teaching

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Letting Go of WHY

Summer time has started. I always find it interesting how kids look so forward to summer, and then when it hits, the boredom sinks in within a week. For parents, summer comes with sunshine and happiness and a small dose of juggling new childcare, trying to fill unstructured endless days, bags and baskets of pool gear which typically go unused once actually getting to the kid pool, carloads of smashing and packing to get the family to the beach, goldfish crumbs and watermelon juice on the floorboards and constant Sunscreen Hand. Maybe I am blanket stating, but this is what my summer seems like. Getting past all the hustle and bustle of the relaxing summer is ok, but there is something about summer that makes my personal children behave like they have eaten 10 packs of Skittles for 14 consecutive hours. During the school year, the routine keeps us focused and structured, but once the last bus stop unloads, it’s on baby!

Yesterday, I met a great friend for lunch at Mr. Sushi. Don’t even get me started on that name. The sushi is top-notch, but the name lacks so much creativity. Can you imagine how boring our world would be if we used this same concept for all of our public establishments?  Mr. School, Mrs. Sub Sandwich, Miss. Grocery Store, Mr. Karate Studio, Ms. Movie Theater- ooppps~~ Classic Foster Tangent

Anyway, back to the meat of the conversation. My friend and I got to talking about teenage behavior, sibling competition, and emotional regulation. For some you may be thinking, what a lame lunch topic, but the behavior nerd in me couldn’t get enough. As I listened to my dear friend asking heartfelt and meaningful questions about intervening on his son’s behavior before it was too late, so many things crossed my mind about the complexity of innate reactions and adolescent impulsivity.

Now, I can tell you all the “you-shoulds” and “you-should-nots” you want to hear, but I want to make it clear that letting go of the “why” is not something I have mastered in my own parenting, teaching or being a wife. Now that I have put that out there, let’s move on to a few ways help identify the “why” without asking “why?”.

Let’s set the stage here:

The other night my daughter Lottie was literally out of her mind. I am talking lying on the floor screaming, crying, punching, kicking everything in sight because I took away her Bubble Tape (I am seriously telling the truth here both on the antecedent and the response). I let her attempt to work it out for 10 minutes before my emotional regulation went out the window, I stormed in and yelled “WHY in the world are you acting this way???” This is my own double pet peeve, and I caught myself letting go of my own personal strategies, letting my emotional regulation hit a 5 (this will make more sense by the end of this post) and yelling at my daughter when she was in an incredibly emotional state desperately begging for love, nurture and acceptance. Why did I do this? Because I am human, and even though I was able to spend countless days in my classroom with students in this same or worse emotional state without yelling or asking why, when it was my own personal child, my weakness was exposed, and I lost control.

A few questions to ponder in reflection to this scenario…

  1. Do you think this Lottie knew WHY she was acting that way?
  2. Did I know WHY I was acting that way?
  3. Do you think my yelling and questioning helped her curb the behavior?
  4. Do you think that this was a good teachable moment for her?
  1. No
  2. No
  3. No
  4. No

As humans, we are inquisitive. We desperately want to know why a child chose to punch his classmate rather than telling the teacher the class mate was being mean. We want to know why our husbands and wives can’t love us in the same ways that we love them. We want to know why our kids won’t study and why they don’t care about school. We are never-ending why wonders, but at the end of the day, does why really matter? No, it really doesn’t. What matters is that we teach our children HOW to make better decisions and for adolescence and teens (and even adults) this is something that requires true strategies to break the nature human innate impulsive response.

Step one in this process is to teach our children to be able to identify HOW they feel. Through my observation, I have found the most success with teaching children to emotionally regulate by attaching their feeling to a physical understanding. For example, rather than me telling my 12-year-old, pubescent, impulsive, ornery student that he appears to be getting angry, I gave him something that he can see or feel. “Hey Tommy, I notice that you are pacing and you’re starting to clench your fist. Can we go for a quick walk outside and toss the football?” With this tactic, Tommy can actually feel that he is getting angry without me pointing out to him that he is angry. Once he can identify, he can use an individual strategy to prevent or get back to an appropriate state.

Here is the Emotional Reg Tool I created from the structure of Kari Dunn Buron’s Incredible 5 Point Scale

photo ER

It is important that the child is involved in creating their own Emotional Regulation Tool so that they can own it. The one above is mine, so my physical responses will be different from my 6-year-old daughter’s or my 13-year-old student’s. As with all interventions, if there is no buy in from the child, there is no success. I personally use this tool as a grown adult. I will often yell “I am a 5 right now so I am going for a run! BYE! (insert slamming door here).” I always remind myself that I am human, so I will get to a 5, but it’s important that I don’t stay there long. This hold true with our children as well.

