student with a means to overcome the inappropriate behaviors. When addressing the acting-out student, remember to look at the negative behavior not the student. Focus on what the student needs to do in the future to eliminate the acting out behaviors. Relate the strategies to be used to overcome the negative behaviors directly to the student making sure the student can articulate the problem behaviors and the need to change them. Look to provide the student with skills to self-regulate so as to become responsible for decisions that were made to perform negative behaviors. Finally, assist the student in understanding and accepting natural or logical consequences for his/her acting out behaviors. In setting up a behavior intervention plan using the strategy of “if” and “then” can help the student see the sequence of positive behaviors that lead to the positive consequences. For example, if the student comes to class and refrains from making any negative comments to other students, then they can get their free time of recess restored. Setting this type of intervention plan up in writing and 24

having all parties sign it is a way to teach contract agreements and natural consequences for not abiding by the contract. Finally, when helping the student develop intrinsic motivation and self-control, don’t forget to actively seek out the positive things that students do and reinforce the positive behaviors immediately as they occur. By recognizing the positive things students do and giving immediate praise for the positive behaviors, students will internalize the praise and repeat the desirable behaviors instead of the negative behaviors. Not to say that punishment cannot be effective for some students. However, if punishment doesn’t change the undesired behaviors in one or two applications, that punishment will not change a student’s behavior.

Motivation and Punishment “All Students Are Motivated” In Rick Lavoie’s book “The Motivation Breakthrough,” he shares an incident he encountered during a question and answer session following a faculty training presentation he did at a small midwestern high school on strategies to help motivate students in the educational setting. A high school teacher spoke up saying, “Quite simply, it’s not my job to motivate these kids. If they come to my class and they want to sit quietly and learn history, I will gladly give them the facts, information, and concepts that they need. If they are not motivated to learn then they can sit in the back of the class and sleep if they wish. It’s their choice. It’s their loss. I communicate information and I do that well. But if a kid doesn’t care to learn it, that is not my problem. It’s his problem. I’m a teacher, not a cheerleader.” As a classroom teacher you have to decide which side of the fence you are on. Are teachers responsible to just share content to students through their enthusiasm to complete the learning process for the student or are teachers responsible to find a way so that all students can master the content to the best of the student’s ability? There are two basic ways a teacher can respond to the most important teacher question, “What are you hired to teach?” The first being the 20th century response of, “I teach (content or grade level) to students. The second, and appropriate response is “I teach students.” It doesn’t matter the content or grade level, the key is to focus on the student and find a way to help the student learn the selected content. Understanding the process of motivation and what role it plays in educating students is something that all educators should have knowledge. Motivation is one concept that has many misconceptions about the role it plays in our lives. To understand how motivation affects our daily lives and the decisions we make, it is important to understand that all human behavior is motivated! Consider a student who refuses to do his worksheet during class. As the teacher is walking around the classroom she notices that the student is doodling on his paper instead of trying to answer the questions. After several reminders and encouraging comments by the teacher, the student makes little or no effort in meeting the directives 25

of the teacher. How would you classify this student’s behavior? Most would say he is unmotivated! How about the student who never does his homework, is he also unmotivated? Actually, it is just the opposite; the student was motivated not to do the worksheet, and not to follow the teacher’s directives or to do the homework assignment. The focus for this motivation could be many things. The student may be focused on avoiding failure, preventing frustration angering the teacher to obtain her attention or entertain the class for peer attention. The key here is to help the student want to focus on the positives in their education not the negatives. To begin to understand the function of the student’s focus, it is necessary to investigate why the student’s focus is on something other than the teacher’s directive. When a hypothesis is developed for the student’s negative focus, the teacher’s role is to determine what replacement behaviors should be taught to eliminate the negative focus. These strategies for helping the student be more focused on the desired behaviors versus the undesired behaviors must be put in place, practiced, monitored and reinforced. All human behavior is motivated. Every behavior we manifest on any given day is motivated. If you decide to stop reading this information at this point you are motivated not to read any longer. To say you as the reader are not motivated would be a misconception. In the example above where the student doesn’t follow the teacher directives or does not do his school work, the student’s problem is not a lack of motivation. Rather, it is misdirected motivation. Many times as educators we look for that magic motivator for a student. We may promise incentives or rewards to help change the student’s behavior. However, these strategies, although with good intentions, will have little or no effect on changing a student’s motivation to produce the desired behavior. A well-planned and implemented reward program can be helpful in meeting short-term goals of modifying a student’s behavior. However, the reward program should only be part of the overarching long-range plan for changing negative behaviors to positive behaviors. Of primary importance is for all teachers to acknowledge that with the use of motivational strategies that “a teacher cannot motivate a student out of a skill deficit.” No reward system or motivational technique will eliminate a skill deficit. Only corrective teaching and progress monitoring with an urgent sense of helping the student intrinsically will the skill deficit be eliminated. The key is to get the student to acknowledge personal satisfaction for a job well done in meeting the expected behaviors in the school environment. Helping students, or even requiring students, to set individual goals for themselves can help develop intrinsic motivation, which is the key to developing positive motivation for a student to develop the appropriate replacement behaviors. Setting individual student goals builds upon the student’s personal interests that can be connected to the curriculum as a motivator that will drive the student intrinsically. To begin helping students become intrinsically motivated educators should avoid using peer motivation strategies of competition. Research at The University of Massachusetts discovered that in the elementary school setting nearly 80 percent of on-task time was developed around competition between peers. This myth that unitizing peer competition motivates students is just not true. The only student motivated by competition is the student who believes that he has a chance of winning. Answers to Quiz: 1) False, 2) True, 3) True, 4) True, 5) False, 6) False

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Consider those individuals who participate in the Boston Marathon. How many runners enter with the goal of winning the 26 mile race? Probably just a few! So who are all the other runners running against? Themselves! Looking at this example, we can come to the conclusion that most people do their best when they compete against themselves, not others. This highlights the importance of understanding motivation; “People are motivated by the things they want to accomplish, their goals, dreams, or aspirations.” Having an understanding of motivation with an intrinsic focus, it is highly likely that students will be motivated to do their personal best versus being the best. Helping students measure their individual growth through visual progress monitoring (charts, portfolios, success stickers) will develop the intrinsic gratification that will not only lead to better academic performance but also eliminate negative behaviors from surfacing. Why is it imperative to have each individual student measure his/her progress against themselves? Quite simply, students learn to dislike learning due to being unsuccessful. Students don’t enter school unmotivated to learn. Actually, all students entering school are eager to learn but quickly become disinterested when they are unable to perform at a successful level. Measuring students with different learning styles is like measuring apples and oranges against each other. One will always have a higher nutritional value than the other depending on what nutritional value is being sought. An orange has a much higher vitamin C value than an apple. To measure both for their success in producing vitamin C and having them compete against each other will only give the apple a personality complex because the apple will never develop (learn) vitamin C to the same level as an orange. Students are motivated by different things! It doesn’t make one student better or worse than another, just different. The effective teacher recognizes this and adjusts their instructional practices accordingly. How does this concept of competition translate into the transition from school to the workplace? A 2003 governmental survey revealed that most employment situations are not competitive in nature. The key to success in the workplace is competence, cooperativeness, and motivation, not the ability to compete. Twenty-first century sociologists assert that America is not a competitive society at all. In fact, America may well be the most cooperative society in the history of mankind. Competition does not ensure success or progress; cooperation does. Every classroom lesson can be placed in one of three types of categories, 1) Individualized, 2) Cooperative or 3) Competitive. For example, Bill and Sarah are classmates. For an individualized activity the teacher would ask Bill and Sarah to simultaneously complete their assigned tasks. Using math to illustrate this, Bill is working independently on his six times table while Sarah is working independently on the nine times table. Bill’s success or failure has no impact on Sarah’s success or failure. During a cooperative activity the teacher may assign Bill and Sarah the task of putting together a power point presentation on the benefits of solar energy. Bill is a whiz at developing slides and integrating graphics into the presentation. Sarah is much better at research and finding the content to build the power point. During the development of the presentation Bill cannot find or download a graphic that is essential to the presentation. Sarah has outstanding artistic ability and draws a sketch to represent the content. Sarah is eager and willing to cooperate and help Bill as his success largely affects her success. 27

In an independent activity, Bill’s success or failure is not impacted by Sarah’s performance. In the cooperative activity, Sarah’s success is largely dependent on Bill’s success. In a competitive activity, Bill’s success is largely determined by Sarah’s failure. Only if she fails can he be successful.

It’s Not Your Mother’s Car: Every generation goes through the same change process. When we think about the development of music it seems that every generation has its own identity through certain music styles. Trying to understand the behavioral actions of some students is no different. The old saying of, “If you get in trouble at school you will be in more trouble at home” is no longer the norm. Students are confused about the mixed messages they are getting between home and school. The popular Buick commercial, “It’s Not Your Mother’s Car” drove home the point that what was popular or state of the art in the past doesn’t meet the needs and interests of today’s car driver. This is how society has changed. In contrast to today’s schools we are trying to sell the Buick of the past to students of today. Thus, the ability to change instructional practices using 21st century measures is a must for all teachers to embrace for the future benefit of their students. As mentioned earlier, student surveys and relationship building are keys to educating each student in a classroom. Parent surveys or interest cards will give teachers a different perspective, although very biased; this information is critical in developing a true teacher student relationship. Besides, being able to refer to parent comments in parent-teacher conferences or meetings to discuss their students’ behaviors can pay big dividends.

