I've Tried Everything

ESC Region 13

We are back for Season 2! Join our behavior specialist, Angela Isenberg, and her guests as they continue the conversation about managing classroom behavior. We will talk through all the areas of behavior that school principals and assistant principals need to know. Talks focus on positive school culture and climates, expectations for classroom management, staff shortages, academics, being trauma-informed, and so much more.

  1. S2-Ep3 - Academics And Behavior Go Hand In Hand

    12/01/2022

    S2-Ep3 - Academics And Behavior Go Hand In Hand

    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 absolutely honored to be joined by my Deputy Executive Director of Academic Services. That is a huge mouthful, Kerry? Kerry: Yes, long title. Angela: I also want to say happy one year anniversary of being at Region 13. We always tease Kerry because she worked at Region 10. So I think we're all going to start making her pay some money now that she's been here for a year. Kerry: Yes. Anytime I say it on accident. Yes. Angela: So welcome, Kerry. I'm glad that we've had you for a year. I'm thrilled. You're really the lead person for academics in our region. You put really great stuff out there for our clients and for our academic leads in Districts. So on our team for behavior here at the service center, we talk a lot about that you can't separate academics and behavior. They really go hand in hand. So when we are meeting about a student's academic success, we have to talk about behavior as well. How do you see the two working together collaboratively in order for there to be success for students and staff on campuses? Kerry: So what I would say to that is, I agree a hundred percent. Academics and behavior go hand in hand. This is my 26th year in education. So I was here when No Child Left Behind passed, and I saw all of the changes that came with that as far as giving students who have different needs full and complete access to the general curriculum. And I am a huge philosophical believer in that is the way we make sure every kid gets what they need is that full access to the general curriculum. So the way academics and behavior go hand to hand is we have to build situations, opportunities, training, leadership, support, so that teachers have the skill sets they need in both academics and behavior management. So way back when, when I started teaching in 1997, you went into a classroom and you were trained up really strongly in instructional pedagogy, in your content area and all those things. Your support, your training in the area of how to help manage behavior of students with different needs was nonexistent. Angela: This is so true. Kerry: It was so true. Right? Angela: Same ballgame for me too. Kerry: Yes. And so then as we've progressed and things like No Child Left Behind, people love it, people hate it, but it did insist that we make sure every single kid gets access to that general curriculum. So as we've progressed, what I've seen change and then thus the need for academics and behavior to go hand in hand is we have to change the mindset of how we prepare our teachers. It's no longer just instructional pedagogy and academic content, but it is also how do you manage the people in the room. Teaching is more than just standing up and delivering a message about English literature, how to do an algebraic equation, but it's managing the people in the room. And whether you have 22 first graders or 38 English Four kids, your job is to create an environment where all the students, all the people in that room get access to that great academic content that you can offer. So you've got to have the skill set of managing the people. And to be quite honest, in our world now, managing the people means understanding behavior management of all kids. Not just the kids who come in with your traditional, they don't have different needs, they're just a run of the mill kid. But you've also got students who are dealing with mental health issues and students with cognitive disabilities and all sorts of things that make their behavior needs different. Our teachers have to be prepared to be able to manage that because the point is to deliver that academic content every single one of the people in that room. So to manage those people. Angela: Same ballgame for me for my college curriculum. I'm very excited, my daughter is going to college to be an elementary educator. Kerry: Oh, yay. Angela: So I'm thrilled to see how much behavior is embedded into her content. And it's really fun for us to have conversations about, "Mom, today, like we talked about social-emotional learning or we talked about restorative practices," and I'm like, "Oh, I'm so excited, I'm thrilled." And then of course she thinks I'm some kind of famous person because she's like, "Mom, I dropped your name today in class." I'm like, "I don't think most people in San Angelo, Texas know who I am." Kerry: That's awesome. Well, I'm a field supervisor for one of our interns in our Educator Certification Program this year. It's one way I'm trying to stay connected to what's happening in schools and I'm seeing the same thing. Our ECP program is really preparing these interns to do both, the delivery of the academic content and the management of the behavior. And in fact, when I go out and observe in my intern's classroom, the majority of our conversations are about behavior management. She's got the academic content. It's that behavior management that she's learning. Angela: So you have the pulse of curriculum directors across our Region. You do a Curriculum Council C2 once a month. One of the messages that I think you've gotten from some directors out there is that some behavior might be impeding academics. What behavior challenges right now are folks telling you that they're facing in their Districts? Kerry: So it's multifaceted. Right now, this teacher shortage is so real. And what I hear more than anything is that Districts are struggling to keep teachers in those behavior classrooms, those very specific settings that are unique. But they're also struggling to keep teachers in the general ed classrooms because, again, teachers who are unequipped to deal with some of the behavior management are struggling. And in extreme cases, the teachers themselves feel like they're in danger. I tend to be one of those people who believe the kid is not dangerous. It's the situation where the person is not trained to deal with the behaviors that makes it dangerous. But that's probably the biggest thing that curriculum directors are facing is just keeping the professionals in the room. I said it's multifaceted because then once you've got the professionals in the room, we're in a world where Star is very important, where accountability is very important, where catching kids up from the learning loss of COVID is incredibly important. So curriculum directors feel an unbelievable pressure to make sure that a certain number of standards are covered, that a certain number of standards are mastered. They find it difficult to manage the balance of training for teachers. All that heavy academics is where we are all trained as curriculum directors to go, but they have to stop and realize that that behavior management, you can't get to the academics if the behavior's not managed. So that's something I hear too is how do we balance. We only get five PD days a year. We only have so many hours to give teachers professional development. How do we balance getting all the academics pushed out and also give them the training that they need on behavior, restorative practice, responsive learning, all those things. So that's a struggle too. And so a lot of what I've actually talked to curriculum directors a lot about recently is some unique ways to build a professional development schedule that'll allow you to strike that balance. Because if I go back to what I said earlier, a lot of teaching is training teachers how to manage the people in the room. It's very important. You can't give it up for the academics. It's finding that balance. Angela: One of the things that I try to push out there when I'm working with schools and the whole school framework of behavior supports, it is how do you embed this learning into everything that you're doing? Because if you just do a one shot workshop in August when teachers aren't necessarily paying full attention because they're worried about their classroom and getting it set up and first day of school and all those kinds of things, you're missing the ballgame. It's like how do you take all of that greatness and push it all together in a way that's blended? The other thing that I want people to really think about that's pushing out curriculum and professional development is that we have to differentiate for our professional development. And putting this one-size-fits-all, where we're all in the cafeteria together and we're all getting it at this. So how do you differentiate for your brand-new teachers that don't know versus your veteran, 20-year teachers that have a lot of the key pieces, they just might need to hone in on how to make their craft better. Right? Kerry: Yes, exactly. Angela: So that teacher shortage is real. And we know that behavior is one of the top reasons why, but also the amount of just overwhelming stuff. If you had some kind of magic wand, I know, and that'd be wonderful if you did, if you had some kind of magic wand that would say, "These are a couple of the things to address the teacher shortage," what would you say? What would you recommend? Kerry: I am a big fan of autonomy with coaching. And so I think that in a lot of cases we dictate too much what can and can't happen in those classrooms. We're trying to script too much what can and can't, which doesn't allow room then for the modifying, the accommodating, management of behaviors. Even modifying and accommodating academic need. "I'm on a scope and sequence, I have to get going. I can't stop and wait for this group that didn't pick it up." And I think allowing teachers some autonomy, more autonomy than we are used to giving. See, I think way back in the day when I started teaching, it was the first year of the TEECS, nobody really, they put you in a room, they gave you a te

