We can't, and it's the hardest part.

Check in at the webinar’s page for Autism Training Solutions free webinar, “Training Educators to Do Behavior Assessments” on February 29!

It’s me, Jared Heath, again. There’s something you’ve got to know about School Improvement Network and February’s free PD theme, “Behavior and Classroom Management: Make It Work, Make It Last.” To put it simply, we can’t change student behavior. Here's why.

I know we’ve talked a lot about the great advances students have made when teachers use PD 360. I’ve written about it in many places, and I’m proud to work for this company because of it. But whether we’re talking about student behavior, differentiated education, or test scores, it really isn’t PD 360 or School Improvement Network making those changes.

I used to think it was teachers who made the difference. But that’s not really true, either. Is it? And teaching something that you know is so important and watching the concepts and principles bounce right off their heads is the hardest part of teaching that I can fathom.

When I taught, I took too much credit.

I taught ESL classes, and my students were from all over the world. In one class, I had students from Brazil, Japan, China (Cantonese speaking), Taiwan, and several Central American countries. Having been conversational in German, French, Chinese, and Spanish at various points of my life, I understood the frustrations of learning a new language, and as a student of the English language and English literature, I also understood the capricious nature of my native language. I was armed and ready to help these students learn English.

And they did. I was recognized early on for the advances that my students made. I didn’t understand then what that truly meant—I was recognized for the advances that my students made. Now as I look back, I see that any other organization would have had those 20 – 30 students howling for my blood as I received recognition for their accomplishments.

When I didn’t do well in school as a youngster, I also had a bad habit of giving teachers too much credit—it was somehow their fault when I didn’t perform as well as I wanted to.

The truth is that education belongs to the student. As teachers, we are facilitators. As a company, School Improvement Network is a supporter. But the only person who can decide what to do with the training given to her is the little girl with her new pink backpack and her open mind.

February’s free PD theme on schoolimprovement.com is built to help you give students what they need. Many of our students need the right tools to start building better behavior, and it is up to us to provide those tools. But if you will allow me to wax optimistic and don my rose-colored glasses, I feel that we need to believe in kids just a little more and give them a bit more credit.

I would never diminish our roles as educators. I simply discovered as I reflected on my time as a teacher that the more my students knew that I believed in them, the more they learned. And perhaps they even became so much more, because they believed in themselves, too.

What experiences do you have where your students felt empowered? Have you had experiences where the message didn’t get through, or worse, it blew up in your face?

Let’s talk about it in the comments.

Check in at the webinar’s page for Autism Training Solutions free webinar, “Training Educators to Do Teacher Evaluations” on February 29!

To what degree is your school implementing Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS)?

Emaley McCulloch from Autism Training Solutions will be giving a free webinar on February 29 as part of the monthly free PD theme here at School Improvement Network. Emaley is writing a few blog posts to help you understand her webinar topic, Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports. 

And here's a hint for ya--it's not just for children with autism, and it's essential for classroom management. Enjoy!

The word Positive in Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) encapsulates the whole purpose and aim of PBIS in schools.

Past behavior management models lacked effectiveness because they were –

·    Reactive

·    Focused on punishment

·    Poorly implemented

Through PBIS, team members can take a proactive approach. They can reduce problem behaviors by making pro-social and pro-learning behaviors easy and rewarding for both teachers and students. Thus, teaching positive behavior as relentlessly as we teach reading or other academic content is the ultimate act of prevention, promise, and power underlying PBIS (Algozzine, Wang & Violette, 2011).

Although PBIS is an evidenced-based intervention, it is not a curriculum. PBIS is a framework for ensuring that all students have access to the most effective and accurately implemented instructional and behavior package possible.