The final component to this would be to tie a tangible reward into the plan reinforcing both staying at a 3 or lower or if the child gets to a 4/5, they appropriately use a strategy to get back below 3. Both are to be rewarded after this is the replacement behavior we want.

This has been a successful strategy for most of my impulsive kids. It works, don’t ask me WHY.

*This emotional regulation tool was generated from the basic structure of The Incredible 5 Point Scale by Kari Dunn Buron http://www.5pointscale.com/ *

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Do You Have an Abacus I Could Borrow?

I have been in education for eight years, and in this short amount of time, I have seen tremendous changes; some for the better, some not so much. As a continuation to my previous post about video games, I am going to address technology in general in school. This is really not about behavior at all. I started teaching about two years before BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) was a common initiative. I was using T9 text on my flip phone, and I knew of only one person who had this weird gadget called an iPad. It was my friend Natalie Taylor, and I remember reading about it and looking at her picture of it on Facebook , a social media site of which I was still learning to navigate. Fast forward eight years where teachers are using social media to captivate their student’s attention and communicate more efficiently. The text parents videos and resources. They continue school from home when adverse weather hits, and they Facetime students who need a little extra help on their homework. I can’t even tap into the benefits technology has for the advancement of our students with disabilities. That is another whole post, heck it’s another whole blog.

At first, I was undecided on this subject, but with the passing of time, I am 100% behind BYOT and technology in schools. I have sat in countless meetings where the cons of technology in school have been dwelled on and beat to the ground.

Yes, our kids will send a few text messages throughout the day. The mom in me enjoys that because I can stay in touch with my child without bothering the teacher. If my daughter texts me during a bathroom break or while she is at her locker, and she still gets to class on time, what’s the problem to the educator?

Yes, our kids will check their Facebook when they are at school. We live in world where social media is a major player in our game. We just have to monitor, embrace it and use it to our advantage.

I had a nice conversation with my friend Erin the other day. We were talking about school and all of the changes since we were kids. At some point cursive was brought up, and I said that children don’t really learn that in school anymore. Erin was a bit disappointed and shocked by that. This isn’t the first time I have seen/heard that response. Here are the reality- things like cursive and textbooks are simply not relevant in this world we are living in. It would be like teaching a child to dial their parent’s number on a rotary phone, having them find a subtotal at the grocery store with an abacus or having them reference a hard back Encyclopedia for factual information. As technology advances and time goes by, so does educational content. I do believe our children need to know enough cursive to sign their name, but that’s about it. When was the last time that someone asked you to write anything in cursive? When was the last time that someone asked you to write (not type) anything in general? Exactly.

Sure, I get a little sad about the depletion of classic skills like cursive, but the other side of me is enthused that our children will be stronger critical thinkers and problem solvers. When I was in school, student’s educational status was based on the amount and acquisition of factual knowledge. We used to reference the smart kids as “walking Encyclopedias”. The good news for the average or below average kid is that factual knowledge really doesn’t matter anymore. You read that right. Factual knowledge does not matter anymore. Every student has the same access to general information. Google it, right? Average Anne, Below Average Bob and Gifted George could probably all find out when Abe Lincoln was born in exactly the same amount of time. Factual knowledge is no longer an indicator of academic achievement, but it does make for a heck of a Jeopardy contestant.

I was an average student. I worked VERY hard to maintain A’s and B’s. It didn’t come naturally to me. Because I went to school in the age of Oregon Trail, I did have to search for factual information in an encyclopedia. The way school and life are now, is about application of facts and knowledge. It’s about becoming a problem-solver and a critical-thinker. Students learn how to apply knowledge rather than just find and memorize. Our naturally smart kids, below average and average kids all start out on the same playing field. Teachers are teaching children how to use facts to revolutionize. Students are teaching teachers the same thing.

It is hard for me to think that my oldest daughter will likely never use a textbook in her education, and my youngest daughter may not even know what the term textbook means. She will Google it and find out.

I will teach my children to sign their names and write meaningful, handwritten letters rather than emails. I am thankful that those are the simple skills with which I can supplement their education at home. I am even more thankful that my child will go to school and learn to problem-solve, think outside the box and defend her reasoning to show true mastery of content.

ipad

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Fine, You Win!!!… Or Do You?