    22 min
  2. S2-Ep7 - Preparing Staff For The New Challenges With Behavior

    12/01/2022

    S2-Ep7 - Preparing Staff For The New Challenges With Behavior

    Angela: Hello, welcome back to I've Tried Everything, a podcast focusing on behavior supports in schools. I'm your host, Angela Eisenberg, 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 honored to be joined today by Keith Thompson. He is our director for Leadership and Initiative Supports. Thank you, Keith, for joining me today. I really appreciate it. Keith: No, thank you for having me. Angela. Angela: I want to talk to you because you're over a lot of different initiatives, and very important initiatives, here at Region 13. You support not only our superintendents, our principals, but also our brand new little interns that are coming into education. So let's put on all those different hats and let's tackle some of those important questions that we have out there. What do you feel is the biggest concern around behavior and behavior supports right now from the different groups that you support? Keith: Yeah, that's a great question. As we check in with our district leaders, our campus leaders, our teachers, they all have different concerns around behaviors right now. Starting with the teacher side of things, behaviors are different every day. Every day that a teacher shows up, they're experiencing new behaviors. Yes, there's some consistency, but from day to day, the teachers don't know what to expect. And for our new teachers right now, we're trying to develop that toolkit that they have to manage the behaviors, but it is a struggle for them right now. They're seeing behaviors from resistance, from lack of communication, they're seeing behaviors that are aggressive, and so they're seeing a wide range of behaviors right now. And we're trying to work with our teachers to make sure that we have the systems in place to be able to manage those behaviors. One of the big things we remind our teachers that behavior is communication. And so while you're frustrated with behaviors, there is an underlying message behind it. And so being able to see through the behavior and identify how we can assist the student is a challenge because in the moment we've all been in that position where there's a behavior as a teacher that is extremely frustrating and is preventing you from getting to your instruction. And we're really working with our teachers right now to support that. From the campus leadership we see a huge need for our principals and assistant principals right now who feel like too much of their time is being spent on behaviors and they're not able to get to the other tasks that they have. And so as the principal, as the instructional leader for that campus, we're hearing, "I'm spending so much time dealing with behaviors on the phone with parents handing out consequences. I don't have time to get into classrooms to focus on the instruction piece." When we talk to district leaders, they're hearing from the campus leaders about, "Yes, there's a lot of behaviors, campus leadership is requesting support," but districts don't necessarily have, number one, the personnel, or number two, the resources financially to be able to provide that support. And so there's concerns across the board right now. Angela: We spent a lot of time after, I want to say after the pandemic, but we're still kind of living in that aftermath of it right now talking about learning loss. But we didn't spend a lot of time talking about behavior loss. And it sounds like that they're kind of reeling in that behavior loss right now when they want to be focusing on that learning loss to make those improvements needed. We had the opportunity at Region 13 in September to have a panel come all the way from superintendent to a student on a campus, and they talked to us about some of the concerns that they were seeing on their campus. And one of the overwhelming threads that were through each of those panelists was mental wellness and the need for support around mental wellness with staff. So thinking about those campus leaders out there, how could they best support their staff's mental wellness? Keith: Yeah, this is a great question. Thinking back to whenever I was a principal as a campus leader, I was guilty of, "Hey, I put some extra snacks in the lounge. Here's a drink, here's a T-shirt." Angela: Here's that gum. You're going the extra mile here. Keith: Exactly, "Yeah, I care about you. Let me buy something for you and show you we're here for you to support you." What we're hearing now is, while that's nice, well intentioned, and there's definitely a place for it, there needs to be more. We're asking so much of teachers right now, giving them a bag of popcorn and saying, "You're a rock star," whatever it might be, that's great. But what they need is they need to know that somebody is there to support them and that somebody's there in the trenches with them. And so for teachers, that mental health piece can be supported by having the opportunity to share concerns, to have that group that they can trust to go to and be able to talk through, "Here's what I'm experiencing," and not necessarily from a point of view of, "I need a solution, but just hear me. Here's my concerns right now. Here's what I'm dealing with. I can't hold this in anymore or I'm going to explode." And so whether that's somebody on their team that they trust and built a relationship with, whether it's the counselor, whether it's an administrator, it's important for everyone on that campus to have that outlet, somebody that they can go to share how they're feeling, share what their needs are at this time. And once again, not from the point of view of a principal saying, "Okay, well I'm hearing this. Here's how we're going to fix it." If there's a solution, that's great. But a lot of times it's just being able to vocalize those concerns that does wonders for the teachers to know, "Now somebody knows what I'm going through." We're really stressing with our principals to get out there and get in the trenches and get in the classrooms and provide that support to the teachers. Whether that's, "Hey, I'm going to cover your class for 15 minutes so you can step out, cool off for a little bit, come back." Or whether that is finding ways to take things off of teachers plates. There's so much we're asking of our teachers and our principals right now, really evaluating what it is we're asking of all of these staff members, what is essential? What can I take off of your plate that's going to give you some of that time back so that you can focus on making sure that you're at your best for the students. Angela: We had at our last curriculum council, I guess in September, we had Georgeanne, from Terrell ISD, she's dubbed herself the subbing superintendent on TikTok. So she's out there, she's modeling. She also can empathize with teachers because she's then living what it is that they're dealing with on a daily basis because then she can say, "Wow, I didn't realize kindergartners were at this level," kind of thing. But as an administrator or district leader, we don't think about the weight that is resting on their shoulders, not only from the accountability that they have, but also that secondary trauma. We hear students' lives and it can be so very overwhelming what they're going through, and we immerse ourselves in that. But then as a leader, you also have your staff's trauma that you're carrying around as well. As a principal, what are some things that they could do to kind of decompress so that they don't get too wrapped up into that world of secondary trauma? Keith: Yeah, that's real right now. I think for a lot of our principals, having that support system, having that group of colleagues that they can turn to, and once again, this isn't a let's talk and you need to give me three ways that I can fix my problems. But being able to vocalize and just share so you're not having to hold everything inside as far as, "This is what I'm experiencing," makes a huge difference. You're probably going to find out that a lot of principals are going through the same situation right now. And so being able to talk through those concerns, and there's a lot of heaviness on campuses right now. There is trauma out there. We hear every day of just horrific stories of what some of these students are going through. And teachers are compassionate. They carry that weight. My wife is a teacher. She comes home and she knows the lives of the kids that she works with, and she knows when something's gone wrong. And for her not to be able to carry that weight is a huge ask of her. But for our teachers and for our leaders, being able to share that with somebody, maintaining confidentiality obviously, but just being able to talk through what's happening is very therapeutic. But then also I think what we encourage our teachers and our leaders to do is to really focus on the positives. Because while you may not feel it every day, there are positives that happen every single day. And as a principal, it was always great to end my day by ending it with a positive phone call. Whether that's calling a teacher that I visited that day saying, "Hey, I really enjoy being in your class today. You did a great job with your small group instruction." Calling that parent that maybe you don't call often enough for the positive reasons. They see your number on the cell phone and maybe they don't answer. But really forcing yourself to end your day with the positive helps you to not necessarily carry that weight home with you after work. Angela: I had the utmost honor and privilege to interview two of your interns in the Education Certification Program here at Region 13. William was one of them. He's from Deer Park Middle School. And one thing he didn't anticipate with being a teacher, he said, "I didn't realize how invested I was going to be in my kids' lives." And so we live it, we're right there, and we want to h

