Did you know that almost 40% of states have no laws or policies against the use of Restraint or Seclusion in schools? That’s absurd.
Disability Scoop reports that:
The House Education and Labor Committee voted Thursday to pass the bill known as the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act by a vote of 34 to 10. Now, the measure must be considered by the full House and it must be taken up in the Senate before it can become law.
This is good news for our students with EBD or behavior problems. The Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders sent representatives to the Hill back on May 19, 2009 to testify before the House Education and Labor Committee about the abuse of restraint and seclusion in our school. Read their White Paper and see other reports form that day here.
This is an important law and I urge you to stay up to date on new developments. Please share your experiences, on either side of this issue, by commenting below.
Technorati Tags: legislation, restraint, seclusion, school, law, EBD
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Learning Lifestyle
Are you open to learning? I bet that if more teachers were open to learning that our students with behavior problems would be too.
PLN’s and PLC’s
Though this blog focuses on behavior and behavior interventions, I often discuss using professional learning networks (PLN) and professional learning communities (PLC) to expand our understanding of student behavior issues and to communicate and collaborate with each other. There are a ton of interventions that work (research and evidence-based), yet many schools and teachers continue to use tired and ineffective strategies. Together, we can help each other find and use the stuff that works!
2 Cents Worth
Today I was catching up on my RSS feeds and read the ever inspiring David Warlick. A recent blog of his on 1/19/10 posted a list of 10 ways to promote a learning lifestyle in your school and classroom. The link to his blog post is above, but here is the list:
- Hire learners. Ask prospective employees, “Tell me about something that you have learned lately.” “How did you learn it?” “What are you seeking to learn more about right now?”
- Open your faculty meetings with something that you’ve just learned – and how you learned it. It does not have to be about school, instruction, education managements, or the latest theories of learning.
- Make frequent mention of your Twitter stream, RSS reader, specific bloggers you read. Again, this should not be limited to job specific topics.
- Share links to specific TED talks or other mini-lectures by interesting and smart people, then share and ask for reactions during faculty meetings, in the halls, or during casual conversations with employees and parents just before the PTO meeting.
- Include in the daily announcements, something new and interesting (Did you know that a California power utility has just gotten permission to start buying electricity from outer space?).
- Ask students in the halls what they’ve just learned. Ask them what their teachers have just learned.
- Ask teachers and other staff to write reports on their latest vacation, sharing what they learned – and publish them for public consumption.
- Ask teachers to devote one of their classroom bulletin boards to what they are learning, related or unrelated to the classroom.
- Include short articles in the schools newsletter and/or web site about research being conducted by the teachers – again, related or unrelated to the classroom.
- Learn what the parents of your students are passionately learning about, and ask them to report (text, video, Skype conversation, or in person to be recorded).
I encourage you to share this list and link with your colleagues in education and in other fields. I especially hope that we can instill this interest in learning for all of our students, especially those with behavior problems.
How do you motivate your students to be open minded?
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NPR
National Public Radio published a story this week titled Emotional Training Helps Kids Fight Depression. The story is about a resiliency program being implemented in some schools to teach students about changing negative thought patterns and reduce stress.
While I can’t vouch for the evidence-base of this program and curriculum, there is a lot of research that shows that teaching students to think about their thoughts is effective. Research in cognitive behavior therapy has demonstrated success in helping students with anxiety, depression, withdrawal, and other internalizing behavioral disorders improve their overt behaviors. Colleagues Naomi Schoenfeld and Donna Janney published research on identifying and treating anxiety in students with emotional and behavioral disorders just last year.
You Can Help
If you are a teacher, parent, or care giver of a child who you think may need some emotional support, there are solutions available. Talk to your school psychologist or special education teacher, ask your doctor, and find out more. We can learn to change our thinking and in turn our actions.
Share your stories in the comment box.
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The title of this blog article is the premise of a recent article from Edutopia magazine. Instead of relying on individuals to save our schools, the article focuses on helping teachers create Professional Learning Communities (PLC) so that change can occur through communication and collaboration.
Community
Creating communities was the reason I founded the PBISning last spring. This professional network and PLC is a place for individuals in school and at universities to come together to share ideas about implementing Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. It’s true that there is a lot of research available about PBIS and even a professional organization, APBS.org, a national research center, PBIS.org, and a professional journal JPBI that focus on this behavior system. But the Ning is different. The Ning is a community. And the website is created and sustained by this community. It is not published, polished, or controlled by a board. The content comes from the members of the community. There is no fee to join and no membership dues to pay. People who contribute and comment and participate create the community that they want for themselves.
Benefits
What are the benefits of this type of community? Plenty:
- members share their experiences.
- member drive content, whatever people want to share and discuss becomes the focus.
- two heads are better then one mentality prevails.
- there is equality and respect for each others point of view.
- people join because they want to be there, there is no coercion or extrinsic reward for participating.
- it allows everyone the freedom to share ideas, photos, and videos related to our passion – PBIS.
- the PLC allows us to grow by asking questions and participating in one-on-one discussions with the people that have the experience we want to gain. Even if we think we are the novice, there are others who may see something we do as innovative or powerful. We constantly switch between the role of teacher and student.
The article cited above from Edutopia really made sense to me. We keep looking for a hero or a magic potion that will change our schools or save our children. The truth is that there is no simple solution to complex problems. We have the knowledge and power to make the difference, but it takes a village.
Who or what is part of your learning community?