Progress Monitoring A Change in Behavior Behavior is more difficult to measure than academics. This is why it is important for a classroom teacher to establish behavioral expectations on the first day of class in a positive demeanor. Instead of sharing the don’ts for classroom expectations, inform the students what behaviors they are expected to display on a daily basis. Be sure to include both individual and group behavior expectations. The only true way to measure the gradual reduction of acting out behaviors is to monitor the reduction of the acting out behaviors on a daily and weekly basis. If a student is blurting out in class ten times a day, the teacher should take time to independently work with the student and demonstrate what the replacement behavior should be and look like. Over the first couple of weeks if the behavior is reduced to only eight times per day, the student is making progress toward eliminating the inappropriate behavior and is starting to use replacement behaviors. The eight acting out episodes are still just as annoying as when there were ten of them but progress is being made. If the teacher doesn’t have a visual monitoring of the decrease in inappropriate behaviors, it is very likely that it will be determined that the intervention strategies are not working and it will be easy to abandon the intervention program which usually results in a greater level of frustration for the 28

teacher and the necessity of starting a new intervention program. If not carefully monitoring this vicious cycle it will be never-ending, guaranteeing a visit from upset parents. Without a doubt it will be necessary to continue to work with the student until the inappropriate behavior is totally eliminated and the replacement behavior is firmly in place. The time line for eliminating the inappropriate behaviors will be different for each student. Therefore, it is important not to assume that what worked for another student with the same acting out behaviors will work exactly the same for a different student. A critical mistake that many teachers make is not taking time to celebrate a student’s success for partially meeting the goal of eliminating inappropriate behaviors. Since it can take a long time before the unwanted behavior to be totally eliminated, it is important to stop and let the student know what progress they have made. The key is to let the student know that they are making good progress but there is still work to do to meet the overarching goal of eliminating the inappropriate behaviors. The positive praise and recognition for progress made will directly affect the student’s intrinsic motivation.

Understanding the Brain and How It Learns Differently When Technology Is Used: “We are literally in the midst of an educational technology revolution that is changing the definition of the teacher.” Larry Rosen, PH.D “As a cognitive neuroscientist and scholar of reading, I am particularly concerned with the plight of the reading brain as it encounters this technologically rich society.” Maryanne Wolf, author of The Reading Brain This section covers the basics for understanding how today’s technology strong students learn and how the brain develops as the result of a constant bombardment of technology. Education is undergoing a process of change in our country like never before! The process of teaching children is being reformed in all aspects of the instructional day. Within this reformation, educators are being faced with more mandates that many times do not afford themselves to proper resources or background to properly implement the mandates. In addition students are not interested in the traditional fact-based instructional model for learning. Students are tuning out more and more each year. Technological advances have moved so fast that educators are having a difficult time trying to keep up with the changes. As technology is changing educators’ world, our students are acclimating much faster because technology is a continuous part of their environment for all aspects of their lives, not just learning. With this in mind it is important for educators to accept that change is a regular part of the instructional day that affects planning and how instruction is delivered. Today’s technology uses will soon give way to new and better uses of technology for educating our students. Accepting that change is unavoidable, it is the educator’s responsibility to adapt in meeting the educational needs of our students. By no means is the use of technology the sole answer in meeting student’s present and future educational needs. However, it serves as a valuable tool in helping students prepare for the twenty29

first century. So why are many students who are technology strong and have a never-ending access in most environmental settings still not engaging themselves in the learning process? To understand this lack of engagement by students, it is important to point out that it is not the lack of effort on educators’ part. Educators are truly trying to keep up with all the technological changes, while at the same time trying to meet all the mandates of federal, state and local agencies for student outcomes in academic performance. Effort and hard work is not a concern. The issue is that educators are working hard at practices that are becoming outdated. It is not about working hard, it is about working smarter. As educators are trying to keep up with the changes and the demographics of their students, as well as change in community expectations, teachers are also obligated to close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that students who are not performing at predetermined state and federal standards can be college and career ready upon graduation. Accountability for student outcomes, especially in regards to closing achievement gaps (RttT), has become the primary focus behind making sure students can demonstrate proficiency in the core academic disciplines. The fidelity at which the achievement gaps must be closed is an outcome measure in itself. Due process for the development of instructional practices is no longer the key focal point just for special education teachers and staff. The development of instructional practices for all students for both academics and social-emotional skill sets is an accountability point of emphasis from the federal level down to the local school district. Intervention services for all students regardless if there is an identified educational disability or not is also under intense scrutiny when it comes to students who are not meeting the predetermined performance levels. Many teachers believe that the use of technology will overcome these challenges. The use of technology must be systematically implemented with the understanding that technology cannot replace strong and effective teacher lead instruction. So what is missing in our instructional practices that can overcome the lack of interest and disengagement by many students? Many times educators look at resolving problems on the surface from an instructional viewpoint. With technology what is needed is for educators to look at the student first and work their way into vast technology resources that are readily available. When we look at the technology that is available to students and the vastly changing aptitudes and, as mentioned earlier, that will continue to grow at a staggering pace, the possibilities are endless. However, it is important to look beyond the functions of technology and the opportunities for learning it brings. Educators must look at how students learn with the use of technology. The brain, or digital brain, responds to different types of stimuli and the use of technology is no different. We must understand how the use of technology affects student’s learning, in particular, how the digital brain processes information presented by technology devices. Just as important the understanding of how the digital brain has been learning as a result of technology exposure over the past several years.

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The Digital Brain Technology is having a major impact on education! When it comes to teaching the current generation of students, teachers must understand the effects that technology is having on the ability of students to learn. Knowing how the digital brain processes information, manages educational tasks, how the digital brain has been trained for learning, and how the brain can be made more readily available to access the learning process will help teachers understand the thinking process of students who make poor behavior decisions. In Matt Richtel’s series, “Our Brains on Computers,” he says "Just as food nourishes us and we need it for life, so too in the 21st century and the modern age we need technology. You cannot survive without the communication tools and the essential productivity tools." And yet, food has pros and cons to it. We know that some food is Twinkies and some food is brussels sprouts. And we know that if we overeat, it causes problems. Similarly, after 20 years of glorifying technology as if all computers were good and all use of it was good, science is beginning to embrace the idea that some technology is Twinkies and some technology is brussels sprouts." What teachers must be aware of, according to Richtel, is that research continues to be on-going; particularly into how heavy technology may fundamentally alter the frontal lobe during childhood, how addictive behavior can lead to poor decision-making and how the brain is rewired when it is constantly inundated with new information. A study conducted at Stanford University revealed that heavy multimedia users have trouble filtering out irrelevant information, and have trouble focusing on tasks. Other research uncovered that heavy video game playing may release dopamine, which is thought to be involved with addictive behaviors. This is particularly troubling for the student who has developed negative acting behaviors and gets no reinforcement outside of the school setting for positive replacement behaviors. Adults are also being rewired as a result of heavy use of technology! When an adult gets a cell phone buzz in his pocket or a ring, they get what is known as a dopamine squirt. One gets a little rush of adrenaline. What happens in the absence of the buzz or ring is that a person begins to feel bored. People have been conditioned by a neurological response from the heavy use of technology as if the technology is saying, “Check me check me check me” when the device has not been activated over a period of time. Students, too, get this same bored feeling when they are away from their regular dosage of technology. As students progress through the school years, the reliance on the over indulgence of technology can become greater and greater. Students can become obsessed with the need for the exposure to technology. When it is determined that a student has developed poor decision-making as a result of the addiction to the use and exposure of technology, a teacher can build into the daily lesson planning the use of technology to satisfy the addiction. The texting craze is the main means of communication for school-age students today. When students use texting as the primary means of communicating they are missing out on the important skill of social interaction. When this occurs there is no body language in the communication exchange. The social skill of reading others body language is not only lost, but fails to develop during the important pre-adolescent years. Social skills are not learned and digital excess produces loss of focus and the ability to properly interact with others. 31

To emphasize this neglect of skill development, consider how dendrites in the brain are pruned as a result of not being stimulated through the learning process. (Dendrites are treelike branches in the brain that carry electrical impulses to the body from one neuron to another neuron that leads to learning.) We know this pruning is the greatest between ages 13-18, a very important time for students in their educational career. It is during this stage of the student’s life that the student begins to focus on personal interests and future planning and needs to make sure multiple skill sets are being developed. So, what does this pruning look like? It is the simple process of elimination of brain cell connectors (dendrites). During early childhood as the brain develops and matures, it is the brain cells constant use that develops our intellectual abilities and skills. If part of the brain is not being used then the pruning of cells begins by the brain discarding the dendrites that are not being stimulated by electrical impulses. Without the stimulation the brain cells are not considered needed and nature takes it course in discarding the brain cells not being used. Educators are familiar with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), but must also be aware of a condition known as Digital Attention Deficit Disorder (DADD). It is estimated that Digital ADD is affecting 10% of our youth by age 3. The average school-age child is exposed to 8.5 hours per day of digital interaction. If this is true then what are the effects of so much technology exposure? Technology in itself is not a bad thing. What educators need to know is that the massive exposure to technology is affecting our students’ ability to learn in the same manner as previous generations; therefore, dictating the need to understand the learning styles and abilities of our current technology strong students. Most learning in a traditional classroom is routed through the frontal lobe of the brain which is where we develop our executive functions that controls and manages our cognitive processes. It is responsible for processes that are sometimes referred to as the executive functions, executive skills, supervisory attentional system, or cognitive control. These functions are largely carried out by prefrontal areas of the frontal lobe. Executive function is an umbrella term for cognitive processes such as planning, working memory, attention, problem solving, verbal reasoning, inhibition, mental flexibility, multi-tasking, initiation and monitoring of actions. This frontal area has also been found to be associated with verbal and design fluency, ability of maintain and shift set, planning, response inhibition, working memory, organizational skills, reasoning, sensory integration, problem solving and abstract thinking. The frontal cortex plays a key role in impulse control, maintenance of set, monitoring ongoing behavior and socially appropriate behaviors. The frontal cortex also has roles in representing the value of rewards based on sensory stimuli and evaluating subjective emotional experiences. Lesions due to lack of stimulation results in pruning of dendrites causing loss in inhibition, impulsivity, aggressive outbursts, and antisocial behavior. The very things that we are seeing an increase in inappropriate beahvior in the classroom! In contrast, the posterior part of the brain, cerebellum, is stimulated by coordination of movement, walking, balance, and color. The digital world does not stimulate the sensory integration part of our brain. Therefore, teachers knowing that most students are being over exposed to technology need to build in reflection time during instruction making sure that digital students are having an equal dose of stimulation to the posterior and anterior brain lobes, and they are being properly stimulated. 32