    25 min
  3. S2-Ep6 - Addressing The Staff Shortage

    12/01/2022

    S2-Ep6 - Addressing The Staff Shortage

    Angela: 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'm very excited to be joined today by Whitney Brown. She is over special programs in Smithville ISD. Whitney and I have had a longstanding relationship. We used to be colleagues together, an eon ago, a very long time ago. We worked together on a ninth grade campus, Bastrop ISD. And I feel very lucky that we have her on our podcast. She has been a high school teacher, an elementary, middle school teacher, special ed, gen ed, administrator, testing. She's been at Central Office. What else have you done in the world of education? Whitney: I was actually also a para for a little bit when I first got it started in content mastery and then in PE. Me, a PE para. That's kind of unreal right there. Angela: Yeah, she can't catch anything. It's really funny. Whitney: It's a family rule. Angela: Knowing that you've been in education for a while, and you've held a lot of different positions in a lot of different areas, how have you seen behavior change from 20 years ago to behaviors now that we're seeing on some of the campuses? Whitney: My philosophy is kids are kids. Kids are the same now as they were previously and they react to that environment around them that has changed. So a lot of the behaviors that we see change are sometimes just due to environment. Kids respond to us the same way they would have if we have good structures in place and good procedures in place. I don't feel like that has changed so much. I think it's how they're interacting with the world that has led to some of these behaviors that we are seeing more of. But I do feel like a lot of those are stemming from social, emotional aspects, to trauma, or even secondary trauma. I feel like we see a lot of kids are like, "I know this happened to my friend," and they have behaviors then that stem perhaps from what I think of as secondary trauma with kiddos. I do see more incidences of some aggressive behaviors, whereas in the past if a student had started to become aggressive, they were just taken away. We didn't have to deal with following through with that and helping the kid come up with a plan or recover from that. Whereas now I feel like we are so much more focused on that on campuses and as a society in general as that's really is an important aspect of how we're helping kids grow. And because that is in place, we do see more of those behaviors on campuses. Angela: I think it's where that knee-jerk reaction in the past was just, send them to a discipline alternative campus, or OSS, out of school suspension kind of thing. Where now we're looking at, what was the root cause of the situation, let's investigate all of that. Then we also have lots of protections that are out there. If you look at Chapter 37 in the State of Texas, there's a lot of different things as an administrator that you have to look at differently now than we did 20 years ago. In education, for example, you have to look at the students' lives and their experiences, and have some of those experiences impacted how they're behaving on campus, which I think a lot of people aren't aware of what all is in Chapter 37 that exists out there. Whitney: Absolutely. Unless you've had to go through that training. And why would they know? Why would teachers know they're not having to sit in Chapter 37? Their first job is instruction. And there's not necessarily a reason for them to know all the nuts and bolts of it, but it does help for them to be aware of certain things. And sometimes you can clarify those, if a kid comes to you as an administrator, and you have to exact a consequence in a certain way, a teacher doesn't understand, and you can say, "Well this is why this has to be this way." And most teachers are reasonable and they'll understand that. A lot of the things we do are based on empathy and just empathy for this kid. Like I can understand you have this trauma, and this is why, and let's help you get through that. So I think we've put some things in place and changes in legislation that are almost like a forced empathy. We want you to be aware of this. So helping teachers be able to see that as to the why, instead of being so focused on the punitive side of things has been a beneficial change that I've seen in my 23 years. Angela: How is Smithville right now with your staff? Are y'all still looking for some teachers or paraprofessional though? So anybody listening, Smithville might be hiring. Whitney: We do. I am short two certified SPED teachers at my elementary. And I will say our kids in Smithfield are great. I've worked in a big district, I've worked in a small district, and guys, we still talk about, "Oh they're not following the dress code." And my philosophy is if you're worried about the dress code then you really don't have big problems. But I do have at least three SPED positions currently open in addition to some other gen ed positions. But yeah, I get to focus on special programs. Please come out. And we give stipends. We're giving a retention bonus in January. Help you pay off your credit card bills from Christmas. Then another one in June. We are trying to stay competitive with pay because we know we're competing more with big schools more so than little schools our size. Angela: Thinking about the teacher shortage that is existing. Paras, substitutes, everything in between. What is at least a couple of things that you feel like could be done to address the teacher short? If somebody asks you, and you were on the Texas Task Force for addressing the shortage, what would you add to their plate to think about? Whitney: I feel like at an advantage, because I do have a close friend who is on that Task Force, and so I kind of plugged things in his ears. But number one, it is what can we take off their plates? If your campus is doing some data collection, or a grading process, or if there is something happening on your campus that what I consider fluff, or not completely necessary, we've really got to prioritize what we're doing with our time, and ensuring that the time teachers do have is useful. Then the other one is, what can I do to give teachers back time? Our elementaries have a pretty robust PLC structure in place, so they are getting some time... Let's be honest guys, 45 minutes, five times a week is not enough of a conference period. So those are things I'm always trying to advocate for in this kind of newish role I'm in at Central Office. It's very different vibe for me 'cause I'm used to being in the trenches. But trying to continue to advocate, or even looking through and helping campuses process through, what is the main priority? We want teachers to do this new thing because it's more efficient, but we're going to get rid of these other two things we were doing. I think we just have to be more efficient in the way we're getting teachers to do the things that we have to do if it's to meet compliance, or a new legislative requirement, or even how we process through data to help making sure kids are making progress. That we're doing things efficiently for teachers. Angela: We were having a conversation earlier today about, we add to the plate, but we very rarely take off the plate. And we don't reevaluate, how do things fit together. A lot of times our teachers don't feel like they have permission to take things off their plate. They've been in a training two or three years ago on something, and nobody told them that they don't have to keep doing whatever it is that they got training in. I think for behavior, I've seen campuses do conscious discipline, restorative discipline, Harry Wong's "First Days of School," Fred Jones' "Tools for Teaching." But if you never say, "Hey guys, this is the direction we're headed, you can let go of some of those practices that we were saying you had to have in place before," it makes it really challenging for teachers to navigate and