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am learning A LOT in my new role as a Special Education Facilitator. For the past 4 years, I have been confined to my precious, little self-contained behavior world. I lived in a world where I work I dressed in an emotion-proof vests and learned to let things totally roll off my shoulder. I can’t tell you how many times I have been told “F@ck You” in response to my everyday “Good Morning”.

Picture this, there I sit on the first preplanning week in my job as an EBD teacher. My walls are covered in inspirational posters and quotes about success strown throughout the room. The bulletin board is decorated perfectly with personal photos of each of my angels and a colorful paisley fabric in the background. Each student is provided with a pass pocket in their cubby as well as a personalized behavior contract and point check book. My standard based lesson plans are neatly placed on my desk underneath a Red Delicious apple, and I am ready to get this show on the road.

And then…the students arrive.

I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s just say I didn’t get to eat the apple. The inspirational quotes and posters became the root of jokes and were altered with Sharpee mustaches and inappropriate speech bubbles. The fabric which was once the background of the bulletin board was ripped off and recycled into a super hero cape. The behavior contracts were transformed into paper airplanes and thrown off the ledge and into the atrium where my principal was having a conversation with another teacher and the lesson plans were procrastinated to the following day…week…year.

Needless to say, I had no idea what I was getting into and ultimately how much I loved my job.

I think that the skill of avoiding a power struggle was one of the hardest skills I had to learn. Think about it, you tell a kid good morning and they look at you with their 12-year-old eyes and tell you to F@@@ off! Nature would tell me to grab his arm and angrily escort him to the principal’s office to hear his unreasonable consequences. He is out of my room for the rest of the day, and he won’t be back to school until his 5 day out of school suspension is served. Boom! I win!

But, the question is, who is really the winner here? Sure, I proved my point to the classmates that I will not be disrespected, but in turn I gave the student the attention he desired as well as a 5 day vacation from school and all of the assignments he wanted to avoid anyway. I am going to say He Won.

I know what you are thinking. We have to demand respect or our society will crumble, and I agree with this. With that being said, avoiding the power struggle is the first step in doing this. When I marched my student down to the principal’s office, I minimized my authority and passed off a teachable moment just to prove a point.

I am not saying to allow students to cuss us out or be disrespectful to us, but I am saying that we should consider our responses to these actions and determine what is the right path to take to truly be the winner. After years in this setting, I have learned that when a student cusses at me, it is not personal. They just need to be taught an appropriate way to communicate.

Now when little Timmy walked into my room and tells me to F@*& off, I take one of three paths.

1. Verbally note that I heard him and in a calm voice ask him to meet me in the break room when he is ready to discuss a better way to communicate with me as well as what in the world went wrong before he walked into my room. This allows him to decompress a bit, think about his actions and communicate with me when he is ready. The calm response shows him that I am listening. The behavior (cussing) will be addressed when he is available to listen and learn from me. It is critical that you are 100% an active listener during this conversation. Focus, listen, ask questions, teach.

2. Completely ignore him and pay full attention to the students who are exhibiting appropriate behavior. When he acts out again in need of attention, I will take the path mentioned above.

3. This response is to be used a more extreme case and definitely has to be done in the right environment. Instantly after Timmy cusses at me, I will calmly take him to a private room with a timer. I will tell him that he is hand’s down the “Best Cusser I’ve Ever Met”. Then I will get the timer and act very excited and then tell him to say as many cuss words as he can in 1 minute. Emphasize how good he is at it, the best in fact. Ready, set, go! As he begins to cuss, catch him on repeats “opps you already said that one”, “come on…you know more than this- go go go! Your time is ticking.” I can almost guarantee that he will be done with words in 10-20 seconds. I know what you are thinking? What does this prove? It proves nothing other than that you aren’t going to let him get you worked up over a few cuss words. It removes the novelty and reaction from the behavior thus making it less exciting for the student. Every time I have done this, the behavior has decreased.

I can’t emphasize how much our reactions to our students and children dictate their behaviors. Think about it like this: A boxer punches his opponent in the head, jugular and side because he gets an immediate response. He knows this is where it hurts thus knocking his opponent’s guard down and allowing him to WIN. Our students, opponents if you will, want to get us where it hurts so that we will react. If we can limit and tone down our reactions, we will WIN.