Using Technology to Keep Students Engaged in The Learning Process: Knowing how the brain is affected by the world of technology and how the brain learns differently, knowing how to use this information to a teacher’s advantage in keeping students engaged in their learning is of utmost importance. Unfortunately for those educators who look at change as a personal attack on them, this may be difficult to comprehend until they learn to say “yes” to trying something different in the best interest of their students, even if it takes the teacher out of their comfort zone. Change is a word that affects everyone a little differently. Veteran teachers usually don’t like change because it takes them out of their comfort zone. Many times change is seen as an intrusion and challenge to the teacher’s professional expertise. Much like the teacher who has, for several years, been isolated in the classroom in providing information to students, the change of what to do with the generation of digitally inundated students who need 21st century skills of collaboration and creativity, this change in instructional practices can be overwhelming. Teachers must adjust their teaching style to reach this new generation of learners or they will fail in meeting the needs of the whole child. Students no longer need their teachers just for the sharing of information. Information access is literally at their fingertips. What teachers need to do is give students the basic information and then help them manipulate the information. Students today are growing up with the love of embracing rapid change. That is the world we all live in, a world of rapid change. The need to memorize is a 20th century skill that is not nearly as important as it once was. As a classroom teacher the change from providing information and then have it recycled doesn’t prepare students to exist in a world that rapidly changes around them. What teachers need to do is help the student to navigate information and help them figure out how to trust the information they obtain. When students can confidently do this then their possibilities in learning are unlimited. John Dewey Hodges put it this way, “If we teach students the way we taught them yesterday, we are robbing them of tomorrow.” In preparing students for tomorrow, teachers need to address the development of the whole child. To ignore this is to deny students the social, emotional, and problem-solving skills that they will encounter in their future careers. We know that students respond best when the instructional content can be matched with an area of interest for the student. Technology provides immediate connections to experts in the field of the student’s interests. When students begin to become disengaged or are showing the characteristics of acting out, allowing the student to use technology to address an area of interest can de-escalate acting out behaviors and get the student re-engaged with instructional content in a calculated and calm manner. The use of video games may seem inappropriate or play by many teachers. However, video games are nothing more than a problem solving activity. Trying to figure out how to win the game or move to the next level is all problem solving, and the student is having fun learning. Consider using a video game in groups of two or three allowing each student a turn at playing the game. Have the groups debrief the game and map out the strategies in how to win the game or move to the next level. This type of activity promotes social and emotional competencies that involve the collaborative process. 33

If as an educator the use of video games is taking you out of your comfort zone, consider this double standard: Students who spend months preparing for a school play or athletic contest are considered dedicated, focused and motivated. However, students who strive to beat a video game are looked on as having an addiction or some kind of problem. This is usually brought about by adults who don’t have an interest in what another person is striving to master; therefore, creating a double standard by painting a negative image of that person’s interest quest. Jeff Dunham, considered by most entertainment experts, is the world’s greatest ventriloquist. If you have every heard Jeff’s story of growing up and his addictive interest in puppetry, he shares how others looked at him in a negative way. Jeff does get the last laugh; he was projected to be the second highest grossing entertainer in 2011. Educators need to be careful how labels are placed upon students in the area of their interests. Technology can provide students with a voice they may not have had before as a result of pursuing learning through an area of interest instead of trying to explain and support a teacher selected topic that has little or no meaning to them. To emphasize this, we can all relate to our ability to talk about something we know and have an interest in. Think about a party or social event you have attended and the majority of the people begin talking about a subject that you have little interest or know very little about. You feel uncomfortable, out of place, and certainly don’t have the confidence to speak up. This is how many students feel when they don’t have an interest or enough background information to appropriately participate in the classroom setting. When teaching moves from giving information to helping students manipulate, research, and correlate information, the teacher moves away from a defunct 1920’s style of teaching, which still exists in most schools today, in particular at the high school level. Research has proven that most schools still operate in the comprehensive factory assembly line structure. However, today’s business world doesn’t want employees that have facts (as mentioned earlier facts can be readily available instantly), businesses want employees who can manipulate and apply facts. As educators to do anything different threatens our students future success. A strategy that can be effective but presents a challenge for most teachers is to allow students to be producers of content. This may seem an unlikely strategy considering all the new and expanded content standards teachers are responsible for. However, guiding students to areas that support content standards will provide students with a greater understanding and ability to manipulate content. This strategy also lends itself to helping the student develop the intrinsic motivation to be fully engaged and learn the content. Digital learning is only limited by the imagination of the teacher and the available resources the teacher has at his/her disposal. Digital learning strategies have to be looked at as life-long skills needed for the 21st century. There is no way a student can learn everything they need to in the short time educators have to work with them in mastering the content standards. It is more important to give a student the “process” that they can use regardless of the content to be learned. Teachers must develop more abstract learning opportunities for students and move away from linear instructional strategies. Adults don’t live in a linear world so why would teachers develop lessons and instruction that are overly linear in nature? Henry Jenks, a professor at the University of Southern California, had his graduate students interview high school students around the world. In every case younger people have a richer intellectual creative life outside of the school setting. 34

Think about a middle school or high school social studies class addressing content standards related to the American Revolutionary War. Instead of providing dates, times, locations and people that are important to the American Revolution, how about providing students with some of the basic facts that lead to the outcome of the war. Then ask the students to consider “What If?” Have students find sources that support the outcome of “What if the outcome of the war was different? Possibilities are endless due to the immediate availability of information at the fingertips of students. Digital learning is in its infancy. There is so much more to come. Educators need to be prepared to help our students to properly use the technology that will undoubtedly become more prevalent in their daily lives. Ignoring this change in instructional practices will only be a disservice to our students. It also makes it a greater challenge each passing year for those educators who continue to fall behind in embracing the digital changes in education.

Perspective From Your Own Experiences When teachers have to deal with students who chronically act out or have emotional outbursts, the process can seem overwhelming and certainly unpredictable. This creates a certain amount of anxiety for all concerned. Many times teachers are short-sighted because most of what they know about student life at school comes from their own personal experiences. It is easy to estimate that the majority of teachers today were good students, motivated to do well in school, had few or no peer problems, and came from a supportive family environment. These experiences are most likely not the same experiences the chronic acting out student experiences. Likewise, these students have experienced a different time period, in a different family environment and under different social circumstances. Many of the experiences that teachers had are no longer in place. This is no different for parents as well! They can only draw from their own experiences and deal with the current social structure. The majority of parents come from a denial mentality when they are confronted by school officials that their child is chronically acting out. Regardless of the parent’s situation during school, regardless of their experiences good or bad, parents will be in denial that their child will make wrong choices or be influenced by the same school and community related pressures they were. Most parents rely on their personal school experiences in determining they are educational experts, especially when behavior is a concern. Combining teacher and parent past experiences and biases, which many times are conflicting, and trying to grasp the present-day educational needs of students is a natural clash of perceptions. The outstanding teacher can look through the eyes of their students and determine the instructional needs and how best to present them to meet modern day content standards while preparing the whole child for the future. Parents may think, “What happens with other people’s children in school won’t happen to mine.” “I didn’t do dumb things when I was in school, so my child shouldn’t either.”

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Willingness to Help All Students Regardless if You Like Them or Not: It is not easy to like all students and nowhere is it written that teachers have to like every student the same. It is OK to let students know that you will like some of them more than others. Where common interests lie and those students who are obedient and take learning serious is a teacher’s ideal student and are easily liked. However, that doesn’t release any teacher from the goal of helping every student be as successful as possible. Let students know that everyone in the class will have the same opportunities to learn (21st century) skills, and that all efforts will be made to make sure each student will be learning skills that will help them be successful throughout life. Correlate the need to use these skills through a student’s current endeavors of team sports, clubs, and family activities as life-long skills.

Helpful Hints for Working With Non-Compliant and Acting-Out Behaviors: When a child begins to display inappropriate behaviors use the “Directive Cycle” to address the developing behavior and to deescalate it before it gets to the rage (peak) stage. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Directive Cycle Get eye contact Say the child’s name Give the directive in small pieces Follow up and praise

Getting eye contact forces the child to focus on the teacher and not the acting out behavior. Saying the child’s name brings the focus on the person not the behavior. When a student is beginning to get upset or his/her behavior has escalated to the rage (peak) stage, bombarding the student with words will only add to the student’s frustration and add fuel to the fire. The only one getting any satisfaction from the over use of words is the person providing the barrage of words in an attempt to reduce their own frustration. It is extremely important to follow up with the acting out situation and to use praise when the student has used his/her skills to help deescalate the situation or refrain from displaying more intense acting out behaviors. Remember it is the behavior that we dislike and want to change not the child!

Classroom Management When working with a diverse student population, step one is the step that most educators believe they have a good handle on but many times can’t see the forest for the trees: classroom management. This toolkit is not about how to set up a typical classroom, although that is a very small part of preparing to teach a diverse population. It is about building relationships and recognizing who you are as an educator.