know, this is what I'm supposed to do. Especially for our veteran teachers. For brand new teachers, sometimes they don't know what to put on the plate. Whitney: Sometimes they don't even know where the plate is, bless their hearts. It's trying to support them, and again, it all goes back to what are you prioritizing? I think so many times, because accountability is still hanging over our heads, and it's such a driving force in what we do, even though I do like a lot of the things that are happening with the redesign because I feel like it will truly more mirror what we do in the classroom on a daily basis. But we've got to really look hard at how we are monitoring progress. I think that's one of our greatest areas for efficiency. We don't need necessarily multiple, multiple things. We can condense things into something simple. And not only that, let our programs work for us. Giving teachers the access that they need. One of the best things we did when I was an admin on a campus was we made sure all teachers had complete access to what they needed. They didn't have to wait for me to run the report to get it to them. I mean, because essentially it's their data, not mine. And what we worked hard to do was to teach them how to look at that data. I'm very much not an enabler personality. I'm like, "You're an adult. You're skilled. I can teach you how to do this, and then you can do it for yourself. And then you can be more independent. And be able to do those on your own. Because I can't hold your hand through this forever." Especially when you're in a small district and you don't have a whole team of people to support that. It couldn't just be me and the principal doing it all. We worked hard to try to build that capacity within our teachers. We had teachers who were able to, at the end of it, I felt li

    17 min
  4. S2-Ep5 - It's A Skill, Not A Will

    12/01/2022

    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 have all struggled over the last three years thinking about how do we navigate the new norm. How do we deal with the fact that we did have a period of time where we were not in schools, but the expectation was that learning was still going to occur. We also had a period of time where we've had extensive amounts of mental health challenges as well as increased anxiety. We have lots of people that have dealt with loss over the last three years, and as a result of that, we need an opportunity to give people skills to inspire hope, and more importantly, we need to make sure that we are allowing our students to become their best possible selves. For me, the Leader in Me program is about hope, and I think sometimes we move away from the opportunity to talk about hope and look at what can we do to have students become inspired to be their best possible selves at the end of the day. Angela: We've had lots of conversations, you and I, about you have to start with staff behavior before you move to student behavior. Is Leader in Me starting with staff and addressing staff behavior first and then moving into that student level. Is that kind of the process for Leader in Me? Albert: Absolutely. The process for Leader in Me is we begin with adults, if we are not switching and working on changing their paradigms, it's really hard for us to see students in a different light. One of the five basic paradigms that I really land on with Leader In Me is moving away from that, some kids are gifted to everybody has genius. And if I think about that and I had that in the front and center of my mind, sometimes finding the genius in somebody takes a little bit longer and it's a little bit deeper dive, but everybody has potential, everybody has genius. It just may not look like the genius that we expect somebody to have sitting in a row in a school doing what we ask them to do, being on task, doing all the things that typical students look like. Angela: So it's out of the box thinking around really how do we meet students where they're at to get them maybe where we want them to be? Albert: Exactly. Angela: So I had the great opportunity last week to sit in a training with you on moving away from this idea of motivating the unmotivated from a motivation issue to an inspirational issue. Talk to me about how that we need to embrace this concept to help motivate students differently. Albert: Well, I believe what you're talking about is one of my new favorite leadership books that I've read and it's, Trust & Inspire, by Stephen M.R. Covey. And in the, Trust & Inspire concept, one of the things that he talks about is that motivation really is based on a carrot and stick principle. If we think about motivation, if you do this, you get something from me for doing this, or if you continue to do this and I don't like it, then there's going to be some kind of consequence that hopefully will change your behavior. Motivation is all about us doing something to somebody else, moving them from point A to point B. When we look at inspiration, it's about tapping into what internally is intrinsically there for us and how to unleash that full potential and allow people to be their best possible selves based on what they are bringing to the table, not what we think they should bring to the table. Angela: So it's about really student empowerment, right? It's empowering them to drive their own education and their own process through their own inspiration. Albert: It's about having belief and it's about believing in being able to do the right thing if they are inspired to do it. Angela: But that really has to have that element of trust in place I think in both ways. The student has to be able to trust educators and the educators have to be able to trust students for that to actually play out, right? Albert: Absolutely. The basic premise of the book is that we have to move from a command and control way of leading to a trust and inspire way of leading. And if you think about command and control, it's all about, I put parameters in place, I tell you what you need to do, and then I monitor it to make sure that it's done, as opposed to believing that people are going to do the right thing. And our job is to make sure that we remove the barriers, inspire them to want to do the right thing at the end of the day. It's a mindset change. It's a change in our paradigm. Angela: It kind of takes me to the social discipline window for restorative practices where you look at the control and belief and nurturing that needs to be in place. Support, if you're high in support and you're high in control, then you are in that, with, category. You're not doing things for students, you're not doing things to students, you're doing things with students. So it sounds like we need to be in that, with Rome, so that we are working with students for their own success through inspiration and trust. Albert: Absolutely. At the end of the day, I think we need to stop telling people what to do, and we need to start doing things with people. Angela: Wouldn't that also be the same with staff? Albert: Absolutely. Angela: Because, of course, I'm a TikToker, so Albert knows all about my guilty obsession with TikTok and definitely teacher TikTok. But I really enjoy seeing some of, and hearing some of the teachers talk about the things that they're being asked to do or told to do instead of engaging them in that process. So huge teacher TikTok. We were a fan girl the other day with the subbing superintendent that we had at our curriculum council. So Albert, if you had to pick your top three strategies for teachers, educators, out of school time staff dealing with behavior, what would be your top three strategies that you would recommend for teachers or staff to have in their tool belts? Albert: First and foremost, I think we need to have clear expectations, procedures, and routines, and we need to do it in a way that it becomes a habit. So I think instructional habits are incredibly valuable. Habits for me are the number one source of what classroom managem

