Jun

22

Helping students avoid risky behaviours through character education

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Dealing With Stress, Goals, motivating students, underachieving students | Leave a Comment

dyugs photo uploaded by The ChristianAlert.org

I’ve spent a lot of time over the years in my role as a special education teacher trying to get students to stop engaging in behaviours that are destructive. This year I had my students read and reflect upon The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens in an effort to show them what choices they can make to get more positive outcomes for the future. I tell them if they don’t like the consequences of their actions, they need to change what they do. But, I’ve found that often they don’t necessarily know what behaviours to change or how to go about changing them. That’s where character education comes in.

I’m always looking for ways to support my students who have behavioural issues, so when I come across a new idea, I’m really interested. Recently, I came across a school wide behavioural program called Positive Action that is being used in Hawaii with 5th graders that shows much promise. The character building program continues through each grade and gives students a framework to guide their behaviour. It focuses on what to do, not just what not to do. Students learn to make better choices for better outcomes. Students who participated in the Positive Action program had fewer behaviour issues in school which resulted in better academic achievement. That’s definitely a win-win situation for teacher and students. I was surprised to learn that so many ten year old children engage in so many risky behaviours. I’m a high school teacher, and I know that teenagers engage in all kinds of risky behaviour, but I had no idea that kids as young a ten did. I wonder how many of you will be surprised as well. I wonder what my district is doing to help 10 year old children make better choices for better outcomes. What is your school district doing?

positive action results

May

10

The 5 W’s and the 1 H of a Classroom Blog.

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Computers In The Classroom, Dealing With Stress, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Graphic Organizers, Special Education, The way I see it, Web 2.0 tools and technologies, maintaining a safe, math, motivating students, positive climate, underachieving students | Leave a Comment

The 5 W’s and 1 H of a Classroom blog?  OK, OK, I know that the 5  W’s and 1 H of a Classroom Blog isn’t the most creative title for a post, but sometimes tried and true is OK, and all teachers know there’s nothing more tried and true than the 5 W’s and the 1 H, so here it is.

Although my students are pretty digital savy seeing that most spend hours and hours online visiting Facebook, YouTube, playing online games and text messaging, I can’t assume they know about  blogs and blogging so  I show them the following video.  I love it.  They love it. As you’ll see after viewing it, Common Craft , the company who makes these educational videos, believes in the KISS principle. I believe in the KISS principle. Keep It Simple for  Students. What’s not to like!  Common Craft also has videos on TeacherTube-great when YouTube is blocked like it is at my school. Grrrr!!!!

See, wasn’t that a great video, especially for students who are visual learners or for those struggling or  reluctant readers in your class who loath the printed page.

My students are usually quite excited when I introduce the idea of a class blog.  They like the idea of  writing blog posts and having others read what they’ve  written. To  be more precise, they like  not having to write something using pen and paper, and they like knowing that someone other than their teacher will actually read what they’ve written.  In the two years that I’ve had the class blogs,  only one student has asked me not to publish some of his work.   I’ve got no problem with that. At least, he was thinking and writing.

I suspect that the kids also like the blog because when their work gets published it  looks so professional-just like the articles in the papers, magazines or even in textbooks. Some of my students have really messy handwriting and are embarrassed by it,  and some of my students  find the process  of forming letters difficult to do so they write as little as possible.  When they type their work and use the spell checker, their work looks the same as everyone else’s when it gets published.  What they’ve written doesn’t look stupid, so they don’t feel stupid. They don’t have to be embarrased. That’s definately a good thing with reluctant and struggling students.

At first, I was a bit apprehensive about having my students contribute to a class blog.  Some of them can be very creative in a michevious way- if you know what I mean.  I told my students that  I didn’t want to have to take early retirement because something went wrong.  I can honestly say there haven’t  been any problems.  More about that later.

I wasn’t only concerned about  inappropriate material appearing on the class blog, I was also concerned about student safety. I didn’t want the class blog to put my students in harm’s way.   We’ve all read the horror stories about online bullying or harassment or even worse.  Fortunately, it was easy to put all the saftey  measures in place to protect my students so there have been no problems in the past two years.

In subsequent posts, I”ll share with you how I made the class blog a safe and inviting place for my students, and why I chose the particular blogging  tool I use for my class blogs.  Oh yes, I’ll also share the letter I sent home to parents to tell them about the class blog. I got wonderful positive feedback from parents about the blog.  I’ll tell y0u more about that later too.

See you then.

Apr

12

I’m reminded of the need to soften my heart

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Dealing With Stress, motivating students, underachieving students | 1 Comment

prickly-heartphoto by anyjazz65

Someone once told me that when we’re  faced with difficult situations,  we’re really being given an opportunity to learn something. I got that opportunity last week, and it reminded  me of something I all ready knew, but had just forgotten.