The framework consists of three elements to achieve these outcomes:

1. Supporting staff behavior through school-wide systems
2. Supporting student behavior through evidence-based practices and
3. Supporting decision making through data

Framework of PBIS

Systems

The systems that are important in supporting the implementation of PBIS are:

·           Universal screening and assessment (http://www.apbs.org/Archives/Conferences/sixthconference/files/E4%20Breen%20et%20al.pdf, http://www.apbs.org/files/fbapractice.pdf)

·           Commitment to staff training in evidenced-based interventions (http://www.autismtrainingsolutions.com/autism-training-school-benefits)

·           Team-based collaboration (http://www.apbs.org/files/teamingpractice.pdf)

·           Fidelity measures (http://www.apbs.org/Archives/Conferences/8thconference/files/E8-Kelk11.pdf )

·           Progress monitoring (http://www.behaviortrackerpro.com/ )

·           Data-based decisions (http://apbs.org/Archives/Conferences/fourthconference/Files/Riffel_L_no1.pdf )

Evidenced-Based Practices

The practices that are important for supporting the implementation of PBIS are:

·           Functional Behavior Assessment (http://www.autismtrainingsolutions.com/content/fba-tool-kit )

·           Positive Behavior Support Planning (use of reinforcement and teaching meaningful replacement behaviors)

·           Using research-based teaching procedures and curriculum (http://www.nationalautismcenter.org)

·            Establish working conditions that support and promote strengths and talents of staff (http://www.apbs.org/files/systemschange.pdf )

·           Implement practices such as coaching, co-teaching, mentoring and self-assessment to measure fidelity of implementation (http://www.apbs.org/Archives/Conferences/seventhconference/files/F7_Basu.pdf )

Data-Based Decisions

The data that are important for supporting the implementation of PBIS are:

·           Academic assessments and progress monitoring

·           Operational defined behavior is measured over time in multiple settings

·           Quality of life measures (http://www.beachcenter.org/resource_library/beach_resource_detail_page.aspx?intResourceID=2481&Type=Tool )

What stage in the implementation process of PBIS are you in?

Here is a full  step-by-step guide to implementing PBIS in your school

http://www.osepideasthatwork.org/toolkit/pdf/SchoolwideBehaviorSupport.pdf

Behavior and Classroom Management: Make It Work, Make It Last

Hi there, loyal blog readers! It's Jared Heath here with School Improvement Network. By now, many of you have seen the link our website that invites you to be a guest blogger. That's a fun little part of a new way we're helping educators now, but it's only a small part. I'd like to break that corporate image for a minute and talk to you about what we're doing each month.

Free PD


Sure, PD 360 is supporting teachers and students in phenomenal ways. It's incredibly inexpensive for your schools, and it's proven to be more effective than even I imagined (and I'm a marketing guy). But our passion truly is supporting teachers, helping students, and improving schools, and we felt like we could do a little more to help you.

From that idea sprang what we now offer on our new website as "Free PD." Every month has a specific theme, and February's theme is "Behavior and Classroom Management: Make It Work, Make It Last." Here at the inception of this initiative (we just started in January), we are offering the following free resources:

• Free PD 360 videos
• Blog posts that discuss the topic in depth (that's where you come in)
• Free monthly webinars
• Monthly ebooks (coming soon)
• SchoolCasts (coming soon) NOW HERE!

Are you ready for a confession? Me, I'm a high school dropout. Technically. It's not that I didn't have teachers who cared about me, and it's not that I didn't have the capacity. But I knew as a 17-year-old kid that there had to be more to education than what I experienced. I work at School Improvement Network, because I believe in educators. I believe in you. And this is what I can do to help you. [But don't worry--that story ends well. I got my GED, went to college, married a beautiful lady, and started a family. :) ]

Free PD 360 Videos

Like I said earlier, PD 360's differentiated training is doing wonders in schools all around the world. That's why we're releasing one free video from the PD 360 library every week--but be sure to catch it before the next week, because we replace it with a new one every Monday morning (or afternoon). Come visit our Free Video Blog, comment on the video, and for heaven's sake, start a conversation about it. No one is as good at this teaching thing as you.