    21 min
  5. S2-Ep4 - Navigating Education As A New Teacher

    12/01/2022

    S2-Ep4 - Navigating Education As A New Teacher

    Angela: Hello. Welcome back to I've Tried Everything, a podcast focusing on behavior supports in schools. I'm your host, Angela Eisenberg, 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'm with Brittney. She works with high school students in Taylor ISD. So Brittney, tell me a little bit about the start of your school year. If you had to pick a song that sums up your first launch into education, what would that song be? Brittney: Oh, very good question. I think that the best song that would kind of summarize my very first month of teaching would be Through the Fire and the Flames by DragonForce for a couple reasons. First off, it's super fast paced and I feel like I have been running at that fast pace nonstop since day one. So it's also pretty intricate and there is a lot of detailing in it. Again, as you're going into your first year, there has to be a lot of details in your day-to-day activities and your day-to-day scheduling and your plans. It's also super long. So I feel like this first six weeks has been about a year. Then lastly, of course through the fire and the flames we carry on and so that is exactly what I'm trying to do. Angela: So what hats do you wear at Taylor High School? What are the different things that you're involved in right now? Brittney: I am one of the biology teachers. There is two of us at Taylor High School. It's a pretty small school. We're only 4A. I also coach, so I am an assistant volleyball coach and an assistant softball coach. So I am pretty involved in all kind of aspects of the school. Angela: So let's put on our volleyball coach hat for just a second. So tell me about the relationships that you have built with your volleyball girls at this point in time. Brittney: Oh, it is just fantastic. I honestly look at them almost as my own kiddos. They are so much fun. They definitely all are very different. They're all very unique and I've had the privilege of getting to work with them for even longer than just the school year because we actually started volleyball about a month before school started. So it was nice because I was able to kind of build that relationship with them specifically earlier. A lot of those girls, I actually coached the freshman team to the JVB team, which most of them are freshmen and biology is a freshman course. So a lot of those girls are actually in my classes as well, which makes it even better because I can kind of count on them and look to them as the leaders in the class. Angela: That's great. Brittney: So it has really, really helped and they can kind of help spread my expectations from the court to the classroom and keep everybody else on track. It's been wonderful. Yeah, I'm obsessed with my girls. Angela: So thinking about your class, let's put on your biology teacher hat. What is something that you've done in the classroom at this point to build relationships or build a class community? Brittney: For me especially, I think that it has been really helpful being really relatable. I am quite a bit older than most of my students, but at the same time I try to in a way be the cool teacher, I guess. So for example, we just actually had homecoming week last week and I made an effort to dress up every single day for homecoming. I took a lot of time out of class to go around, compliment everybody on their outfits, on their clothes and their mums that they had. Just kind of be a little bit more relatable to them in that way. Something that they could look to and feel like they're kind of a part of. Like we are one and the same. Angela: That's awesome. Brittney: That equality aspect. So I do that quite a lot. Then I just try really hard to do a lot of check-ins with all of my students and get to know a little bit about them on a personal level. I always start with the student survey at the beginning of the year. At least I did this year and that really worked out and I took quite a lot of time out of that first week to read them, and dissect them and kind of get a better understanding of some of the interests that my students have so that I can utilize that throughout the year in my class. Angela: Oh, I love that. So you're a part of our education certification program here at Region 13. Talk to me about the program. Has it been beneficial for you to be in Pam's group and Pamela Pate is one of our specialists that is in charge of helping interns. How has that program helped you? Brittney: Oh, Pam is just an absolute godsend honestly. She is incredible. She is so supportive. She is full of knowledge and one of my favorite things about being in this program specifically is that a lot of what we do is in person versus being virtual. Which I understand that that can be kind of difficult to manage when you have a full class day as well at your school. But having the ability and the chance to actually be one on one connected with other teachers that are in the exact same shoes as you, going through the exact same issues and not being forced to talk to them through a screen or over phone, but actually being in a room physically present with them kind of takes that to a different level and a deeper understanding. You have a deeper connection with them. Honestly you can kind of vent it out knowing that whoever you're talking to is going through the exact same thing and maybe they have some insights. So Region 13, for me, that has been probably my favorite part about it. Not only that, but just the in depth detail that this program goes into to really help us strategize and make sure that we have everything we need to be successful as our first year. A lot of other programs don't go into the depth and detail that Region 13 does. I know for me especially having that extra little bit of support and that extra depth has really made a difference for me in my classroom. Angela: If you had to think of one strategy tip that maybe you took away from one of the classes that Pam has done in the ECP program or something that you learned in a professional development at Taylor ISD, what is one tip that you feel like has been hands down one of the most beneficial things to put in place in your classroom? Brittney: Going into this year I didn't realize the extent of policies and procedures and how important it is to have extremely structured policies and procedures in place in your class. Because again, going into your first year of teaching, you don't have any experience with any of this. You have no idea what's going on, it's just chaos. So it's just things that you don't think about that this program has touched on. For me, that was the level of structure and the level of planning it takes not only for your curriculum but also on classroom management and the strategies and policies that you'll have in place every day that is going to cause your class to run smoothly. Angela: Setting that foundation around classroom with policies and procedures is huge because that gives you something to move from. So I love that that's been something that's been a big takeaway for you. I always think about that as setting the structure of success in your class because the other things that you build on top of it, you have to have that so kids know how to enter your room, how to exit, what the process is whenever they're doing certain activities and things in your classroom. So that's big. If you had to think about something that you wish you would have known before you walked in the classroom, what is something that you wish you would have known before you started teaching? Brittney: The biggest thing that I can think of is I didn't realize I would have to teach such the basics of the basics. Such as like you just mentioned entering or exiting a room. You would never guess that a student would not understand how to properly walk into a room. I legitimately have had kids running into my room and knocking the desks over, sliding into the roo like they were sliding into a baseball base. I wish I would've known that the expectation was not only to teach these kids curriculum, but also to teach these kids just how to act. As a biology teacher, I teach freshmen, so these kids are 13 or 14 years old and my goodness do they act it. I definitely had a much higher expectation for their general behavior as humans. Not aliens or something crazy like they act like they are. But that would've been a little bit more helpful to know going into it. But again, Region 13 did a great job of preparing us for that, so. Angela: That's awesome. So thinking about that behavior, what has been maybe the most challenging for you behavior wise in the class? Brittney: For me, my classes are all very different. For example, my first period I teach an eight period day. My last period is athletics, so it doesn't really count. But my very first period, that class is so dramatically different than my seventh period that I could not even sit here and compare the two almost. Whereas my middle periods four through sixth are very, very well behaved where they're zoned in best during the day. So trying to be super flexible and change my teaching strategy as well as change my behavior practices and method of implementing those throughout the day based on what class period I'm in, is really, really difficult. Especially somebody like me who I tend to be very structured. I don't adjust well to change. It's difficult for me to be that flexible and try to find ways to make that work best. Angela: I know exactly what you're talking about. I'm thinking about a year that I taught that I had a really challenging class period that it stood out different than my other classes. I really ended up having to completely rethink not only behavior management in that class, but curriculum in that class because they weren't able to do some of the cooperative learning things that the other classes could do because they