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Homework is Perfect for the Perfectly Average

This year I took on a new job where I see a totally different perspective of special education. It’s not a bad side or a good side, just a different side. The change has been quite trying, and there are days that I truly don’t want to go to work. Good Grief I have become more honest in my older age. Don’t get me wrong, I have amazing days as well.

That being said, one of the biggest highlights in my new job is the intellectual conversations I get to have with my coworkers. The other day, we were collaborating, and one of them said something that I have been reflecting upon ever since. She said that homework is nonsense. As a group we discussed how cool it would be to have a school or even a school district who piloted a No Homework policy for just one year.

Something I learned right out of the gate in this new position is to hold my tongue until I have given my brain adequate time to reflect, see all sides, internally dialogue and filter my thoughts. There is very little casual conversation in this role and oftentimes, my casual brainstorming can be used a factual guidance. Of course, my casual thoughts are tweaked a bit to be more fitting to the listened ultimate goal. OK that was a random tangent back to the topic. The whole point was I stayed quiet on this statement/idea until I had time to reflect on it and think about where I truly stood on the subject.

After that conversation took place, I reflected on what a school with no homework would look like. Would their scores tank? Would kids fall behind? Would they have time to learn everything they are expected to learn? Would our kids be prepared for college?

In the special education world, we are dealing with overwhelming and rapidly increasing levels of anxiety, OCD, behavior disorders, defiance, refusal, stress-based gastrointestinal issues, etc. When I think of the root of most of these problems, it starts at home. Trust me, this has nothing to do with parenting. Heck, I am a mother of a 5-year-old with unnatural anxiety and fear of separation, so no it’s not parents. The root of most of these anxiety-based issues is the incredible demands that we as a nation are putting on our children.

When I think back to my childhood, I had homework, but I don’t remember a time where I thought I was overwhelmed with it or couldn’t find time to play because I had 3 hours of work to do. The demands on children which ultimately lie on the back of parents and guardians are simply too high. There are a handful of kids who love homework and do it without a fight from their parents. It is natural and something that they intrinsically choose to do. With or without a homework policy, these students will still use their leisure time to learn more, study more and continue to strengthen their personal knowledge.

I would love to see a school adopt a No Homework Policy for one year while heavily encouraging the use of this valuable time to be time for dinner as a family, cooking together, going for walks, playing outside, watching a movie together or any other stress-reliving activity. This would promote both positive parents/children relationships and good health. My guess is that test scores would still remain the same, but the well-being of the children will be much more stable.

I am not sure what homework looks like at your house, but in all of the meetings I have sat it, it has been a major source of anxiety and disconnect in both students and parents. Just the simple step of lugging home 5 binders full of notes and then filtering through what the homework expectation is is enough to start the family time off to a stress-filled start. “Welcome home, get to work.” After 8 hours of learning, rule following and structure, parents and students both need time to simply decompress. I guarantee that the 3 extra hours of route learning, parent-enforced, drill and rep assignments are not moving us as a country to the highest level of academia, rather it is increasing depression, anxiety and disconnect with our students and children. How nice would it be to come home and know that family time will be exactly that- quality time spent together.

I know this will be a controversial blog entry, and I am prepared for that, but understand, it is simply my opinion and it’s worth exactly what you paid for it. 🙂

‘Tis the Senses
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‘Tis the Senses

“Ring, Ring, Ring…Meeeeeerry Christmas!” says the Red Cross, bell-ringing, money-collecting volunteer in his red vest and Santa hat. I really do loves those guys, and I love the cause, but that little sound triggers two parts of my brain. The first side of my brain is happy and excited about his oh-so-premature presence as it gets me in the spirit of Christmas and Thanksgiving. The other side of my brain cringes in anticipation of the behaviors that will start to surface with this time of year.

It’s taken me quite awhile to put my finger on why my kids with Behavior Disorders and Autism seem so “off” in October, November and December. After collecting years of data on behavior and antecedents for particular behaviors, I think a lot of it comes from the lack of structure combined with the sensory overload that accompany the holidays.

LACK OF STRUCTURE: When structure is initially implemented, these kids resist it, and there will likely be a heightened frequency and intensity of behavior. Implementing structure is a transition for kids. Often times, as a teacher, you consider transition the times between classes, lunch and grade levels. Transition doesn’t stop there. Transition is constant in the minds of children with Autism and Behavior Disorders.