Blog and Guest Blog Posts

You are the expert--no one knows what it is like to teach in your classroom in your school under your circumstances like you do. And it's not just teachers. Administrators have a lot to tell us about their experiences and how they are making the machine roll. We can tell you anything we want, but you'd probably rather hear it from your peers. We have this blog, and we also write a Common Core 360 blog. Drop by each to see what's going on. We post to each several times a week, and we hope we can answer your needs.

An educator emailed me a few weeks ago, shaming me for asking you to do the guest blog posts for free. That's actually not true. We do giveaways every month for educators who write a guest post for us. For the month of February, EVERY educator who blogs for us gets an ENTIRE YEAR of Common Core 360 for free. In the month of March, EVERY educator who blogs for us gets FREE registration for the School Improvement Innovation Summit.

Send me an email at jared.heath@schoolimprovement.com if you'd like more info.

Webinars

Our partners are just as excited about helping you as we are. At the end of every month, you have a chance to sit in on a free webinar featuring people who do this stuff professionally. In February, you'll hear from the folks at Autism Training Solutions (and when I say they're changing the world, I mean it).

If you can't catch the webinar, we do a pretty good job at posting the video within a couple of weeks for you to watch at your leisure.

SchoolCasts and eBooks

SchoolCasts are audio recordings of webinars and PD 360 videos that you will be able to download and listen to on your commute or on your morning jog. We're working on making these available to you as soon as possible.

At the end of every month,  there's a lot of content that we've gathered for these themes. We put it all together into an ebook and make it available to you--again, entirely free. We'll have January's ebook out (Common Core: Supporting the Whole Teacher and Student) within the next couple of weeks.

The Wrap Up

I invite you to avail yourself of these resources. They are free so that you can use them in your classroom and your profession. Come around every week for the video, email me your blog posts so that I can post them, and enjoy what I am working avidly on making one of the largest caches of free professional development resources.

Our students need you. This is one way we can help you meet their needs.

From the Source: A High School Student Speaks Out

High school senior Haylee Wilkes of Brighton High School, Utah, joined the content department here at School Improvement Network in a job shadowing event this morning. While she was here, she wrote a blog post for you, dear readers. I'll be honest--I was impressed with how quickly she understood and applied the principles my colleague and I gave her. She seemed like an astute young lady with a bright future.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I read her post. Though not vindictive (despite a rather provocative title), Haylee's post spells out the failure she felt as she confesses to having received (or earned?) a 22 on the ACT. "Average" and "mediocre" were how she described herself. I remember well the days that my own perception of a person was largely--and wrongly--dependent on their GPA and ACT. My perception changed when I found out that my wife, a person much more intelligent than I am, has an ACT score 8 points below mine. But we don't all have the benefit of such a changed perspective.

Did Haylee earn a 22, or did she receive it? We talk about college and career ready, but do we help our students feel college and career capable? And though education is not about "feeling good," what obligation do we have to help students build a self-perception and self-confidence to do what they can obviously do well?

Haylee is a bright young lady, though her standardized test scores don't reflect her view of "smart." Learn more over on our Common Core 360 blog where Haylee posted her experience.

Part 2: "Our Best Shot at Creating [a] Common Vision"

Follow up from Monday's post:

"This process should ensure that students reach success," Karen Kidwell explains.

But ensuring success is difficult--almost as difficult as helping teachers throughout the system buy into such a romantic view of education. Ensure? How can we really ensure success? Karen continues: 

"Of course, woven through all of that is, what does effective practice look like on a day-to-day basis? And so, we have been working for some years in our state to develop the set of characteristics that really define highly effective teaching in learning practices. We needed a venue where we could bring people together in larger groups and give them time to work with their peers in their own districts.

“This system of networks is going to be our best shot at creating this common vision,” says Kidwell, “but also sharing the wealth of learning that we have in our state and the wealth of expertise that we have at every level, from the teacher leader to the superintendent. You can see this occurring in the following clip of Seth Hunter presiding over a leadership meeting.”