Katie, not her real name, stormed into my grade 12 class late, sat down at the computer and pulled out her cell phone and started text messaging.   I looked at her quite surprised.”What’s with her?”, I thought. Cell phones aren’t allowed in school and she knows that.  I asked her  to put the cell phone away, and after she finished her text message she did  and then promptly  pulled out a chocolate bar and started unwrapping it and eating it.  Katie also knows that  eating in the classroom is not allowed at our school.  I asked her to put it away, and she did -after taking another bite. Then she took a bottle of water out of her bag and began opening it over the key board. I asked her to put that  away too.  She replied that it’s only water, implying what’s the problem? I have no problem with students drinking water  in  my classroom, but not at the computers.  Water could spill on the keyboard  and ruin it.  She  took another sip of water and then put the bottle back in her bag.

I turned to help another student  wondering what was up with Katie today but not taking the time to ask her.   The next time I checked to see how she was doing,  I noticed she was using her cell phone again. That was the last straw! I mean really- enough is enough. This time I asked her to go  to the office and speak to a VP about the cell phone.

Katie flat 0ut refused to go. She told me she wasn’t going to the office   because she had a lot  of work to do.  That was true. She’d  fallen behind because she’d skipped  20 or so  classes out of 50 so far.  As if Katie’s behaviour wasn’t enough,  a couple of  boys in the class started to encourage me to let her stay in class to do her work. “Come on miss”,  they said “Let her stay and do her work. Look she wants to do her work”  Great, I thought.  Just what I need at this point- a mutiny.  Now what?

It was my move. I  told her to go to the office, but she refused again.    I told her that if she didn’t comply with my request, I’d call  the office and have an administrator  escort her out.  She still refused, so I called the  office and explained the situation and an administrator came and that was that.

I just realized as I’m writing this that although I wondered at the time what had got into Katie and why she was  so defiant, I hadn’t thought to ask her . Maybe if I had  asked her  what was going and why was she acting like that, I might have avoided all the drama. But, I didn’t think of it at the time.  I was just annoyed by her behaviour.

At lunch that day, I shared my frustration  with a friend about what just had happened in  class.  I told him that I’d had it with Katie. His response was that I should soften my heart.  “Soften my heart”, I thought,  “What was he talking  about!” She had just ruined my class in a big way.  I wasn’t open to softening my heart.  On the contrary.  I was up for  hardening up my heart.  Thank you very much!  I was busy making all these plans about how I would treat her in professional manner when she returned to class, but no more than that. My anger continued to boil while I’m sure my blood pressure was reaching new heights.

Later on that evening while  I was continuing to  harden my heart , I began to think that maybe my friend was right.  Maybe I should soften my heart toward Katie.  That might not be such a bad idea after all.   My hard, hearted attitude wasn’t really helpful. I was still upset. My hardening heart  hadn’t  brought me any peace, on the contrary. The more I thought about Katie, the more upset I got.  By the time I got to work the next day, I decided that I would  soften my heart toward Katie. I decided that Katie must be hurting big time for her to act like that, and that a hard heart wasn’t going to help her or me for that matter.

I’d momentarily  forgotten the lesson that I’d learned a long time ago that when kids act out like Katie did, they’re really asking for help. They don’t need more hardened hearts. There are probably enough of those in their lives already. I’m going talk to Katie’s counsellor and see if she can get the support she’s crying out for.

Mar

15

Tough questions for someone wanting to be treated like an adult.

Filed Under Behaviour Management, Computers In The Classroom, Dealing With Stress, Special Education, motivating students, positive climate, underachieving students | Comments Off

butterfly

photo uploaded by Marlin Heigan

OK,  Kyle (not his real name) you keep telling me you’re eighteen now and an adult. I’m an adult; you’re an adult. So what does adult behaviour look like in the classroom?

That was the question I asked Kyle after I asked him to come out into the hall because I wanted to talk to him.

Kyle thought for a moment and answered, “Adults treat each other with respect” I agreed with him. No problem there. We were definately on the same page.

Kyle had just turned 18 a few weeks ago and kept reminding me that he wanted to be treated like an adult. I told him I had no problem with that. Then, I asked him

    How his behaviour of repeatedly sneaking out of class before the bell rang despite being told to wait for the bell qualified as adult behaviour?
    How did his behaviour of asking to go to his locker and coming back 20 minutes later qualify as adult behaviour?
    How did his behaviour of coming to class late repeatedly despite knowing that he was expected to be on time qualify as adult behaviour?

Tough questions for someone wanting to be treated like an adult.

Kyle just looked at me not liking the answer he would have to give.

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