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Using Behavioral Instructional Practices to Manage Student Learning: Unfortunately educators have not changed much in how we look at students who struggle in school. If a child cannot read, we teach them to read; if a child cannot do math, we teach them to do math; however, if a child cannot behave properly, we punish. This section will look at some of the key strategies for teaching children how to behave in an educational setting. No one can argue that 50 years ago parents set the standards and expectations for proper behavior in schools and when in the presence of adults. Over time it is apparent that less and less parental expectations are imposed on children. What once was the teacher is always right has quickly moved to the teacher is not always right. Overcoming behavioral obstacles for students is important if the student is going to get a good start in developing the qualities that lead to a successful adult life. The key obstacle to overcome for students is having the ability to deal with adversity through determination and persistence. Individuals who can do this and not make excuses will be the ones who will be most successful as adults. No matter what, it is our job as educators to teach ALL students! Often we are the adults the students see the most consistently and frequently. We are responsible for their education in spite of what is or is not happening outside of the school environment. Therefore, we as educators must adopt the same policy; no excuses for not helping students learn proper behaviors for different environments. Proactive Teaching Strategies Practicing proactive teaching strategies for classroom management for the purpose of building positive student relationships can eliminate the development of many acting out behaviors in the classroom. The benefit for a conscious effort in proactive relationship building are not only preventing acting out or non-compliant behaviors, it will also help the teacher maintain student’s attention better; therefore, leading to better academic performance by students. Some proactive teaching strategies are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Call students by their first name. Greet students at the door. When addressing students during class be in close proximity to the student. Varying voice. Get at eye level of the student and make eye contact. Acknowledge students for on-task behavior. Acknowledge student’s effort regardless if right or wrong in their conclusions.

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Teach Pro-Social Skills Prevention has always been the best medicine! So is it true for developing positive behaviors in students. As mentioned earlier, it truly is every educator’s responsibility to teach all students positive behavior habits. Beginning with social skills sets the stage for all learning. There are four main things for teaching social skills: 1) It provides healthy alternatives to maladaptive behaviors; 2) It tells students what to do not just what not to do; 3) It builds on skills; 4) It never assumes that a child has the skills to begin with. The brain’s capacity to acquire new knowledge helps determine how and what we intuitively learn. Some learning happens as a matter of cognitive, social, and emotional development, that is from the “inside out”, while other learning happens “from the outside in.” Understanding that a student’s process of initial learning is either internal or external can help teachers know how to develop instruction. Social learning is typically a process that evolves naturally, starting from birth and continuing across one’s life span. Children move from primarily adult-based interactions to observational discovery of their peers as the prelude to play. Play as a developmental milestone also encourages other relevant skills to emerge, such as cooperation, perspective taking, and emotional regard for others. Not coincidentally, as children develop the ability to cooperate and play in a group they are readying themselves to learn in a classroom. As children grow and move from second to third grade, the curriculum shifts from rote leaning in a group to critical thinking in a classroom. At this point children are expected to relate well person to person on the playground, but also determine the motive of a character in a storybook, as well as make predictions about how characters are thinking and feeling. Alongside this academic and cognitive shift, a similar social/emotional change occurs. Children’s goal oriented play (tag, four square, etc.) evolves into deeper levels of personal connection, where children playfully relate to each other through conversational initiations and maintenance. Subtle but persistent advances in social development serve as the engine for a student’s growth socially and emotionally. These advancing concepts apply not only to our social interactions and group participation, but also in the ways we interpret and respond to the curriculum within our coursework. (Garcia-Winner 2010). Consider item number 4 above, educators many times assume that the children in their classrooms have the knowledge, experience and know-how to behave in each environment they come in contact with. Students with behavioral issues usually have suffered neglect of some kind. This neglect often includes not being taught the social skills to appropriately function in their environment. When appropriate social skill development is neglected, students develop their own social skill behaviors (internal learning) that, good or bad, becomes a behavioral habit. Educators must provide the necessary social skill training (external learning) that is equal to their age-appropriate peers so that each student can advance socially and emotionally. By doing so it provides the students the skills they need, thus eliminating the extra baggage of having to work through the social realm before focusing on the academic side of learning. Additionally, if parents have not taught the appropriate social skills, it helps them catch their child doing “good” things and parents can then support the appropriate behaviors as well. There are so many social skills that could be taught depending on the needs of the students in the teacher’s classroom. By making the effort to build a positive relationship with each student, the 38

teacher can begin to see what social skill deficits exist in his/her classroom and integrate social lessons into lesson plans. In determining what social and emotional lessons need to be taught to the students, teachers must recognize those students who are struggling socially and/or emotionally and observe the student’s conversation, peer and adult interaction weaknesses, and then integrate instructional interventions into the daily instructional plan. Below are some of the key social skills that should be considered for students who display inappropriate behaviors on a regular basis: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Ability to ask questions How to deal with conflict How to deal with peers and peer pressure How to problem solve The ability to perceive others’ behaviors and intentions How to apologize with remorse How to work within set limitations Refusal skills How to deal with anger How to deal with aggression How to deal with and understand feelings/Putting self in other’s shoes How to build and maintain positive relationships

The majority of students have the instinctive ability to perceive other’s intentions, however, some students come to school without having this experience. Students must also be able to decode the language of adults and their peers to understand the meaning of the conversation. Unfortunately there are too many students entering the educational world today that don’t have language modeled to them before they start school. Not having the ability to follow along with the meaning of others’ language is a source of frustration that lends itself to the development of negative behaviors to avoid having others see them as stupid. How to Get Commands Obeyed in the Classroom When faced with the a daunting task for managing student behaviors, reflect on the situation of a young, petite, female teacher who learned to give commands to significantly larger high-school students and get positive responses by using the strategy of positive and polite construction of phrases that she learned from reading Jim Fays book, “Teaching with Love and Logic.” The strategies in this book can have a huge impact on how a student responds to a teacher’s command or directive. For example, when asking a student to put his phone away, say, “I need you to put that phone away, please.” This sends a message that: 1. States a clear command. 2. The first three words convey that it’s given for a reason. 3. The reason is that the phone is interfering with the mission of the class. 4. The “please” tells the student that you haven’t forgotten your manners and are treating him or her with respect. 5. It sounds like a reasonable request. 6. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for argument or complaint. 39

The student may make a face, say something under their breath while they do it, but they’ll do it. The other students in the room will take notice. The final step is to say, “Thank You”. It’s the teacher’s way of saying case closed. We’re finished dealing with this issue and I trust that it won’t come up again. Let’s move on. More Than a Teacher Princeton University’s online dictionary defines a leader as “a person who rules or guides or inspires others.” As a classroom teacher we have to see ourselves as the leader of every student in the classroom in preparing him or her for his or her future both academically and behaviorally. We must guide and inspire students to behave within the expected cultural guidelines as determined by the school. If classroom teachers do not see themselves as a leader, then students will only view classroom teachers as a source of information. This information may not be relevant to the student as there is no connection of the information to the school, community or home culture. As students progress through their school career, this becomes increasingly more difficult. Elementary teachers have the advantage of developing relationships that middle school and high school teachers don’t have to the same degree. When the classroom teacher takes time to not only see how the instruction process is benefiting the student, but also takes time to look at what the student needs for the next grade level, in two years, in five years, upon graduation then we are looking at being a leader for that child’s future. Being a leader is knowing that working with a student’s behavior is as important as the acquisition of academic content. We all can remember the classroom teacher who speaks negatively of the student who chronically misbehaves and predicts the problems the child will have in the future. This is tragic. The student needs to be taught how to behave in the school culture and taught the importance of acting differently according to the culture they are participating in.

Never Let Them See You Not Smiling: Like it or not, a classroom teacher is on a pedestal. What you do and say does make a difference. You are a role model everyday! You must have the ability to control your emotions, stay focused and be the hero your students believe you are. Regardless of the age and ability level of your students, and regardless of what their behavior may be projecting to you, you are a hero and role model to your students. Hard to believe? Consider how many students who were behavior problems for you that you run into later in life and they apologize for their behavior. Or the students who can quote what they learned but never displayed in your classroom. Students don’t see teachers as other adults. You are special and your students are expecting special treatment from you. Students don’t want to be treated the same, they want to be treated fairly, as an individual. You are looked upon as someone who is all knowing, tireless, an avenue to the world. Students may not openly say it this way, but they are intrinsically motivated by your presence and expertise.

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When we put someone on a pedestal we eventual get disappointed. That is why we have to be on our guard and never let the students see us not smiling. A person on a pedestal is always smiling, friendly, caring and in control. An unrealistic position bestowed upon a classroom teacher, but one that should always be strived to meet. A smile with good eye contact can begin to tame the toughest lion or acting out student.

The Horse That Won’t Drink The old saying that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink may be true; however, when it comes to the education of students it is a 20th century outdated concept. No longer can educators say that they have done all they can for a student in helping them learn and behave. To just give up on the student is contrary to all the restructuring of educational practices that are being implemented at both the state and federal levels. So what does a teacher do when you have that small percentage of students who just flat our refuse to follow directions, do their work or constantly cause disruptions in the classroom even after an overabundance of interventions and proven strategies have not worked? First, make sure as a classroom teacher you have looked at how you are approaching the problems of concern to make sure that your efforts are not setting the student up for failure instead of helping correct the areas of concern (as shared in the section “Knowing Who You Are As a Teacher Is The Most Important Step). Once this element has been eliminated as the contributing factor to the acting out behaviors, the next and final step is to be persistent. For those students who just won’t comply no matter what, it is time to simply be persistent in encouraging and providing the student opportunities to take advantage of his/her education. The defiant student many times wants to control the behavior of the teacher or person in authority over them. By being obstinate, the hope is that the teacher loses their cool and becomes emotionally upset. The outcome in this situation is gratifying to the student because they not only altered the teacher’s behavior but the teacher’s altered behavior has disrupted the class much more than anything that the student could have done. Getting the teacher to show emotion can result in a game for the student; therefore, the student has an intrinsic motivator to repeat the behavior while at the same time having the student’s negative behavior reinforced. Staying calm, use an encouraging voice, offering personal assistance and letting the student know they will always have an opportunity to follow directions and participate in the learning process takes the air out of the students acting out behavior. When first implementing this strategy, it is more than likely that the student’s acting out and challenging behaviors will increase in an effort to get the teacher upset and lose their cool. So, for the acting out horse in the classroom that just won’t drink when taken to water, stay persistent, each day take the horse to the water, encourage the horse to drink, leave them near the water so they have immediate access to it, and if the horse knocks the water over just keep setting up again with a smile.