“So,” Hunter says to his math leadership network, “welcome to the March, OVEC math leader meeting. This is actually our last meeting for year one. Your feedback has told us that you wanted to spend more time looking at the Standards. So, we have blocked out essentially the first two hours of today to spend time looking at some more standards.”

“This video depicts the content leadership network, which met eight times over the course of year one and this was our wrap-up meeting for that year,” he describes. “During the meeting we spent a big chunk in the morning looking at the Standards and asking ourselves, what, within a grade or within a course, would be a reasonable sequence to put into place.”

“Leaders like Seth are the specialists that come in to us and want our expertise as teachers,” says Megan Hearn, an algebra teacher. “They know the Standards, they know what they’re looking for. They’re there and then they come to us and they want to know: “You being a classroom teacher who’s going to be teaching this, tell me what you think. It’s been wonderful.”

“These initial meetings also represent a brainstorming stage,” Hunter says. “At this point, we get it all out. So this is where the districts get to adjust what’s happening and at the state level, through the networks, to meet the needs within their context, and this is where I think that Kentucky is really getting it right in terms of scaling this work up.”

                                   

“It’s really beneficial,” says algebra teacher Michelle Hawkins, “in that you get a network of teachers yourself to look at the Standards, to bounce ideas off of one another, to talk about the struggles that your district’s facing. I feel very comfortable with what we’ve done, with the deconstruction. I feel very comfortable with the help that we’ve gotten and the feedback that we’ve gotten.” 

Watch the entire video--entirely FREE--on our website. School Improvement Network is releasing videos every week from its vast library for public consumption. No catch. No gimmicks. Just quality, differentiated PD. Find out more by visiting www.schoolimprovement.com/pd360-free-pd.

Part 1: Content Leaders Network

Watch the Common Core 360 video "Content Leaders Network" FREE on our website! Every week, we are releasing one free video from our on-demand PD library of differentiated training. No catch. No gimmicks. Just free PD.

Stay tuned for more FREE professional development resources from your #1 source of on-demand training, School Improvement Network.

The following is an excerpt from a Common Core 360 video.

We have established a strong system for helping teachers and educators get familiar with the new Common Core Standards here in Kentucky,” says Felicia Cumings Smith, associate commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education. Our system will also help them understand the Standards deeply so that we can translate that to teaching and learning in the classroom.

“Senate Bill l really required us to look at this whole system between assessment, instruction and new standards,” adds Karen Kidwell, project manager for Kentucky’s System of Leadership Networks. “We knew that we really needed a very systemic model that would involve all the key players. We really have to take our time because as much as you would like for things to just happen, you have to give people processing time, you have to give them struggle time so that we can learn from that and make adjustments.

“The goal of our leadership networks,” explains Smith, “is indeed to build capacity at the district level because we know they need to take ownership.”

“We decided when we started the work with our leadership networks that we really needed to find the best facilitators possible to make these conversations happen, to share strategies,” says Kidwell.

“Through a very careful screening and interviewing process, we got sixteen of probably the best and brightest mathematics and English language arts educators in the state,” Kidwell continues. “They work with clusters of about twenty to maybe twenty-five districts each and so they run the networks for the teacher leaders, but they also spend their time in between network meetings working directly in the districts. This is the critical work that will move implementation of the core academic standards across our state.”

Seth Hunter, Math Specialist for the Kentucky Department of Education explains how the subject specialists went about directing their leadership networks.

“Once a month,” says Hunter, “all of the math specialists and language arts specialists come together under the facilitation of Karen Kidwell. Karen, together with the specialists, interprets the broad goals laid out in Senate Bill I into actionable items for the network meetings. So, we’re all a part of the planning team and it’s really a very empowering process for me personally.

“We established, basically, a large goal for the work of the networks,” Karen remarks. “We see it as at least a three-year process. The first goal was to really interpret the Standards to make sure that everyone is really clear what do these standards really imply for both teaching and learning and assessment purposes.”