    14 min
  6. S2-Ep2 - Importance Of Relationships

    12/01/2022

    S2-Ep2 - Importance Of Relationships

    Angela: Hello, welcome back to I've Tried Everything, a podcast focusing on behavior supports in schools. I'm your host, Angela Eisenberg, 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'm joined today by William from Deer Park Middle School in Round Rock ISD. William, I'm so glad that you're here with me today. He's a part of our education certification program here at Region 13. You're a new to the profession. William: Yes, I am. Thank you, Angela. Angela: If you had to choose a song to sum up your first month, six weeks of school, what would that song be? William: I would say it probably has to be I'm Still Standing by Elton John. Angela: I love that, I love that. I've heard everything from I Will Survive to Rise Up, so that's awesome. That's awesome. Thinking about your classroom and the importance of building relationships with students, what is a strategy or something that you've done, that you've put into place in your classroom that you feel like that has started that really strong relationship building? William: I would say that my first worry when entering the classroom was, do I know everybody's name? I feel like knowing the name has the power, and that was something I really tried to drive in the first week of school. My mentor on campus is the ECT, the early career teacher instructional coach, and she gave me some advice where she would always do her attendance with a photo of the student- Angela: Oh, that's a great idea. William: And their name. The teacher access center that Round Rock uses has a photo version of the attendance, and so I use that every single day so that I can recognize that student even when they're outside of my classroom, because I feel like it's much easier to redirect unwanted behavior or inappropriate behavior if you know the student's name. Angela: That is an excellent way to look at it. When you think about a student's name, or even our names, our names are very personal to us. William: Yes. Angela: It's so important that not only do we know their name, but we know how to pronounce their name and make them feel that welcome in that sense. I always did, in my classroom, the name game where we went through everybody like, "Hi, my name's Angela," and then the next person would say, "Hi, my name's William and that's Angela." Because for me, it's a huge repetition kind of thing. But, having those pictures and having that correlation so that when you see them in the hallway and you can build those connections with them outside of your classroom is a great way to put that foundation of relationships in your classroom. When you think about professional development, in our education certification program, you get tons of professional development that you get on nights and weekends and that sort of thing. Then, I know schools do professional development. Of all the situations that you've been in for learning, what would you say is one of the best strategies or tips that has been impactful for you in your classroom? William: I would say really just making sure that you take the time to teach the behavior expectations that you want your students to follow. The ones that we were provided with, the ones that we were having examples of from Region 13 were super important to me, but I use the five P's: polite, prepared, patient, responsible. I cannot remember them all because I'm on a podcast for the first time. Angela: That's okay. William: But, I do stand by them and I introduce them and I reintroduce them and I reteach as necessary. I really do hold the students accountable by taking the time to share what kind of behavior expectations I have in the classroom. Angela: Do you consider those your guidelines for success in your classroom? William: I would, yes. Angela: That they're kind of embedded in everything you do, how you put procedures in place, and that sort of thing in your class. William: Yes, and I do reinforce those guidelines for success through the CHAMPs program as well. Angela: Okay. William: I have that written on my whiteboard. I can erase whatever I need to, and then I will poll the class, what kind of activity would we consider to be a successful student model for this activity? I get to hear their responses. Like, should we be allowed to talk while we are doing independent work? Should we be allowed to talk when we're doing group work? It does vary depending on the scenario. Getting their input and their involvement into creating the expectations for that activity really makes me feel like it is a more equitable way to teach expectations and reinforce them. Because of course, if somebody's going to have a silly answer, like we should be able to talk in a quiet reading session, most of the students are like, "Well that's not really fair to everybody else." It's kind of a self-responsible activity for them to understand. It helps me, because I feel like I'm having a classroom discussion with people and they're being very responsible, but we're also setting out classroom guidelines for an activity that I've planned and I want them to do because I spend time on it, it's for their benefit. Angela: I love that. CHAMPs you referenced, it's from Safe and Civil Schools, Dr. Randy Sprick. William: Yes. Angela: I am a CHAMPs-ette too, because I did CHAMPs on the classroom, I found it very beneficial. CHAMP stands for Conversation Help Activity Movement Participation. When we think about those activities in the classroom that we have, whether it's direct teach, guided practice, independent work, you kind of put those expectations through that CHAMPs acronym. Can the students talk? Who can they talk to? How loud can they talk? William: Absolutely. Angela: How do you ask for help? Do you say, "Mister," across the room and you're supposed to walk to them, or do they raise their hand? Really helps guide the students so that there is not a question of the expectations. I find that when you get into the middle school arena and kids are going to seven, eight different classes in one day, trying to figure out what is this teacher's expectations versus this teacher. When can I ask to go to the restroom? When am I allowed to talk and have just some opportunity to have dialogue and socialization with my peers? Having that in the classroom can be extremely beneficial for teachers, so I'm glad that you've established that for your student success. If you had to think about one burning issue that you have with behavior, something that is still plaguing your classroom management, what is one of those issues that you're facing right now? William: Yeah, I think it's a common issue as well that most teachers could empathize with, is I do have a problem with students trying to direct mean or hurtful chirps to other students, where if I am redirecting a behavior that is unwanted from a student and I do that, I have a student immediately follow up with, "Yeah, you shouldn't do that," or "yeah, serves you right." I have those conversations in the class, this is a golden rule. Do unto others what you want done to yourself. Do you understand that if you are adding to the negativity in the classroom by chirping out these statements where people are meant to feel bad because you're doing it, you're intentionally not bringing the mood up in the room. You're intentionally leaving the maturity level at a lower level in the room. That's something I'm still learning about how to address the best way. I'm not sure if that's a classroom thing, or something I need to talk to my other grade level teachers about in terms of reinforcing kindness in our classrooms more. Angela: Thinking about the pandemic and how the pandemic impacted education, we talk a lot about learning loss and about the amount of learning that students missed during that time. We haven't spent a lot of time talking about the behavior loss, that leadership and character development growth that they missed, and how to appropriately interact with others and what that's supposed to look like. William: Yes. Angela: Being able to know when to chime in and when not to, and that sort of thing is huge. One of the strategies that I've seen be successful in a classroom is doing restorative circles. There is a closing circle that I saw a video from Edutopia, and it's called Apology, Appreciation, or an Aha. The students can give an aha from their learning, they can apologize for any behavior that they might have had or anything in the classroom, or they can give an appreciation to somebody. It has an opportunity for students to own their behavior, but also appreciate things and it sets a different tone for their classroom. William: I really like that, yeah. Angela: The other strategy that I've seen is really going back to reinforcement systems of owning your behavior. As a class, if we've really paid attention to us and not what other people are doing, then it's like the ticket and the bucket, so it's that way to acknowledge the fact that we're not being engaged in that other piece. But, to take it to the next level, I saw this done at a secondary, and I've also seen it done in elementary, where students can put something in the appreciation jar. There's an appreciation jar. Instead of focusing on the negative behavior that kids are doing, students are going, "I just want to say I want to appreciate Angela for helping me clean up," or, "William helped me with a problem that I had and problem solved with me." It's an appreciation jar. Instead of any kind of a negative thing, it's more about how are we appreciating each other in the class. William: I could definitely see how that could reinforce positive behavior rather than the negatives. Yeah, you're focusing on the better things. Angela: We do what we get attention for. William: Absolutely. Angela: Some of our kids are even making some of those comments just to gain and g