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Conclusion Each student is unique just like each teacher is different. The use of any strategic plan for helping a student must consider the teacher’s strengths and the need of the student. What works for one student may not work for another, and yet there may be some strategies that have a positive effect on all students. When a strategy doesn’t work, don’t give up, find a new one and stay calm and positive for the sake of your students, exactly what a hero always does.

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Appendix A (Student Survey Samples)

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Appendix B Practical Functional Behavior Assessment (PFBA) PFBA is not about developing strategies. It is about finding out the why in the student’s misbehavior. To do PFBA’s teachers need to be investigators and excellent questions askers. We know about external behaviors because we can see them. However, we don’t know very much about the why of the internal behaviors. When teachers purposely take time to ask, “Why is this behavior happening?” it gives the teacher a more insightful perspective of the student’s behavior. Making decisions based on data and being able to walk in a student’s shoes, the teacher will be able to develop effective individual intervention strategies to help the student overcome his or her acting out behaviors. This is also a great relationship building process if done with an earnest heart to help the student versus doing it just because the school district has a process in place. Harvard Teacher’s College professors Hunter Gehlbach, Maureen Brinkworth, and Ming-Te Wang wrote a research article that began with lyrics from an Elvis Presley song, “If I could be you, if you could be me...Walk a mile in my shoes...Just walk a mile in my shoes.” It is common for people to wish they could get inside the head of others as a means to better understand their point of view. However, more frequently valued is for individuals to wish that others could better see and understand the world from their perspective. For educators this act, known as “social perspective taking”, is a vital skill for living and working in a global society in which we rub shoulders with people quite different from ourselves. Social perspective taking is defined as the motivation and ability to discern the thoughts, feelings, and motivation of others. Researchers have found strong correlations between social perspective taking and a number of important school outcomes: better communication skills, less stereotyping of others, better negotiation and problem-solving skills, being less aggressive when provoked, great social self-efficacy, healthier attachments to others, increased altruistic behavior, and higher grades. When a student begins to show characteristics like the ones recognized in the Rumbling Stage, before reacting to the student’s behaviors take a few seconds to jump into the student’s shoes and try to take a social perspective picture. It may make a huge difference in how the student responds in helping correct the disrupting behavior. Additionally, the purpose of the Practical Functional Behavior Assessment (PFBA) is to assure that a whole-child approach is used in addressing student development in the school setting. This process uses school personnel with a diversity of roles to conduct a proactive behavior assessment to prevent intensive problem behaviors and decrease the reliance on the student needing a behavior intervention plan and appropriately develop self-regulation skills. It is a relatively simple and efficient process to guide behavior support planning. The PFBA system is used to help identify student behaviors that interfere with learning as early as possible and to provide instructional behavioral interventions as early as possible. It is common knowledge that more and more students are attending school with poor social and emotional skills that interfere with the student’s ability to access or benefit from instruction. These deficits in appropriate school behaviors cannot be ignored or expected to be remedied outside of the school 44

setting. With this understanding it is imperative that school staff believe that each child, in each school, in each of our buildings deserves to be healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. That’s what a whole-child approach to learning, teaching, and community engagement really is. The PFBA is a process to assure that all students have an opportunity to be taught in an engaging whole-child instructional environment. This process is designed to work with students with mild to moderate problem behaviors (behaviors that are NOT dangerous or occurring in many settings). All students should go through a PFBA before a referral for a comprehensive FBA is made. The Practical FBA Process: 1. Has 4 steps (DASH): Define, Ask, See, & Hypothesize 2. Is an understanding of the ABC’s of behavior; • (B) the starting point is the behavior, • (A) then what happens before the behavior, • (C) and after the behavior. 3. Defines behaviors that need to be explained in such a way that they are observable & measurable so that anyone who does not know that student could point out the behaviors. 4. Identifies a student’s functional of behavior (or pay-off): either to get or avoid something (attention, activities, or tangible items). 5. Result in a Hypothesis Statement that summarizes the ABC’s of behavior and hypothesizes the function of a student’s behavior. Many of the steps that are involved in a comprehensive FBA are also present in the PFBA but to a lesser degree. The steps to follow in conducting a PFBA are represented by the acronym DASH: Define behavior in observable & measurable terms Ask about behavior by interviewing staff & student -specify routines where & when behaviors occur -summarize where, when, & why behaviors occur See the behavior -observe the behavior during routines specified -observe to verify summary from interviews Hypothesize: a final summary of where, when & why behaviors occur

Requesting a PFBA: Any school personnel may make a referral for a PFBA by completing a request of assistance through the district’s Child Study Process (CSP). Team members are determined on a case-by-case basis addressing the needs of the student. Parent involvement is highly recommended at the beginning stages of the PFBA.

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Completing PFBA Interview Guide: Routines Analysis Step #1: Start with the student’s strengths. When conducting a Functional Assessment Checklist always start with the student’s strengths. -Begin with focus on positive skills and attributes of student. Step #2: Ask: Where, when, with whom, problem behaviors that are most likely Time: List the times that define changes in the student’s daily schedule. Include subject changes, changes in classes, transitions, lunch, before, etc. Activity & Staff: Identify the activity or routine (e.g. small group instruction, math, independent art, transition) during each time identified and the staff involved. Likelihood of Problem Behavior: Likelihood of Problem Behavior: Rate the likelihood of problem behavior during each time/activity/routine on the 1 to 6 scale provided. Problem Behavior: Indicate the specific problem behavior(s) that occur during each time with a rating of 4, 5, or 6. Current Intervention: Indicate any interventions currently in place for the problem behavior during that time Step #3: List the Routines in Priority of Behavior Support & Select the single most prioritized routine to focus on. Since the function of problem behavior often varies across different environments and settings, it is essential that we always focus on behavior within the context of a routine: 1. First, identify those routines with the highest ratings (4, 5 or 6 in the Routines Analysis). 2. Select between 1 to 2 routines for further analysis and prioritize which routine to begin the assessment with. Write the name of the highest priority routine and the most common problem behavior(s) during that routine in Routine #1. 3. Do the same for Routine #2. In some cases, it may be possible to combine multiple routines, but only when the structure and demands within the routine are very similar. Examples of combined/multiple routines: • Consistent problem behavior in recess, lunch and free-time might be combined into unstructured times with peers • If problems occur in reading and social studies primarily during round-robin reading, the routine might be large group reading, which would encompass both reading and social studies. If you determine that there are more than 2 distinct routines identified, refer the case to a behavior specialist.

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Practical Functional Assessment Checklist: Student: ___________________________________ Grade: _____________ Date: __________________ Staff Interviewed: _______________________________________________ Student Strengths: Identify at least three strengths or contributions the student brings to school: Academics Strengths - ___________________________________________________________________________ Social/Recreational - ____________________________________________________________________________ Other - _______________________________________________________________________________________ ROUTINES ANALYSIS: Where and With Whom Problem Behaviors are Most Likely. Time

Activity & Staff Involved

Likelihood of Problem Behavior 1

2

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6

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Specific Problem Behavior

Current Intervention for the Problem Behavior

List the Routines in order of Priority for Behavior Support: Select routines with ratings of 5 or 6. Only combine routines when there is significant (a) similarity of activities (conditions) and (b) similarity of problem behavior(s).

Routine # 1

Routines/Activities/Context Problem Behavior(s)

Problem Behavior(s)

Routine # 2

BEHAVIOR(s): Rank order the top priority problem behaviors occurring in the targeted routine above: ___ Tardy ___ Fight/physical Aggression ___ Disruptive ___ Theft ___ Unresponsive ___ Inappropriate Language ___ Insubordination ___ Vandalism ___ Self-injury ___ Verbal Harassment ___ Work not done ___ Other _____________________ Describe prioritized problem behavior(s) in observable terms: ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________

What is the frequency of the Problem Behavior in the targeted routine (# x’s /day or hour)? _______________________ What is the duration of the Problem Behavior in the targeted routine (in seconds or min)? ________________________

Is Behavior Immediate Danger to self/others? Y - N If Yes, refer case to behavior specialist 47

INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR THE PRACTICAL FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT Student: ______________ Interviewer: _____________ Relationship: ____________ Date: _____ Interviews should be conducted with individuals who know the student well and interact with them in a variety of settings and situations (e.g. parents, teachers). In order to get useful information from the interview, questions may need to be repeated and clarified for some respondents. Probing should be done to encourage thoughtful, open communication (e.g. nonjudgmental, unhurried). It may be necessary to record some responses on the back of a separate page. 1. What are the studentʼs strengths, skills and interests?

2. What are the studentʼs challenges and areas of greatest difficulty?

3. What people, things, and activities does the student like most?

4. What people, things, and activities does the student like least?

5. What are the studentʼs problem behaviors? a. How would you describe these behaviors? b.

Which are the most problematic for you?

c.

How often do these behaviors occur?

6. What do you think causes (motivates) the behavior? Why does he/she do it?

7. Under what circumstances do these behaviors occur most frequently? a. With whom (who)? ____________________________________________________ b. In which settings (where)? ______________________________________________ c. What times of day (when)? _____________________________________________ 8. Can you tell when the student is going to behave this way? How?

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9. Do you think there are medical reasons for this behavior(s)? Is the student sick, tired, or hungry?

10. Are there situations in which the behaviors never or rarely occur? Which situations?

11. Does the student have better and more appropriate ways to deal with difficult situations?_________________________________________________________________ communicate his/her wants and needs? __________________________________________ 12. What skills are the student lacking that might help his/her behavior?

13. How do you react/respond to the studentʼs: Problem behavior? __________________________________________________________ Positive behavior? __________________________________________________________ 14. Does the studentʼs behavior allow them to get things? If so, what?