“Our next goal is then, if you understand those standards how you try to translate those into targets that students can see and begin to reach,” Karen continues to explain. “After that, we want to develop materials and resources teachers already have, and we want them to ask themselves, “do these truly align to and support the new Standards?” and if not, “where can we go to find resources and tools that really do support the new Standards?” With these decisions made, teachers will then develop local assessments that they can use daily based on those learning targets for kids around these Standards so that they know, on a day-to-day basis, that their kids are on track to be successful with the Standards. If they’re not, they can intervene right away in a meaningful way to keep the kids motivated and continuing to learn.”

Save a seat at Dr. Lisa Leith's webinar TOMORROW entitled "Common Core Standards: Equity and Opportunity." Register here!

Attention Spans: The HDMI Cable Between You and Your Students

***Don’t miss Dr. Lisa Leith’s webinar, “Common Core Standards: Equity and Opportunities” on January 31^st!***

Guest post by Dr. Lisanne Pluth, PhD

Attention spans or a lack of focused attention is something that hampers almost every educator in the K-12 grades. A good attention span is like a high tech LED HDMI cable between the teacher and the student. This is a powerful connection and it is essential to learning. Class sizes are growing due to tight budgets making it increasingly difficult to get and keep students’ attention. Attention spans may also be shrinking due to the influence of media and television on the brains of small children. Simply put, without adequate attention spans it is often difficult to get anything done in the classroom.

Remove or Limit Distractions

Many children, no matter what their age have never been shown how to focus their attention. Younger children are more prone to easy distraction but even children in the 10-12^th grades may become easily distracted and this can negatively affect their ability to focus and learn new tasks.

One way to increase attention spans is to make students aware of the powerful impact distractions can have on their performance both in the classroom and at home. By simply setting up roll play situations where students are given a simple task and then are constantly interrupted by other students it is possible to help students become aware of distractions. Using stopwatches to time undistracted vs. interrupted performance tasks easily helps students see the difference in their own learning abilities when distracted. Roll play can be made fun with the introduction of real life distractions such as people, cell phones and music.

Increase Motivation

One of the central reasons children often lose attention is that there is a significant lack of motivation to maintain focus. Children seldom have attention span problems with computer games because the games are constantly giving the child positive reinforcement in the form of winning rounds and points to continue playing the game. Most games are also set to cycle at quick intervals so that positive reinforcement comes quickly. Moreover, additional challenges always follow positive reinforcement.

Using this same plan of attack will often work well with students that have trouble maintaining focus. The motivation and positive reinforcement can take many forms including praise for good work, scores, extra playtime and funny jokes. Different educators use rewards in a variety of ways to keep the game going. The key here is to follow the gaming framework and keep momentum moving.

Breaking Tasks into Chunks

Any teacher who has taught for a long time automatically divides and conquers. If there is a set curriculum that is too large they will automatically break it down into appropriate chucks for their students. Sometimes just reorganizing a complicated or tedious section of the curriculum makes it much more manageable. When tasks seem possible it is much easier for students to focus and concentrate their attention.

Laughing is Fun but Learning is Serious Business

Teachers are constantly balancing teaching and learning with keeping control of the classroom. Sometimes a serious voice is very helpful for increasing focus and maintaining attention from a group of students. Instilling urgency is another way to focus attention. Timed performance followed by reward helps students learn how to focus their attention and stay motivated while learning.

Learning how to focus and lengthen one’s attention span is one of the most important and least taught skills in K-12 education. By making your students aware of their own power to focus educators can give them a skill that will carry them forward to be successful in college and throughout life.

Dr. Lisanne Pluth, PhD works as a Broadcast Manager for Resident Hall Linens. Her experience also includes teaching at both the University of Kansas and the University of San Diego.

***Register TODAY for Dr. Lisa Leith’s webinar, “Common Core Standards: Equity and Opportunities” on Jan 31^st!***