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Teaching Troubled Kids...

One of the greatest benefits

 in working with troubled children

 is that you get to live

 at the edges of your competence

and discover that they are not fixed.

     -- ( F. A. Fecser )

Teaching...

As I teach,

I project the condition of my soul

onto my students,

my subject,

and our way of being together. 

 --( Parker Palmer )

Connect-Clarify-Restore...

How do I know if I have connected
with a student in crisis?

 You know you have connected

with this student

when you look into his face

 and see your own. 

    --( N. Long )

Children and Youth- Meeting Universal Growth Needs

A pilot has hundreds of instruments but, in times of crisis,

 is trained to focus on a few critical indicators of a plane's

condition.

A physician has available thousands of tests

 to diagnose disease but begins

with any patient by taking the "vital signs."

 In like manner, the Circle of Courage

marks the critical indicators,

the vital signs for positive youth development.

However complex our curriculum or counseling systems,

we must never lose sight of basics:

All children need opportunities to experience

 Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity.

  We call these "universal growth needs."

--Brendtro, Brokenleg, & VanBockern, 2002

Purpose....

“Education either functions as an instrument

 which is used to facilitate integration

 of the younger generation into the logic

 of the present system and bring about conformity

 or it becomes the practice of freedom,

 the means by which men and women

deal critically and creatively

 with reality and discover how to participate

in the transformation of their world.” 
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Fire...

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” 
― W.B. Yeats

Schooling and Education...

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” 

― Mark Twain

Education and Hope...

“Education is always a vocation
   rooted in hopefulness.”

 ( B. Hooks)

 

 

Re-claiming Children "At-Risk"

To be reclaimed is to be restored to value, to experience belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity- the four well-springs of courage.

 

 

Cycles of Mis-treatment

“ Having denied children the kind of care and protection that all young human animals must have, we then decide to punish them, in essence for our failure to raise them in the first place…

Has there ever been a plan so exquisitely calculated to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children and their children’s children?

-- Mary Sykes Wylie

 

 

Kids- At-Risk..

“The hurt that troubled children create is never greater than the hurt they feel.”

                 --L. Tobin

Whitman..

Teaching and Learning...

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin,

 beginning to puff and blow, 

"is to learn something.

 That's the only thing that never fails. 

You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, 

you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, 

you may miss your only love, 

you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, 

or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds.

 There is only one thing for it then — to learn.

 Learn why the world wags and what wags it. 

That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate,

 never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.

 Learning is the only thing for you.

 Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

Your Words Matter...

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, 

people will forget what you did,

 but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

― Maya Angelou

Pain Based Behavior..

“When another person makes you suffer,

 it is because he suffers deeply within himself, 

and his suffering is spilling over. 

He does not need punishment;

 he needs help. 

That's the message he is sending.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh

Respect.....

“To believe that one can teach

respect through coercion is to

confuse respect with obedience.”

---(Brendtro and Long, 1996)

Social and Emotional Learning...

TEACHING WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF...

When it comes to the impact of mental health on academic outcomes, the research is finally catching up with veteran teacher leaders’ observations: developing social-emotional competence is key to success in school and in life.

SEL addresses the development of five key areas of social-emotional

competence (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2003):

• Self-awareness: identification and recognition of one’s own emotions, recognition of strengths in one’s self and others, a sense of self-efficacy, and self confidence

• Self-management: impulse control, stress management, persistence, goal setting, and motivation

• Social awareness: empathy, respect for others, and the ability to see different perspectives of the same issue.

• Relationship skills: cooperation, willingness to seek and provide help, and communication

• Responsible decision making: evaluation and reflection and personal and ethical responsibility.

Research shows that SEL has positive effects on academic performance; benefits physical health; improves citizenship; is demanded by employers; is essential for lifelong success; and reduces the risk of maladjustment, failed relationships, interpersonal violence, and substance abuse (Elias et al., 1997; Zins, Weissberg,

Wang, & Walberg, 2004).

Greenberg  etal. (2003) reported that well-designed and well-implemented SEL programming enhances social-emotional competencies (e.g., assertiveness and communication skills), reduces internalizing and externalizing disorders, and improves academic performance. Multiyear, structured classroom instruction that applies social-emotional skills to real-life situations and focuses on school ecology and climate has the most enduring benefits.

--  Maurice J. Elias

Compassion as a practice...

"Compassion is a verb".

-- Thich Nhat Hanh

It’s People, Not Programs

“ In our rush to reform education, we have forgotten a simple truth:

   reform will never be achieved by appropriations, restructuring  schools, rewriting  curricula, and revising  texts  if  we continue  to  demean and dishearten  the  human resource  called  the teacher  on whom so much depends.”

      (Parker Palmer)

Types of educational Change...

FIRST ORDER CHANGE-

   first order change is “incremental”. It can be thought of as the next most obvious step to take a school or district.