15. Does the studentʼs behavior allow them to avoid things? If so, what?

16. What do you think needs to be done to help this student?

17. What current behavior interventions are in place for this student? (attach existing behavior plan)

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Appendix C Whitakers’s 14 Things That Matter Most To Be An Effective Teacher: Number One: It’s People, Not Programs It is people, not programs that determine the quality of a school. Too many times educators get caught up in looking for “the program” that will bring remedy to problems that interfere with student learning and progress. The magic bullet concept if you will! The search for the ideal program often does not bring improvement or growth sought after. Everyone can think of a program that was taunted to be “the program” that would solve the education for all students. As always, we are disappointed when “the program” doesn’t do what we expect it to do. Programs have never been the solution, and they are never the problem. It is people, not programs that make a school successful. Number Two: Maintaining Consistency for Expectations. Effective teachers establish clear expectations at the start of the school year and follow them consistently as the year progresses. In contrast, the ineffective teacher focuses on rules. In other words, the ineffective teacher is more concerned about the don’ts instead of the dos. Think about it, no one likes being told what to do. In fact the students who were going to meet behavioral expectations would meet them regardless of how the expectations are presented. The student on the border of not meeting expectations or has had a history of not meeting behavioral expectations is sitting in class trying to figure out how to challenge all of the don’ts. We all like to see the positive in things. Stating expectations in a positive manner and then taking time to build a personal relationship with each student will be the formula for student cooperation in meeting established behavioral expectations. Number Three: Preventing It From Happening Again. What does the great teacher do when a student misbehaves? The great teacher has one goal; to keep that behavior from happening again. The least effective teacher has a different goal, revenge. The revengeful teacher focuses on the penalty, the punishment, and the past. As educators we must focus on what we have the ability to influence. We know we can’t change what has already happened; what’s the point in directing our energy in the past? When educators punish the usual result is the student being angry and not focused on their inappropriate behavior, but focused on the reaction behavior of the teacher. Effective teachers understand that what matters is not whether a student leaves the principal’s office mad, feeling guilty or remorseful, or what the student reports to his/her peers, but how the student behaves in the future. The effective teacher knows that they can never win an argument with a student. As soon as an argument begins, the teacher has lost any or all progress in gaining a positive relationship with an acting-out student. The student will say or do anything to save face in front of their peers. Effective teachers know that their pride cannot allow them to get into an argument that will cause a major setback for both the student and the teacher. 50

Number Four: High Expectations for Everyone Effective teachers have high expectations for students but even higher expectations for themselves. Even the worst teachers have high expectations for students. They expect the students to stay engaged no matter how irrelevant or boring the class. They also expect the students to be well behaved no matter how the teacher treats them. Think about teachers who during faculty meetings are grading papers or constantly talking to a fellow teacher. More frequently than not, these are the teachers who send students to the office for not meeting the teacher’s classroom expectations for paying attention, staying on task, and not disrupting others. These teachers have high expectations for others but not themselves. Number Five: Know the Key Variable in Setting Expectations The effective teacher knows what the real variable is for setting high expectations. They know that the variable is not what teachers expect of their students, they know what really matters is what teachers expect of themselves. The earlier story of the history teacher who said he has a wealth of knowledge to share and it is the student’s responsibility to want to learn to behave in a manner to learn is a prime example of a teacher who has higher expectations for students than he does for himself. Every teacher believes they have something important and valuable for their students to learn. Every teacher wants all of his or her students to be engaged the full class period. If this is true, and it is, then it is the teacher’s responsibility to gain and to keep the student’s attentions. If the teacher is not doing this, they need to change their approach. “Experience is not the best lesson for quality of teaching, evaluated experience is the best lesson!” Number Six: Creating a Positive Environment It is not possible to like each student in your classroom the same. There are students who are extremely liked because they are compliant, they make the teacher feel important, and they do all their homework. Likewise, there are students who fit just the opposite profile and may also be very obstinate toward the teacher. Effective teachers treat all students with respect, every day. The effective teacher acts as if they like the student even if they don’t. They especially refrain from using sarcastic comments toward the least desirable students. Everyone remembers a time when someone who had authority over him or her said or did something that was disrespectful or was inappropriate. No matter how much time passes these events are always remembered. The same is true for students when a teacher embarrasses them in front of their peers using sarcasm or the teacher unjustly says or does something toward an undeserving student. These events become imprinted in the student minds and set the stage for disengagement by the student because they are thinking more about the teacher’s behavior toward them than what is being presented by the teacher. This can quickly become a spiraling effect with negative behavior development in the student and becoming the student’s daily behavior pattern. 51

Praise has been identified as a key factor in developing a positive classroom environment and in the development of relationships between teachers and students. However, there are some key components in the use of praise that the effective teacher knows and uses daily. Ben Bissell (1992) describes five things that help praise work, they are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Authentic Specific Immediate Clean Private

Authentic means that a teacher praises students for something genuine, recognizing them for something that is true. Specific means teachers acknowledge the behavior being praised by naming the behavior in clear and understanding terms. For example, if a student who normally blurts out in class has refrained from doing so for a period of time, the teacher should acknowledge the refraining from blurting out instead of letting the student know that his or her behavior is improving and is appreciated. Being specific helps guide the student toward the replacement behavior that is desired. Immediate is the act of recognizing positive efforts and contributions in the classroom in a timely manner that addresses desired behaviors, not negative behaviors. Clean is the most difficult part of this five-step process. There are two phases to clean. First, although it is our ultimate goal for developing positive replacement behaviors, praise given with the intent to get the student to do something different tomorrow as a result of praising them for a different behavior today is not authentic. For example, praising a student for not blurting out inappropriate comments in class and then also expecting the student to refrain from other behaviors not related to blurting out is not a reasonable expectation. However, this is a fairly common expectation of teachers. Secondly, to ensure that praise is clean, it cannot include the word “but.” If a teacher with good intentions praises a student for appropriate behavior and then adds, “but”, far too often the student will remember only what comes after the “but”, which is received as criticism. Private praise is much more effective for the student receiving the praise. Depending on the student, open praise may have a reverse effect and actually cause the student to avoid displaying proper behavior because they don’t want to have to deal with the possible side effects of what their peers think. Open praise can embarrass students even if that was not the intent of the teacher. There is no relationship building with open praise like that given in private. Number Seven: Teacher as Filter Great teachers consistently filter out the negatives that don’t matter and share a positive attitude. Teachers are the filters for the day-to-day reality of school. Whether teachers are aware of it or not, their behavior sets the tone. If students overhear teachers whining or complaining about something, it may be the talk of the school for days even if it was something minor. By the same token, if teachers always approach things in a positive manner, then this is what the students reflect. The most effective educators understand this and choose their filters carefully. 52

Number Eight: No Need to Repair, Always Do. Great teachers work hard to keep their relationships in good repair, to avoid personal hurt and to repair any possible damage. Respect and dignity is an everyday practice when developing positive relationships with students. Negative and disrespectful behaviors can result in personal hurts that never totally heal. Number Nine: Ability to Ignore Great teachers have the ability to ignore trivial disturbances and the ability to respond to inappropriate behavior without escalating the situation. You can look for trouble or you can look away. Teachers must know when to do which. This doesn’t mean to be oblivious to what is going on in the classroom. It means that teachers should know what is going on in the classroom and use good discretion in addressing or ignoring the behavior at hand. Remember, negative attention is better than no attention, and if a student constantly gets reinforced for minor disturbances in the classroom, you can be guaranteed that the disturbances will become greater as time goes on. Number Ten: Plan and Purpose for Everything Great teachers have a plan and purpose for everything they do. If things don’t work out the way they envisioned, they reflect on what they could have done differently and adjust their plans accordingly. Number Eleven: Base Decision on the Best People. Before making any decision or attempting to bring about any change, great teachers ask themselves one central question: What will the best people think? Once the plan and purpose is determined, the effective teacher confirms what the purpose is and then asks two important questions: 1) Will this plan actually accomplish the purpose? and 2) What will the best people think? If the best teachers and administrators don’t think something is a good ideas, what are the chances that it is a good idea? Number Twelve: Who is Comfortable, Who is Not? Great teachers continually ask themselves who is most comfortable and who is least comfortable with each decision they make. All educators face the challenge of balancing rules and guidelines with those times when they need to make exceptions. This is especially true when it comes to behavior expectations for students. We can be concise, be clear, and communicate, but situations still arise when tough decisions are much more in shades of gray than hoped for. Think of a teacher who punishes an entire class because of a few students’ behavior. Maybe the misbehaving students feel some level of discomfort, but certainly the most responsible students are upset and have much less respect for the teacher. The best teachers ask, “How will my best students feel as a result of this decision?” If a teacher uses a cutting remark to stop misbehavior, the student it was directed at may temporarily fall in line. But at what cost? The well-behaved students are uncomfortable; they are not used to hearing people talk like that. The students whom the teachers are most tempted to yell 53

at are probably quite used to it. However, the other students lose respect for a teacher who relies on putdowns or tirades. Number Thirteen: Dealing with Standardized Testing. Great teachers keep standardized testing in perspective; they center on the real issue of student learning. Standardized tests measure only a part of what schools do. Effective teachers focus on the behaviors that lead to success, not the beliefs that stand in the way of it. Effective teachers don’t let standardized test take over the entire class. Regardless of a teacher’s view on standardized tests, the effective teacher never allow their personal views to affect discussions they might have with students, parents, or even peers. Number Fourteen: Making It Cool To Care Great teachers care about their students. They understand that behaviors and beliefs are tied to emotion, and they understand the power of emotion to jump-start change. Great teachers project the philosophy that it is “cool to care.” When a teacher projects a caring attitude to all students it, transform all students to care about what happens in the classroom. Emotion drives behavior. If a person is afraid of flying and simply refuses to fly may change their mind and fly if an emergency arises that causes the need to reach family members immediately that are several thousand miles away. The same is true for students when teachers are trying to reach students. When a teacher’s sensitivity to a students increases, so does the opportunity to reach them. We can present logical reasons why each student should give a teacher attention and respect.

