Aug

30

Some things you need to know about kids who are school phobic or anxious about school

Filed Under Behaviour Management, Computers In The Classroom, Dealing With Stress, Special Education | 2 Comments

Where has the summer gone? Our local dollar store has all it’s Halloween stuff on display already. Summer is definitely over! School starts again on Tuesday, and most kids are excited about going back to school. Heck, most parents are excited about their kids going back to school. :) Notice, I said most kids are excited about going back to school because for some kids the thought of going back to school makes them ill, literally ill. What’s going on with these kids? Why is this happening? What can we do to help them?

Every year I see kids who are totally overwhelmed by the thought of coming to school and attending classes. Oh, I know that most kids have the first-day-of-school jitters. But what these kids feel is way beyond the- first-day-of-school jitters. They’re so totally anxious about going to school to the point where they become physically ill with stomach aches, headaches, temperatures etc.that excuse them from attending school.

We know that about six to ten percent of students suffer from school anxiety and that about three to five of percent of students who suffer from school anxiety flatly refuse to go to school no matter what. Symptoms usually appear when kids are about 10 to 12 year old, although some kids can manifest school anxiety at the kindergarten or grade one level. I’ve given support to kids in grade nine and ten who are so afraid to come to school that all they can barely manage to enter the building.Tracy, not her real name, was like that.

When I met Tracy, she had many of the characteristics of kids who are anxious about school.
She was

    a great kid
    shy and didn’t want to be noticed
    a perfectionist
    average or above average intelligence
    want to please the teacher

It’s really important for kids like Tracy to get treatment because if they don’t

    50% will develop depression
    targets for bullies
    girls have a tendency to drop out of high school
    boys have a tendency to drop out of college or university
    be under employed
    have unsatisfactory intimate relationships
    alcohol or tobacco addiction

I guess the big question here is why are kids like Tracy so anxious about going to school? How and why does a kid become anxious or phobic about school. Experts like Lynn Miller, a psychologist specializing in anxiety prevention, notes that anxiety tends to run in families. Some kids are born more sensitive than others and are affected more by their environment and how it responds to them.

Parenting may also make kids more anxious. Highly critical and over protective parents can contribute to kids developing anxiety. Well meaning parents might contribute to a kid’s anxiety by trying to rescue them from situations that their kids might find threatening. For example, Mom is taking Katelyn to school. Katelyn’s a bit reluctant to go and when she sees a group of kids in the playground laughing about something, she assumes that they are laughing at her and says “Mom, those kids are laughing. I think they’re laughing at me” Now mom who is trying to protect Katelyn decides to avoid the unpleasant situation and says “Let’s just use the back door to go into school.We don’t have to go to the front door where those girls are.”

Look what’s happening here. By avoiding the kids who are laughing, mom is not only confirming that the kids are probably laughing at Katelyn but also missing an opportunity to teach Katelyn to look at the situation in a different way and say something like “Katelyn, they’re probably just laughing because they’re having fun. Let’s go.” It’s just like those times when I say hi to someone I pass in the hall, and the person ignores me. I could think he’s being rude but I’ve learned to think that it could be that he’s preoccupied with something and didn’t even notice me. Who knows! I’ve probably done the same thing. It’s all how you look at it, but kids need to be taught that.

Sometimes parents help kids avoid activities because they don’t want kids to expereince any distress or embarassment. For example, Jordon may not want to go on a field trip because he’s are anxious about being on the bus. Maybe he’s worried that he’ll be sick on the bus and end up making a big mess. One solution might be to take the day off work and drive Jordon to the field trip. That’s not teaching not Jordon any coping skills other than avoidance.

Oh yes, remember Tracy and her anxiety about school. It took time, but gradually Tracy learned through cognitive behaviour training how to cope with her anxiety and was able to attend classes with support from her psychologist, the special education team, school social worker and her guidance counselor. Cognitive behaviour training gave Tracy the skills she needed to help her deal with her anxiety. The treatment challenged her to stop thinking negatively about things and try to put a more neutral spin on things. For example, Samantha may think her teacher’s in a bad mood because of something Tracy  did instead of allowing that the teacher might be in a bad mood because she had a flat tire on the way to work, or the that the forgot something important at home.

At the beginning of the semester, Tracy was so anxious about going to school that she had trouble even coming into the buiding let alone going to classes. As part of Tracy’s treatment, we encouraged her to come to school for only 30 minutes a day. She was to start school later than the other students and come to the Contact Room, not a regular class room, and work on her school work there with our support. She was in school, but not part of the regular student body yet.

The deal was that her Dad would come to school with her and keep her company in the Contact Room while she did her lessons.This gave her the emotional support she obviously needed from someone she trusted. At first, he stayed for the entire 30 minutes, but then gradually as she felt more comfortable he would stay for shorter and shorter periods of time until the point where he would just drop her off at Contact Room door,say hi to me and my behavioural teaching assistant, and leave.