Where do you turn to ’sharpen the saw’ as Steven Covey puts it?
Let me know my commenting below.
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The Govenator
I’m watching a C-SPAN speech right now by the Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s addressing his state legislature. Possibly his State of the State speech?? In discussing California’s 90 billion dollar budget deficit, he noted that more cut are necessary next year – but he will protect education and higher education funding.
Prisons vs SchoolsGov. Schwarzenegger made the point that our priorities are “out of whack”. He noted that decades ago, California’s budget spent 10% on higher education. Today, they spend 11% on prisons and less then 7% on higher education. He stated that California spends $50,000 per prisoner annually but should be spending that money on caps and gowns instead.
I applaud these points. They recognize that it will be educated and not incarcerated adults that will bring the state out of a recession and build the economy. I only wish that others in our nation would see this logic too.
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Middle School
I just got off the phone with an administrator of a school that I am working with. She was excited! According to staff, this is a middle school that for years had the stigma of being the slum school in the district and bus drivers and School Resource Officers (SRO’s) alike drew straws to decide who had the unfortunate job of working with this campus.
PBIS = Change
We were talking about the school’s Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) data, and the assistant principal was telling me how much positive change has occurred in the school climate since positive behavior expectations and rules were taught last January. She told me that in year’s past, she had to beg SRO’s to stay on campus throughout the school year. But just last month her current SRO told her that in his 7-years on school campus’ he has never seen the positive changes that took over this campus since the PBIS system was implemented.
The administrator’s pride was evident.
You can see a 1 minute video testimonial of Lori talking about DVMS and other testimonials at the PBISAz website.
Do you do PBIS? Leave a comment below.
In previous posts I’ve written about 10 Reasons Why I Became an EBD teacher and Not a Rocket Scientist and 10 Favorite Daydreams of EBD Teachers.
All these posts were born out of a Top 30 list I found while browsing through old volumes of Beyond Behavior magazine (Beyond Behavior, Vol. 6, No.1, 1993). These lists were based on actual comments and experiences of teachers of students with behavioral disorders. The article itself was compiled by several Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders subdivision presidents and regional coordinators.
10 Hobbies for Retired EBD Teachers
Anything involving inanimate objects; they don’t argue, curse, or move.- Training Delta Force in evasive tactics.
- Sitting quietly forever and ever.
- Ripping up junk mail while saying, “I won’t do this”.
- Hostage negotiator.
- Reading a book all the way through.
- TV censorship.
- Participating in American Gladiator contest.
- Making a lot of money as a ghost writer for IEP’s.
- Opening a ‘marriage and family counseling center’ for former EBD students who are now adults.
I hope this list made you smile and think, “thank goodness I’m not the only one with those thoughts!”
What are your plans after you retire? Please share them in the comment section…
Earlier this month while browsing through old volumes of Beyond Behavior magazine I came across a great article of Top 30 lists (Beyond Behavior, Vol. 6, No.1, 1993). These lists were based on actual comments and experiences of teachers of students with behavioral disorders. The article was compiled by several Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders subdivision presidents and regional coordinators. I earlier wrote about 10 Reasons Why I Became an EBD teacher and Not a Rocket Scientist.
10 Favorite Daydreams of EBD Teachers
- Having total control of your life.
- Giving the directions once and having everyone follow them.
- Watching an administrator teach your class for a day.
- Lunch without kids.
- The day teachers start teaching children what is expected of them before recording their failure to meet those expectations.
- The day people stop admiring my patience, when my stubbornness is what keeps me going.
- One 30-minute planning period per day.
- Really telling parents what you think.
- Being recognized as a real teacher.
- Coming to school one day and finding out the BD/EBD has been cured.
I hope you found something you could relate with, please share it with colleagues.
What do you daydream about during the work day? Share your comments…
Are you involved with children and youth with any type of behavior issue? If so, your input and opinion is needed on a survey.
Your input will help determine the future of this organization and even the name of the organization. Please take a few moments and complete the survey here.
Technorati Tags: survey, behavior, ccbd, special education, EBD, ADHD, Mental Health
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Winter Break
Are you looking forward to your winter break from school? Most teachers do! I like to use these breaks to advance my Personal Learning Network (PLN). The concepts of PLN’s have been slowly creeping into schools for a number of years. Basically, your PLN is one way to take responsibility to advance your own personal development as a professional. PLN’s can include trusted colleagues, mentors, courses or workshops, and of course professional organizations like CEC and CCBD.
flickr
Digital PLN
I like to include digital resources as part of my PLN. These resources not only include websites like www.PBIS.org and www.rti4success.org but also Blogs, Nings, and other social media feeds.
When searching for information online, it’s important to remember that Google is not the only search engine available (though it is currently the most popular tool to use). Many people don’t realize that if they search for a term such as “behavior” using Google, Yahoo, or Bing, that 80% – 90% of the results will be different or unique. This means that different tools will produce different kinds of results.
Search Engines
I suggest you try using these tools for searching for information to see if any one turns up useful results in your next online search:
- www.Google.com – Internet search
- www.Blogsearch.google.com – Blog search
- www.Delicious.com – Social Bookmarking search
- www.Twitter.com – micro-blogging search
- www.Ning.com – Social Network search
Post A Comment and let me know the behavior intervention links you value as part of your PLN!
(Disclosure: a variation of this article was also posted in the November 2009 CCBD eNewsletter)