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Appendix D Maurice J. Elias, psychology professor at Rutgers University and director of the Rutgers SocialEmotional Learning Lab and author of numerous studies on Social Emotional Learning (SEL), points out the importance of the use of lessons from a social emotional learning (SEL) perspective to enhance character development for children. He defines SEL as a set of skills in children that will generalize without adult reminders. Formal lessons only serve to introduce the skills. Carrying out SEL lessons is not hard. But whether or not the skills are learned and generalized depends on the pedagogical procedure used and the reinforcement of skill use subsequently. Here are some tips for building any SEL competency effectively: • Introduce the skill and/or concept and provide motivation for learning; discuss when the skill will and will not be useful. • Break down the skill into its behavioral components, model them, and clarify with descriptions and behavioral examples of using and not using the skill. • Provide opportunities for practice of the skill in "kid-tested", enjoyable activities to allow for corrective feedback and reinforcement until skill mastery is achieved. • Label the skill with a "prompt or cue" to establish a shared language that can be used to call for the use of the skill in future situations to promote transfer and generalization. For example, the skill of self-calming is taught in a teacher-based lesson and labeled with the prompt, "Keep Calm." When students hear that prompt, they are reminded to use predetermined procedures they were taught in the lesson. Anyone in a school building should know this prompt and use it in a situation to help a specific student or all students who have been taught the skill to calm themselves down, such as before a test, a class presentation, or difficult social task. "Use Keep Calm" invokes the learned skill. • Assignments for skill practice outside the structured lessons. (E.g., Be sure to use Keep Calm before your standardized tests next week) • Follow-through activities and planned opportunities for using skill prompts in academic content areas, classroom management and everyday interpersonal situations at school and share the skills can be shared and used in the home and community. • Occasional take-home activities or information sheets can be shared with parents so they can also recognize when skills are being used and/or prompt their use. Dr. Elias further stated, “We have found great benefit in concluding each SEL topics or a set of related lessons with a Reflective Summary. The purpose of this is to allow students a chance to think about what they have learned from the topic, as well as to allow teachers/group leaders to see what students are taking away with them. Sometimes, the Reflective Summary can show when students have misunderstandings or uncertainty about what they have learned, suggesting the need for additional instructional activities before moving to a new topic.”

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Appendix E Interventions During The Rumbling Stage These basic strategies can be used when students begin to demonstrate Rumbling Stage behaviors. Self-Calming: Students who have acting out behaviors need to be taught self-calming strategies to stop the rumblings of misbehaving to occur. Self-calming relaxation strategies developed by K.D. Buron (2003) includes a series of flexible steps that can be matched to elementary student needs are: 1) Take a deep breath, 2) Stretch your arms up over your head, down and up again, 3) Rub your hands together and count to three, 4) Rub your thighs and count to three, and 5) Take another long breath. To help older students consider similar strategies that the student can do that will not draws a great deal of attention are long and extended arm stretches above the student’s head or seat pushups while focusing on an object in the room. Proximity Control: Standing next to a student is often all that is necessary to help calm the student. It also serves as a visual reminder for the student to use self-calming techniques. Frequent circulation by the teacher throughout the classroom on a regular basis can help avert Rumbling Stage behaviors from starting. Signal Interference: Use non-verbal signals to help the student acknowledge they are displaying rumbling stage behaviors sothe student can begin using predetermined strategies to avoid escalation into the Rage Stage. An in-seat destressor, such as squeezing a stress ball that has been prescribed by an occupational therapist, may follow signal interference. (See Appendix “D” for some sensory integration strategies developed by Ross’ Occupational Therapist Carey Fletcher) Home Base: A predetermined place the student can go to escape the stress that is causing the Rumbling Stage behaviors should be quiet with few visual or activity distractions. Any activities used while the student is in his/her home base should be selected carefully to ensure that the activity is calming rather than alerting. Home base may also be used as a regular strategy as well. A common practice for students who need extra support to start and end their day is the strategy of “Check In and Check Out.” An example would be for a student to report at the beginning and end of the school day to his/her home base to ensure that the student is prepared for the day, primed for a specific class or activity, inform the student of any last minute changes in his/her daily routine, help organize materials and turn in completed materials before going home.

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Acknowledging Student Difficulties: This strategy works when the students is begins to show frustration at trying to complete a task. If the teacher is sure the student can properly complete the task with support, the teacher should acknowledge to the student that they have the ability to complete the task and you are willing to help them. For example, if a student says the math problem he is trying to solve is too difficult, the teacher can reply, “Yes, the problem is difficult. Let’s start with the first part of the problem.” This serves as a brief distraction and helps the student refocus and avoid further escalation into the Rumbling Stage. Antiseptic Bouncing: This strategy involves removing the student in a non-punitive fashion from his current environment. This may involve sending the student on an errand, passing out papers, go to the restroom or get a drink. During this time the student will have time to regain a sense of calm. Once the student is calm, he can return to the classroom where the problem typically has diminished in magnitude and the student can reengage in class activities. Just Walk and Don’t Talk: This strategy is especially effective for middle school and high school students. This technique is merely having a trained adult walk with the student with little or no talking. Silence on the part of the adults is important because a child in the Rumbling Stage will likely react emotionally to any empathic dialogue which will almost always be misinterpreted as corrective measures toward the student’s behavior. The adult’s main objective is not to blame anyone, stay calm, show little reaction as possible, and never be confrontational.

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Appendix F What Is Sensory Integration? Sensory Integration is composed of: sensory awareness, sensory processing, and perceptual skills. Sensory awareness is the ability for our nervous system to receive sensory input and then sort out what sensory stimuli is being presented. Sensory processing is the ability to interpret the different types of stimuli. The sensory areas that are addressed include the following: tactile (touch), vestibular (movement), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), proprioceptive (body/space awareness), visual, and auditory. The third component that is addressed in sensory integration is perceptual skills. Perceptual skills include the following areas: stereognois (objects are identified through touch), kinesthesia (identifying direction of our joints/limbs), body scheme (being aware of our body and limbs and where they are in relation to other things), right-left discrimination, form constancy, position is space, visual closure, figure-ground, depth perception, and topographical orientation (“determine the location of objects and settings and the route to the location”) (Hopkins, Smith, 1993). Michael Abraham (2002) Sensory Integration author describes signs of SI dysfunction as the following: academic delays, speech, language, or motor delays, difficulty making transitions from one situation to another, high degree of distractibility, impulsive, inability to unwind or calm self, over or under sensitivity to touch, movement, sights, or sounds, physical clumsiness, poor self concept or self-esteem, social and/or emotional problems, unusually high or unusually low activity level. He reports that the dysfunction may present itself in cognitive, motor, social/emotional, speech/language, or attention disorders. They struggle responding to sensory input, which presents with difficulty planning and organizing the sensory input to accurately accomplish what is needed at home and school. A. Jean Ayres, PhD, OTR, FAOTA, developed the sensory integration theory over 30 years ago. “Sensory Integration is the organization of sensation for use. Our senses give us information about the physical conditions of our body and the environment around us. Sensations flow into the brain like streams flowing into a lake. Countless bits of sensory information enter our brain at every moment, not only from our eyes and ears, but also from every place in our bodies. We have a special sense that detects the pull of gravity and the movements of our body in relation to the earth. “The brain must organize all of these sensations if a person is to move and learn and behave normally. The brain locates, sorts, and orders sensations-somewhat as a traffic policeman directs moving cars. When sensations flow in a well-organized or integrated manner, the brain can use those sensations to form perceptions, behaviors, and learning. When the flow of sensations is disorganized, life can be like a rush-hour traffic jam.” (Ayres, 1979). Occupational Therapy plays an important role in evaluating and determining sensory integration difficulties in children with sensory processing issues. The child’s Occupational Therapist collects data through clinical observations, child’s history, standardized test, parent report, and educational staff reports. If a child has sensory processing difficulties, the therapist will create an individualized plan of care to treat the child’s sensory processing needs and provide recommendations to the parents and/or educational team. Sensory Integration activities, sensory diet tools (tools to help calm or alert our nervous system/fidgets, sit-nmove, oral motor tools), and being proactive to meet sensory needs can create increasing independence with a child who has sensory processing difficulties within the school setting.

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Sensory Integration Strategies **It should be noted that each student with sensory processing issues is different and an Occupational Therapist should be consulted, if significant issues are present. Below are some successful sensory-motor strategies that have been utilized for students with sensory processing needs.

What Teachers Can Do When Students Can’t Sit Still •

Allow the students to work in various positions at their desk (i.e. kneeling, standing, lying on stomach, lying under desk, half kneeling, or sitting).

Provide short exercise breaks throughout the day in the classroom • • • • • •

• • • •

It can be as simple as running in place, jumping jacks, stretches, yoga, etc. Incorporate academics with the exercises (i.e. math problems). Desk push-ups: Have the students put hands on the desk and put their legs back behind them and do push ups. Chair pulls: Hold under the chair and pull up for 10-15 seconds. Chair push ups: Have the student put hands on chair and push up, raising bottom off chair. Music works wonders!! If your class is in a low level of alertness, play music that wakes them up. If you need to calm a class, try some classical music. **Consider avoiding taking recess away and look for additional options. The student may perform gross motor activities in a designated area within the school building (i.e. indoor recess with focus on exercises or obstacle course using academics within it). The student is unable to participate socially at recess, but is still able to get out that extra energy. It is a consequence, but yet it may help the student attend for a longer period of time when they come back in your classroom. Running errands. Perform a calming activity when coming back from recess. Some ideas include the following: Yoga, deep breathing, meditation, chair pulls, hand pushes, and chair push-ups. Wash classroom windows or desks. Heavy work options. An example: One student collects all the library books and takes them to the library.

Helping Students follow directions and “tune in”? • •

Provide a visual between the teacher and student. It may be looking at the student and touching your ear for the student to listen. You can also develop a signal between the teacher and student (i.e. thumbs up means refocus). Visual pictures can also be attached to a student’s desk and the teacher can tap on the picture to refocus the student vs. saying name repeatedly.

