S2-Ep5 - It's A Skill, Not A Will

Angela:

Hello, welcome back to I've Tried Everything, a podcast focusing on behavior supports in schools. I'm your host, Angela Isenberg, project coordinator at Region 13. Every week I talk with educators just like you. We cover some tough topics, share stories, and explore what works and what doesn't. Let's go.

I am very excited today to be joined by my boss, Albert Phelps, here at Region 13. Albert, you and I have had a working relationship for well over 20 years. You started with me back as an Emilio gen ed teacher on a high school campus doing positive behavior interventions and supports. How have you seen behavior from when you first started working with me 20 years ago to now? How have you seen behavior change?

Albert:

I think one of the things that continues to evolve and continues to be a bit of a navigational challenge for staff is the fact that we are better consumers of what behavior support looks like than we've ever been in the past. So in the past, if someone had a behavior challenge, we would identify them, we would put them in a specialized program, we would give them support, and that would be the end of it. They either made progress or they didn't make progress. Now we have multiple options out there, and if something doesn't work, we have better educated parents, better educated teachers, and the levels of intervention are dramatically larger and the opportunities are dramatically larger for the supports that we can provide to kids.

Angela:

So thinking about students in that 20 years that I've known you, how have you seen behavior change, especially after the pandemic?

Albert:

I don't necessarily see that behavior has changed as much as our response to behavior has changed. We have spent a lot of time over the last year and a half talking about learning gaps and learning gaps specifically as it relates to academic learning. What we fail to address sometimes is that there's also been social behavioral gaps that were developed during that time. So opportunities for kids to learn social skills, opportunities for kids to learn appropriate ways to have school behavior. So last year I spent most of my time in second grade classrooms, and as a result of that, here's what I learned. I learned that a lot of our second graders were acting like kindergarten students, not because they had developmental challenges that caused them to act like kindergarten students, but because the last time they were in school, they were in pre-K or kindergarten. So they had not learned how to be a second grade student.

Our response typically is this kid's not acting like a second grade student, therefore they must be a behavior challenge as opposed to taking a step back and saying, I need to remember that they haven't learned those skills yet. So just like if there's a reading gap, we need to reteach reading. If there's a behavioral gap, we need to teach the skills they need to have in order to better become the type of student we expect to see in second grade.

Angela:

So thinking about that skill gap, there's definitely a place in education for positive behavior, interventions and supports, restorative practices, leadership and character development. One of the processes that we've embraced at Region 13 over the last maybe a year and a half, is Leader in Me. So thinking about Leader in Me, why are you so jazzed about this process?

Albert:

Leader in Me is a program that is based on FranklinCovey's, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. When we think about those seven habits, being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, putting first things first, thinking win-win, seek first to understand then be understood, to synergize, and to sharpen our saw, when we think about those skills, those skills really for me are the last best hope we have for students. But also it really is re-energizing and it's an opportunity for adults to have renewal. I think we