    13 min
  7. S2-Ep1 - Tips And Take-aways For Being Trauma Informed

    12/01/2022

    S2-Ep1 - Tips And Take-aways For Being Trauma Informed

    Angela Eisenberg: Hello, welcome back to I've Tried Everything, a podcast focusing on behavior supports in schools. I'm your host, Angela Eisenberg, 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 to be joined by my colleague, Monica Kurtz. Monica, you have a wealth of knowledge around behavior and your experiences, either in the classroom, behavior classrooms, or supporting campuses, districts in the world of behavior. What is your underlying passion for behavior support? Monica Kurtz: I really, really love thinking about behavior. I think about my own behavior. I think about your behavior. I think about everyone's behavior. And I like studying it. I like to understand why people act the way that they do. And so I feel like, when I can help a student or I can help a teacher help a student get ahold of their behavior, create more positive behavior habits in their lives, I feel like I'm contributing to their lifelong success. Which is awesome. It's really, really, really, really awesome. Other academic content areas are also important, Sure. Math, everybody needs math. But if you don't have the skills to be able to be productive in a classroom, then you're not getting the math. You're not getting the ELA or whatever it is until you can manage yourself in that environment. But the other thing that behavior does is allow us to be full participants in relationships with the people in our world, and not just a relationship with your significant other. We have relationships with everyone that we come in contact with, even if only lasts five minutes in the HEB line. I still have a relationship with this person. So the more that I understand my behavior, the more self-aware I am about how I'm doing during the day, the things that are impacting me on this day versus the day before or the day after, the more productive and healthy and beneficial the relationships that I engage in can be. Angela Eisenberg: I know one of your areas of interest with behavior is trauma. So talk to me about how your learning and excitement began with how trauma has affected behavior. Monica Kurtz: I came from a strong program. I spent 15 years at this school for the deaf, supporting students who had an auditory impairment, but also additional issues going on around being, ID or any myriad of things. And we had a really successful behavior program going. We had a lot of admin support teachers, paras, super well trained. We had a very, very strong program. And there came a day when we got a student from another country, like an orphanage or something, whose behavior was so different. It was so different, and it was so challenging for us. The things that we had used with other students for so long had no impact on this child. And that really was one of the first things that got me interested in how our background impacts how we behave. And then, almost at the same time, I came here to the service center. I was part of the behavior support staff network that Albert Phelps ran at the time. And in that same time period he talked about ACEs, adverse childhood experiences. And we watched the movie Paper Tigers. And I can remember body memory when he brought up the slide of Adverse Childhood Experiences. There are 10 things on that list, and I could identify with eight of them. Angela Eisenberg: Oh, wow. Monica Kurtz: And I thought, oh my God, this is me. This is me on a piece of paper. This is me. And, wow. And so then I started reading and doing research on early childhood trauma specifically. And so it was both personal and professional simultaneously. The more I understand early childhood trauma, the more I understand myself. And the more I understand early childhood trauma, the greater my empathy for other people who are also struggling. And we know from research that early childhood trauma is so prevalent, right? 67 to 70% of people that you interact with have had some kind of thing that they're dealing with from their childhood, or they are living it now. So that's where it started. Understanding how I behave, how I am impacted by my own trauma, and then extending that out and helping people understand. This classroom behavior is not all about hating the teacher or hating the subject. There is a deeper reason for this behavior. And until we address that deeper reason, we're not going to be able to do anything. Angela Eisenberg: I have had the privilege of being a part of several of your trainings around trauma and behavior. And you have a really interesting slide that you developed, where it pairs the multi-tiered system of support tiers to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. How did that visual kind of manifest for you, and how do you explain the importance of the tears versus Maslow? Monica Kurtz: I know just the picture you're talking about. Again, like I said before, I really love thinking about behavior. I spend an inordinate amount of time, and I know the very base of Maslow is like those basic human needs, and then there's safety and security above that. And when I think about our tier three students, which is by the way, the only students I really work with. Some tier two, but mostly tier three. And don't even ask me about tier one. I have no idea. When I think about the needs of the students that I work with specifically, if you imagine that pyramid sitting right next to Maslow, so you've got two pyramids side by side. If you take the RTI pyramid and you