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Focusing •

• •

• • • • •

Provide a visual schedule for students (i.e. routines, activities, steps). Some items that may be beneficial in writing out a visual schedule include the following: writing on a small dry erase board, writing on chalk board, IPad 2, or using a post-it note. Pictures of the steps can also be beneficial. Implement various fidgets (i.e. koosh ball, squeeze ball, balloon with flour, worry stone). Fidgets allow the hands to stay busy, while the child’s eyes stay focused. Fidgets do not work for everybody, but I have found them very beneficial for some. Oral motor can be a great tool to increase some student’s ability to focus. Some items that can be trialed include the following: ice chips, water bottle, jolly ranchers, and/or crunchy foods (i.e. pretzels, crackers). Rules also need to be set with oral motor tools and approval should be granted by principal. Research shows that you should trial “sensory diet tools” for at least two weeks, before it is determined that it works or doesn’t work. Sour candy is awakening/alerting (i.e. green apple, lemon, warheads, sour patch, jolly ranchers). Preferential Seating – Avoid windows and doorways. Study Carrels or a corner of the room for decreasing distractions. Use of visual timers work well and allow the child to see how much time is left to complete a task. Make sure the student’s feet are touching the floor and desk is at an appropriate height.

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Appendix G Education Quotes: We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn. Peter F. Drucker Tell if you know, ask if you don't. Duane Alan Hahn A child educated only at school is an uneducated child. George Santayana Who dares to teach must never cease to learn. John Cotton Dana The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men. John Dewey The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself. Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton The true aim of everyone who aspires to be a teacher should be, not to impart his own opinions, but to kindle minds. Frederick W. Robertson Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater. Gail Godwin Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. Plato Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new. Og Mandino There was a cover story in Fortune magazine . . . on chief executive officers who had dyslexia and of course, until recently, dyslexics were treated like dirt in the school system. And the guy who ran Kinko's was a dyslexic and I love this: when he was being just battered and bruised in school his mother told him not to worry Paul, in the long run, the A students work for the B students, the C students run the businesses and the D students get the buildings named after them. 61

Tom Peters It seems that, as parents and educators, we mold children's values and morals. We teach them valuable lessons related to honesty, courage, integrity, loyalty and so on. Yet it seems that we allow children to dictate to us the concept of 'fairness.' When asked to define 'fairness,' most children respond: "Fairness means everybody gets the same." Unfortunately, we often allow children to convince us that this indeed is the definition of that concept. As a result, we attempt to deal with all children in an identical manner. When a teacher modifies a lesson for an LD child or adjusts the course requirements for him, his classmates charge that the situation is 'unfair.' Rather than respond to their complaints, the teacher should explain that the mature conceptualization of 'fairness' is not equal, identical treatment; rather, 'fairness' means that every student receives what he needs. Because each individual's needs are different, 'fairness' dictates that their programs and expectations will be different. Children are capable of understanding this concept if it is explained clearly and if it is observed daily in the teacher's modeling behavior. Rick Lavoie The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. William A. Ward A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Adams Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty. Albert Einstein Knowledge exists to be imparted. Ralph Waldo Emerson Wise men learn by other men's mistakes, fools by their own. Unknown He that imagines he has knowledge enough has none. Unknown A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. Thomas Carruthers The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. Mark Van Doren When you only read things that you agree with, the mind becomes stagnant. Duane Alan Hahn If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it. Margaret Fuller To me the charm of an encyclopedia is that it knows—and I needn't. 62

Francis Yeats-Brown When one teaches, two learn. Robert Half You teach what you have to learn. It is not necessary to have achieved perfection to speak of perfection. It is not necessary to have achieved mastery to speak of mastery. God from Conversations with God (Book 3) through Neale Donald Walsch By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. Confucius One of the most exciting developments in modern education goes by the name of cooperative (or collaborative) learning and has children working in pairs or small groups. An impressive collection of studies has shown that participation in well-functioning cooperative groups leads students to feel more positive about themselves, about each other, and about the subject they're studying. Students also learn more effectively on a variety of measures when they can learn with each other instead of against each other or apart from each other. Cooperative learning works with kindergartners and graduate students, with students who struggle to understand and students who pick things up instantly; it works for math and science, language skills and social studies, fine arts and foreign languages. Alfie Kohn from Punished By Rewards We destroy the love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to work for petty and contemptible rewards, gold stars, or papers marked 100 and tacked to the wall, or A's on report cards, or honor rolls, or dean's lists, or Phi Beta Kappa keys, in short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than someone else. John Holt (adapted) One must marvel at the intellectual quality of a teacher who can't understand why children assault one another in the hallway, playground, and city street, when in the classroom the highest accolades are reserved for those who have beaten their peers. In many subtle and some not so subtle ways, teachers demonstrate that what children learn means much less than that they triumph over their classmates. Is this not assault? Classroom defeat is only the pebble that creates widening ripples of hostility. It is self-perpetuating. It is reinforced by peer censure, parental disapproval, and loss of self-concept. If the classroom is a model, and if that classroom models competition, assault in the hallways should surprise no one. Joseph Wax (adapted) There's put-down humor, where a person or a group of people is the target of cruelty in the guise of a "joke." And then there's inclusive humor — the kind I practice and promote in my work. Inclusive humor means everyone is included in the laughter and it isn't at anyone else's expense. Lynn Grasberg Arrogance, pedantry, and dogmatism…the occupational diseases of those who spend their lives directing the intellects of the young. Henry S. Canby 63

Learning without thought is labor lost. Confucius Children should be led into the right paths, not by severity, but by persuasion. Terence It's easy to point a finger, but much harder to point the way. Duane Alan Hahn All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent. John F. Kennedy I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers. Kahlil Gibran A lesson that is never learned can never be too often taught. Seneca

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Appendix H Food For Thought For Understanding Acting Out Behaviors An acting out student may not be your fault, however, it is your problem to solve. If an acting out student’s behavior continues to get worse and you have tried disciplining the student, then whose fault is it if the behavior doesn’t get any better? Temperament control is the behavior of the classroom hero. Never let them see you sweat. It’s not personal. You have planted the replacement behavior seed now water it. Technology is not the answer; proper use of technology is the guiding light. Can’t teach old dog new tricks unless it wants to learn. What interest button needs to be pushed? Before you can burn out as a teacher, you must first have to be on fire. Staying positive is not always easy, but attainable. It may be a delayed reaction…future acknowledgement by the student of the impact you had on their life.

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References: Abraham, M. (2002) Sensory Integration. Grand Rapids, Michigan. McGraw Children’s Publishing

Ayres, A.J. (1979). Sensory Integration and the Child. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services. Baditoi, E., Barbara, Ed.D (2010) “When Behaviors Makes Learning HARD.” Council Exceptional Children. “Behavior Support Adaptations”, Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts, University of Texas, Austin. Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), (2011), “Expanding Social and Emotional Learning Nationwide: Let’s Go!” Cooley, Myules L. (2010). “Teaching Kids With Mental Health & Learning Disorders in the Regular Classroom.” Cullinan, D. (2002). “Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.” Merril/Prentice Hall. Dennison, P., & Dennison, G. (1994). Brain Gym Teacher’s Edition Revised. Ventura, CA: Edu-Kinestetics. DeWitt, Peter (2009). “Social and Emotional Health, and How Educators Can Help Young People Find Common Ground.” Education Week. Fletcher, Carey, Ross Local School Occupational Therapist, “Sensory Integration Strategies.” Garcia-Winner, Michelle (2010). “Social Thinking-Social Learning Tree, Exploring Social Learning by Starting at Our Roots.” Greshes, Warren, (2012). “The Best Damn Management Book, 9 Keys to Creating SelfMotivated High Achievers.” Haldy, M., & Hassck, L. (1995). Making it easy: Sensorimotor activities at home and school. San Antonio, TX: Therapy Skill Builders. Hopkins, H., & Smith, H. (1993). Willard and Spackman’s Occupational Therapy 8th edition. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. J.B. Lippincot Company. Klein, Laura (2011) SchoolBook, “No Excuses Is Not Just for Teachers.” Knoff, Howard. (2011). Holding Students Accountable for Appropriate and Inappropriate Behavior: Establishing School-wide Behavioral Standards, Global Scholar/Project Achieve. Lavoie, Richard (2005). “It’s So Much Work to Be Your Friend.” Lavoie, Richard (2007). “The Motivation Breakthrough.” 66

New Learners of the 21st Century (2011), “PBS Video Series, 20th Century, Taught Children What to Learn.” Ludlow, Barbara (2011). “Teacher Leadership, Why Teachers Must Be Leaders.” Smith Myles, Brenda, (2005). “Children and Youth With Asperger Syndrome.” Ohio Department of Education, (2007). Understanding the Role of a Comprehensive System of Learning Supports and School Climate in School Improvement (Guideline 6: Teach Social and Emotional Skills to Foster Student Success, Guideline 8: Connect Students with Schools by Empowering Them in Responsible Roles. Picharddt, Carl PhD (2011) “Bomerang Kids.” Sourcebooks, Inc, Richtel, Matt (2010), “Your Brain on Computers.” Sayeski, Kristin L., Brown, Monica R., (2011) Developing a Classroom Management Plan Using a Tiered Approach. Wenig, M. (2003). YogaKids. New York, NY. Stewart, Toabori & Chang

Whitaker, Todd (2004) “What Great Teachers Do Differenetly, 14 Things That Matter Most.” Williams, M.S., & Shellenberger, S. (1996). How Does Your Engine Run. Albuquerque, NM: Therapy Works, Inc.

Resources: http://casel.org/ - Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning www.pbis.org – Positive Behavior Intervention Supports www.pent.ca.gov – Positive Environments, Network Trainers, California Department of Education www.swis.org – School-Wide Intervention Supports S’cool Moves course (2011). The founder is Debra Wilson Reading Specialist. www.ped.state.nm.us – Search “Addressing Student Behavior: A Guide for Educators Solar, Earnest (2010) Council of Exceptional Children

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