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Finally put my thoughts about education
down on paper, which resulted in a book. If you choose to read it, I hope you find it of some value. The following is an
excerpt.
Looking Both
Ways
This is not a cookbook but a guidebook. I should know because I was your most disruptive,
unmotivated ADD student. I hated school and I'm back to help teachers reach my fellow class clowns.
Knowing who we are and recognizing our characteristics may shed light on how to work with
us. We are the students who come to class unprepared. We move slowly when asked to move fast and move fast when asked to move
slowly. We often are contrary but are just as comfortable being apathetic. We are called lazy and often devious. We are
complimented on our potential but seldom achieve it. The principal and office personnel often create jobs for us if the custodian gets tired of
our help. We are capable of being both passive and aggressive at the same time. Our school file contains red flags and
addendums.
Some of us are diagnosed, which offers scientific explanations for our condition. We can
be extremely social, especially during silent reading and assemblies. We raise our hands to appear knowledgeable and when called upon our
response is "I forgot." As we grow older we begin to understand the game and are able to mask our inattentiveness.
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We volunteer for class jobs or help clean up after lunch or P.E. We sit in
areas of the classroom that allow for the lowest profile and the highest entertainment value, which prevents us from being bored. The teacher
continues to lose the papers we insist we've turned in. We may appear to be unorganized and random but this is just a diversionary technique as
we are actually deep in thought about much greater issues.
We will turn out to be politicians, salesmen or superintendents. We are
every child who doesn't fit in. We will remember those of you who took the time to know us. Be patient, we will grow out of it if you
recognize us for who we are and not what we do. If we are respected we will reciprocate. Some of us will even return to education as
teachers, counselors and paraprofessionals to mentor smaller versions of ourselves. We may be you.
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Cheryl's Two Cents
A Proven Strategy for
Students that Demonstrate a Variety of Unwanted Behaviors
What I
found to be the most effective in that situation with or without receiving services was to tailor MYD by setting mini-goals with the objective of
meeting the overall goal of improving behavior. I would meet with the student and his parents. Together we would talk about the specific
behaviors that were getting in the way of being successful. “Sean. We want to help you be successful and help you make your
day. It seems like that there are some behaviors that are keeping you from making your day. What do you think are some of those
behaviors? I’m going to make a list as you talk. Mom/Dad, what do you think are some other behaviors that seem to be giving Sean
some trouble? Let’s add those to the list. I’m going to list a couple of behaviors that I think are keeping you from making
your day. Now, let’s look at the list. Seems kind of long – a lot to try and fix at one time. Let’s start with
one behavior.” With some guided discussion, I would help the child choose one behavior to change – typically, one that had the
most impact on classmates but would be the easiest to fix. Then with the student’s and parents’ permission, I would talk with the
class. “Class, you all know that Sean is having some trouble making his day because he has lots of things to work on. We
don’t want Sean to give up so we’re going to help Sean fix one behavior at a time. Right now he’s going to work on
______. (example: keeping his hands to himself). If he keeps his hands to himself all period, he can earn all of his
points. Now if he interferes with learning, safety or well-being, he’ll still choose steps, but his goal is to _______. Once
he’s doing a great job with that then we’re going to work on another behavior. You can help Sean by reminding him to
________. Let’s get started on helping Sean make his day."
Working
systematically through the list of behaviors helps Sean and the team feel more successful. Often, we never made it through the whole list
because the behaviors at the bottom of the list simply disappeared.
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Brainstorm:
Sharing Ideas
Lessons Learned as a First Year Teacher
I am a first-year teacher implementing Make Your Day this year in a
sixth grade classroom. I feel that one of my MAJOR mistakes at the beginning of the year was not initially allowing students permission to go to Step
IV as they "climbed the steps." I think what this did in my classroom was reduce "respect for the steps" and lead to an attitude on behalf of my
students that they could climb up to Step II or III (or sometimes even, regrettably IV) without any concern for a more severe consequence (e.g. Step
IV). I was in the mindset that parents would be upset if I talked to them on a IV conference for "just" walking up the steps, but the result in my
classroom has been that now I have to spend more time with discipline and more time with Steps (it takes more time to walk a student down from III
than I). |
I was wrong and I now explain to
parents that their child who has "walked up the steps" had three chances to correct his behavior and am confident about my decision to allow Step IV.
Nevertheless, I think my mistake is one that other first-year teachers might make as well and one that, if avoided, will lead to a better
instructional environment with MYD.
Anthony LaMesa
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What
About
This
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Student Questions
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MYD from a Student POV
Perspective about MYD from an excellent
student, now an adult: I don't like MYD.
Rationale: It
bothered me that there were kids in my class who didn't make their day nearly every day and the teacher didn't do anything about it. The
teacher should have helped them be successful.
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Make Your Day Conference
Wenatchee, Washington
October 9 and 10
On-Line Registration Open
Keynote Speakers
John Gordon
Earl Brown
Topics such as
Student Committees
Maintaining Consistency of
Implementation
Enhancing Points/Concerns
Collaboration
Kindergarten Techniques
Book Signing
Earl Brown will be available to sign his newly
published book, which will be sold at the conference.
Also, by popular, request...
If you have new staff that have not
received training,
a regional training is scheduled.
$80/person
Tuesday 9:00am - 4:00pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 3:00pm
Lunch on your own each
day
Hotel and
Convention Center
Just up the road, you can visit Leavenworth
http://www.leavenworthoktoberfest.com/ |
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