rotate it, so the tip is on the bottom, then your tier three students line up with your basic human needs, and your security and safety. And I feel like that illustrates, really, where those students are. We cannot, as people, experience success and all of the things that come with being in a healthy relationship with achievement. We can't experience those until we are in an environment where we feel safe and secure. And that safety and security comes from, at the very most basic, meeting our needs. Making sure we have food and water and shelter. Then we can start to feel safe in the world. And the more that I interact with students who are on the very tip of that tiered pyramid, the more that I understand that something is missing from the very basic bottom of the Maslow's hierarchy. A lot of the students that I work with have emotional disturbance. That kind of lends itself to insecurity. So we have to figure out ways to make sure that those first two levels of Maslow, ways that we can help our students have those before they're able to reach a level of achievement. Angela Eisenberg: I think about that, and I thought about that whenever I was dealing with the situation with my daughter, Grace. She was at the time going into her senior year. It was the very beginning of school. Unfortunately, her schedule was not right. She was supposed to be in this one class first period, ended up in a completely different class that had certain number of computers and that sort of thing. So when she got in there, the first question out of the teacher's mind is, what are you doing in here? Why are you here? I only have this many computers. You need to find a way to get out. She was like, I don't know. They told me to go follow my schedule. And so she went through the schedule change process, she put that in. And first days of school, first several weeks of school at a high school, you're just trying to make sure everybody has classes, right? So she wasn't a top priority. But every day she walked in, first period of the day, why are you still here? You need to get out. Just kind of barraged of you're not welcome. It ended up Grace was like, "Mom, I don't even want to go to school. I don't know what to do. I feel so hated by this teacher because the schedule was wrong and it's not my fault." So I ended up, me being the parent that I am, I email the counselor. And I email their academic dean and say, "Grace has trauma. She has several indicators from that adverse childhood experiences." And I said, "Grace is sitting with a couple of trauma components." But I said, we've really worked on resiliency with her. I'm guessing that there are other kids in the classroom that might not have that level. And they're being so unwelcomed when they come in, and that's that safety and security. And I said, so if she's experiencing this, how might those other kids feel that are also experiencing that, and could have more ACEs than Grace does? And I mean, of course, as soon as this campus found out this was happening, they got that schedule changed. But that shouldn't have to take place. Monica Kurtz: No, it shouldn't. It should be incumbent upon all of us to behave like decent human beings. And, sorry, but I'm a little bit fired up for Grace now. Being the person that I am, I understand that teacher's level of stress on the first day of school or the first week of school, I get it. However, there's no call to be ugly to another person. Not a student, not a child, not a whatever. To another person, another human being in your environment. There is no need. There is no need. And what an unwelcoming environment. So when we talk about basic human needs, that safety and security was completely missing from Grace's first period experience. And if you're going to get all head up about something, let's talk to the people who make the schedules. Angela Eisenberg: So I live by the idea that if you knew better, you'd do better for sure. I don't think that teacher had an evil plan to thwart anybody. I think if she knew better, she'd do better. Let's put that lay person to the test. If you could go out there to any new teacher in the profession, or a teacher in the profession that didn't understand trauma and how trauma impacts student behavior, what would be some of the tools that you would recommend to be trauma-informed? Monica Kurtz: The single greatest powerful tool that we have, that

    24 min
  8. Creating a Positive School Culture and Climate

    01/02/2020

    Creating a Positive School Culture and Climate

    In this episode, behavior specialist Angela Isenberg, and guest specialist Melinda Marquez, talk about creating a positive school culture and climate for your campuses and schools.Checkout the full transcript of today's episode over at our show page.

    12 min
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16 Ratings

About

We are back for Season 2! Join our behavior specialist, Angela Isenberg, and her guests as they continue the conversation about managing classroom behavior. We will talk through all the areas of behavior that school principals and assistant principals need to know. Talks focus on positive school culture and climates, expectations for classroom management, staff shortages, academics, being trauma-informed, and so much more.

Information

  • Creator
    ESC Region 13
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2022
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Education Service Center Region 13
  • Show Website
    I've Tried Everything

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