When Tracy was finally able to go into a classroom, the behavioural teaching assistant would sit with her during the entire class to give her emotional support and then gradually over time, Tracy would stay in the class on her own without the BTA support. She would just check in and say hi and have a little chat before going to class. She also had the option to leave the class and come to the contact room if she felt she needed to do that. Eventually Tracy was able to attend regular classes with a behavioural teaching assistant’s support.

It wasn’t easy for Tracy. It wasn’t easy for her family. But, with the treatment she got form her psychologist and the support she got from the support team in school, including her classroom teacher, she was was able to cope with her anxiety about school.

Getting help early for kids who suffer from school anxiety is so important. There is treatment that helps kids deal with school anxiety and in an ideal world all kids would get the treatment they need. Before they can get treatment, however they have to be identified. In the real world of the classroom with 30+ kids, it’s difficult to notice a quiet student when there are so many other needy kids-kids who have behavioural problems, can’t read or write well enough to pass the literacy test, kids who can barely speak English, kids who have ADHD etc. The quiet student who isn’t causing problems for the teacher sometimes gets overlooked. I know it’s not right, but that’s what happens. It’s up to us, parents, teachers, counsellors etc. to identify kids who suffer from school anxiety and help them get the treatment they need so that they feel comfortable going to class and fulfilling their potential.

 
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Jul

28

Maintaining a safe, positive classroom climate through differentiated instruction

Filed Under Behaviour Management, Computers In The Classroom, Graphic Organizers, Uncategorized, maintaining a safe, positive climate | Leave a Comment

 
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Teachers can help maintain a positive classroom climate through differentiated instruction. When I asked little Lauryn who is starting grade four in September, what is the most important thing a good teacher can do, her answer was : “Don’t have all the students do the same thing. It’s too boring.” Gee, I guess we all know what happens in the classroom when students get bored.

That  old adage “Different strokes for different folks”  comes to mind.   There’s no doubt that that applies in the classroom too.  Except we don’t call it different stokes, we call it differentiated instruction.

When teachers differentiate instruction  for their students, they’re actually helping to maintain a positive learning environment, and that’s definitely a good thing. We want kids who are engaged in learning, not in creating mischief.

It’s easy to determine what an individual students strengths are. Think here in terms of multiple intelligences and learning styles. There are all kinds of quick multiple intelligence and learning style inventories on line that you can have your students do to determine their strengths. Some students may even know them from having done the inventories in other classes.

Once a teacher knows what her  students strengths and needs are, she can tailor the instructional strategies to suit  them.   When she  presents the differentiated  strategies to her students, she  can negotiate the finer details to achieve mutual satisfaction.

The following video very nicely illustrates how a teacher  differentiates instructional strategies for her students depending on the students’ strengths and needs

1. Peer Teaching
2. Independent Study
3. Anchor activity
4. Interest survey

Dec

2

It’s time to implement the restorative justice process to help make schools safer

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Computers In The Classroom | 1 Comment

Keeping schools safe continues to be a hot issue and rightly so. We want our schools to be a safe place where the only thing kids have to worry about is learning the curriculum. But, sadly that’s not the case. It’s painfully clear that schools are a place where bullying, harassment, fighting, assaults, theft, vandalism, weapons offenses and even murders occur. The traditional approach of trying to deter inappropriate behaviour by punishing the offender through detentions, suspensions and expulsions hasn’t been as effective as hoped. It’s time to try another approach. It’s time to implement the restorative justice process into all school to help keep schools safer.

The restorative justice process is not a new process. Quite the contrary. It’s long been part of North American traditional aboriginal justice systems and more recently has been accepted by the Canadian judicial system in its Youth Criminal Justice Act.

What is restorative justice? Ron Claassen founder of the Fresno Victim Offender Reconciliation Program explains

Restorative justice is a process to “make things as right as possible” which includes: attending to needs created by the offense such as safety and repair of injuries to relationships and physical damage resulting from the offense; and attending to needs related to the cause of the offense (addictions, lack of social or employment skills or resources, lack of moral or ethical base, etc.).

Restorative Justice recognizes that crime (violation of persons and relationships) is wrong and should not occur, and also recognizes that after it does there are dangers and opportunities. The danger is that the community, victim(s), and/or offender emerge from the response further alienated, more damaged, disrespected, disempowered, feeling less safe and less cooperative with society. The opportunity is that injustice is recognized, the equity is restored (restitution and grace), and the future is clarified so that participants are safer, more respectful, and more empowered and cooperative with each other and society.