Think about this, Little Timmy, flaming in all his EBD glory, has been in school since August. It’s mid September now, and he is starting to get into his routine at school. He has a place to sit in the overly-stimulating cafeteria. He sits with two other boys, and they talk about Legos and the cute girl who doesn’t know they exist. He has finally mastered opening his locker without having to ask for help from a teacher which for eight weeks has opened the door for ridicule from his peers with superior adaptive skills. He made his first C on a test after ripping up the first three which were hand delivered to him with a bright red F on the front page. This test is on the fridge at home next to his gifted brother’s stack of A+ tests which require magnetic reinforcement to hold them all in place. Timmy’s parents notice that he is waking up on his own and genuinely looking forward to getting on the bus to come to his structure-based classroom. Timmy is making progress.

Six weeks pass, and now he is really rocking. In some situations, he is even a leader. He simply knows what to expect, and he is covered in positive reinforcement. Now here comes Halloween. Everyone is buzzing about what they plan to be and what their favorite candy is. They discuss the plans for the typical teenage pranks and decide what neighborhood to meet in. Its’ then that it hits Timmy; Timmy’s life and friends are solely based inside the walls of the school. His friends don’t bleed into his home life. Timmy missed his friends at school because those are the ones with which he found commonalities.

Timmy gets sad inside and he starts to withdraw from the successes he has been riding on for the last two months. Timmy is sad, but again he doesn’t know why and doesn’t know how to tell anyone that he is sad. He Speaks Behavior. Timmy toughs through and is anxious to get back after the hype of Halloween simmers down.

Two weeks pass, and Timmy is back in his rhythm. Yes, one day (Hype-o-Ween) takes two weeks to reestablish that routine for most kids. Halloween is behind him, and he is rocking and rolling his way along. And then it hits him, he has two more weeks until it’s Thanksgiving, another long break. This break is not structured. Here comes the behavior again. He is trying to hold it together as he knows he needs to embrace the last two weeks he has, but he simply doesn’t know how to balance the anxiety/excitement of the break and the happiness he unknowingly finds in his routine at school. Hello Behavior, how I have missed you!

SOLUTION: Provide Timmy with what to expect for these breaks. He needs to know that there will be structure. I encourage the parents of these kiddos to ask the teacher for what they can implement at home that will help him have structure. Create a schedule for Timmy. Make it visual and realistic. Schedule relaxation time. Schedule video game time, but allow him to earn more than the schedule allows. Explain this to him. Timmy needs structure. He needs to know what is happening next and next and next and next.

SENSORY OVERLOAD: If I listed the sensory triggers than accompany Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, I would have an endless blog entry. When I walk into Starbucks in October, I absolutely love the smell of a Pumpkin Latte. November rolls around and you walk through the wall of Cinnamon Broom smells at every grocery store. December hits and you have to walk past the ear-piercing ring of the Red Cross man to get into the store that is blasting Christmas tunes with squeaky chipmunks and catchy choruses. Within the store there are blinky lights, bright lights, blue lights and white lights. There are moving Santas and inflatable reindeer marching across the lawn section at the Home Depot. Everything around you is moving and bright and smelly. You don’t have sensory issues, so you take it all in and experience the love and warmth that comes with the holiday season.

Then there is Timmy. All of the above sensory stimuli just about push Timmy off the edge. For Timmy, a family gathering full of stories, laughter and clicking of silverware on China plates may sound like a freight train in his head. For Timmy, the mall is just way too much. For Timmy, blinky lights are the enemy and he just wants them to turn off. Timmy wants to be in his comfortable 74 degree classroom, with the lights out and the ambient light shining through his wall of windows. His classroom is quite and all he hears is the sound of the heat coming through the vents. The room smells like concrete and textbooks. Timmy likes it here.

SOLUTION: Allow Timmy to wear his headphones to the mall if he MUST go. Let Timmy pick out the Christmas decorations and be sure to ask him which Christmas lights make him feel the most comfortable (be prepared to have a blue Christmas). Allow him to help decide where the tree will go and how many ornaments would look good on the tree (be prepared if he isn’t interested in ornaments at all- it’s ok) . Before buying a huge animated inflatable for the front yard, ask Timmy if he likes those or if they just plain creep him out. You just may end up with an extra $100 in your pocket for the Red Cross Ringer.

In summary, be aware of these sweet children and their needs. Do not assume that Christmas tree scent, blinky icicle lights and hectic trips to the mall are in the best interest of them. Be patient with them as they attempt to adapt to the lack of their structure. Help them feel safe. At some point, as parents and teachers, we have to be ok with letting go of our traditions and begin creating a comfortable tradition for our special ones.

‘Tis The Season!