I like the fact that the restorative justice process recognizes that both the victim and the wrong doer have needs that should be addressed. The restorative process gives victims a voice and requires “‘wrong doers to face the victim, consider the impact of their behaviour , and come up with ways of making amends, it holds them accountable for their actions “. From what I’ve seen in my role as a special education teacher specializing in behaviour and as a teacher of students who are at risk academically, the traditional ways of dealing with inappropriate behaviour by punishing wrong doers with detentions, suspensions and expulsions hasn’t been all that effective and often further alienates students and exacerbates the problem. Many students continue to rotate through a series of detentions and suspensions to the point where the detentions and suspensions become a joke. I’ve heard lots of kids laughing about getting detentions and suspensions. They get to stay home and don’t have to come to school, and that suits them just fine. Thank you very much! What has that accomplished to change their inappropriate behaviour and their poor emotional and social skills.

Expelling students doesn’t really address the needs of the victim or wrong doer either. Oh, expelling students from school removes the students from school, but doesn’t change their behavior or address their needs related to the cause of their inappropriate behaviour. Now to be fair, there are programs in place for students who are expelled and want to continue their education. Students call these places the last- chance -school where they learn things like anger management. Usually kids who are on probation go to those schools as a requirement of their probation, at least that’s what the kids tell me. Other kids who are expelled from school just drop out feeling more disrespectful, disempowered and disconnected from school and take their unresolved issues with them into the community. But since school and the community are inter-related, these unresolved issues continue to affect the school.

Now of course not all of the wrong doers will want to participate in the restorative justice process and some wrong doers will pose serious safety risks . In those cases, restorative justice calls for authorities to impose consequences that are reasonable, restorative, and respectful of the wrong doer, the victim or victims and the community. They need to be in a safe settng that emphasis the values of safety, responsibility, accountability and civility where they can learn empathy and other skills that will enable them to make productive contributions to society and lead a more satisfying life.

Some schools have begun to implement the restorative justice process to try to make their schools a safer place. Almaguin Highland Secondary School, a rural school near North Bay has been using the restorative justice process for the last couple of years and has been so encouraged by the results that they have expanded it to use student trained facilitators. The process at the Almaguin Highlands Secondary School begins with a conference in a neutral place in the school, not the principals office, and is attended by the victim and the offender, each with support people such as parents, a facilitator trained in the process , a vice-principle and sometimes a police liaison. Others people like custodians, bus drivers, friends of the student who are affected by the incident can also attend. They all sit in a circle facing one another during the conference. Anyone can ask questions about what went on, who was affected, what others were thinking, what they think needs to be done to write this wrong.

Sean Ruddy, a former vice-principal at the Almaguin Highland Secondary School notes that the process is not punitive. It’s inclusive and brings the offender back into the school community with an agreement to move on. Sometimes the solutions are simple; sometimes the solutions are more serious and could involve things like anger management counseling. Anger management counseling does work. I’ve had students in my senior classes who have participated in anger management counseling,and they’ve have told me that it was helpful . In conversations during the semester, these kids would tell me how they would have handled situations in the past before anger management counseling and how they handle situation now after participating in the counseling. I find that so encouraging to actually see these kids deal with the vicissitudes of daily life in a healthier way.

It’s important to note that the resolution to the issue happens with the participation and agreement of everyone in the circle. It is not something that is done to the offender like a punishment that is imposed by a higher authority. The participants in the circle all have equal standing and the resolution is a function of everyone there. Once the resolution has been arrived at, the participants break bread so to speak and enjoy snacks while waiting for the facilitator to type up the agreement so that it can be signed by everyone. Then everyone who participated in the circle can hold the person accountable.

The Waterloo Region DSB also has a restorative justice program in most of their schools. The program takes a different form that the one used by Almaguin Secondary. Students are sent to the offfice to complete a form that requires them to reflect upon what they have done, who was hurt by the action and what they can do to rectify the situation.The Waterloo Board also has a Making Amends program. In this program wrong doers do not get suspended but instead are required to reflect upon what they have done and the impact that their actions have had.The Board also has provided restorative justice process training to the 100 police officers who work in the schools. It’s nice to see that Lynn Zammit, the co-ordinator for the Waterloo’s restorative project was honoured for her contribution to the project’s success by a provincial Attorney Genera’s Victim Services Award of Distinction.

It’s time to expand the restorative justice process to include all the schools in the province. We know that it works. We owe it to all students to do all we possibly can to help schools become a safer place. We owe it to all students to teach them the emotional and social skills that will enable them to have a more satisfying, productive life. The restorative justice process has demonstrated that it can do this. Let’s have the will to do this and we’ll find the way.

Ron Claassin’s article “Fundamental Principles” and Melodie McCullough’s article “Restoring Justice for Safer Schools” in the December 2007 Issue of Professionally Speaking were used as references in writing this post. I have created a link to each so that you can read their articles in full. Both, are well worth taking the time to read in full.

 
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