( First order change tinkers with our existing vision of what schooling is and what it does.  Most of what i see in the current school reform movement lives here!! )

SECOND ORDER CHANGE-

   second order change involves a dramatic departure from the expected, both in defining the problem and in finding solutions.

    Second order change is “deep change”.

( This is tranformational. It requires "new knowledge" and skills. It requires adults to learn!)

First Order Change

•      Perceived as extension of past practice

•      Fits with existing paradigms

•      Can be implemented with existing knowledge and skills

•      Requires resources that are currently available

•      Accepted because of common agreement that the change is necessary.

Second Order Change

•      Perceived as a break with the past

•      Lies outside existing paradigms

•      Requires the acquisition of new skills and knowledge

•      May require resources to be reallocated

•      May be resisted because only those who have a broad perspective of the school see the innovation as necessary.

The paradigm changes in second order change.  It goes into new teritory.  Currently most schools do not go here... we continue to tinker with existing structures.

What types of change is your school currently involved in?

What is "transformational"  about that?

Leadership and Change...

“A leader is a juggler,

a person who maintains

a dynamic vision of

     “what could be”

 while dealing with the

everyday “what is” crises

and mundane demands.”

     ( Matusak & Young, 1997)

Questions Drive all Learning...

It is not enough to be busy.

So are the ants.

The question is:

What are we busy about?   

-- Henry David Thoreau

A bit of History- Working with Troubled and Troubling Kids

Learning about others who have worked with difficult and troubled children and youth over the years has been very

helpful....  many older ideas ... are excellent!!!  Hobbs and

many others are well worth checking out!!!

It was the vision of Nicholas Hobbs that Re-Education

remain ever fluid, never dogmatic. Indeed, Hobbs

said he wanted us to re-invent Re-ED every day.

Hobbs’ visionary thinking foresaw bright people—

both young and older—working together to address

the needs of kids and families in trouble. He saw this

being done not in isolation but through an ecological

approach that reaches into all areas of the child’s life.

The guiding lights for us along that path are the

12 Principles.They are the bedrock of what Re-ED

has been about since its inception in 1962.

Life is to be lived now, not in the past, and lived in the future only as a present challenge.

  

 Trust between a child and adult is essential, the foundation on which all other principles rest, the glue that holds teaching and learning together, the beginning point for reeducation.

Competence makes a difference, and children and adolescents should be helped to be good at something, especially schoolwork.

 Time is an ally, working on the side of growth in a period of development when life has a tremendous forward thrust.

Self control can be taught and children and adolescents helped to manage their behavior without the development of psychodynamic insight; and symptoms can and should be controlled by direct address, not necessarily by an uncovering therapy.

 The cognitive competence of children and adolescents can be considerably enhanced; they can be taught generic skills in the management of their lives as well as strategies for coping with the complex array of demands placed upon them by family, school, community, or job; in other words, intelligence can be taught.

 Feelings should be nurtured, shared spontaneously, controlled when necessary, expressed when too long repressed, and explored with trusted others.

 The group is very important to young people, and it can be a major source of instruction in growing up.

Ceremony and ritual give order, stability, and confidence to troubled children and adolescents, whose lives are often in considerable disarray.

The body is the armature of the self, the physical self around which the psychological self is constructed.

 Communities are important for children and youth, but the uses and benefits of community must be experienced to be learned.

In growing up, a child should know some joy in each day and look forward to some joyous event for the morrow.

“We believe that a joyous experience is immensely important, that it is immediately therapeutic…”

Nicholas Hobbs, 1915-1983

More about the principles and practices of Re-ED can be found in The Troubled and Troubling Child,  by Dr. Nicholas Hobbs

Leadership, Teaching and Hope

“ Perhaps the most neglected leadership virtue is hope.”

         ---Segiovanni

On other side of despair is hope.  Realistic hope is not wishful thinking….it is based on understanding the concrete conditions of reality, to see ones own role in it realistically and to engage in thoughtful actions to bring about the hoped-for change. 

 Hope viewed in this manner has an activating effect.  It is hugely important because it mobilizes the energies needed for the activity of transformation.

Leaders, both formal and informal, have an important place here.  If their own hopefulness is based on a set of beliefs and if those beliefs can be shared by others in the school community…. then what has been created is  a powerful force of ideas.

These ideas provide a basis for an entire school to become a community of hope!!

Why…. Because HOPE has an activating effect.

Segiovanni… goes on to say that developing a community of hope elevates the work of leadership to the level of moral action.

Hope provides the fuel that energizes groups and allows for the search for new possibilities…. It stretches the limits of what is possible.

“It is imperative that we maintain hope even when the harshness of reality may suggest the opposite.”  ( Paulo Freire )

Hope is the doorway from one reality to another.

To pull this off leaders, both formal and informal, must concretize what they want to see in reality. 

 I strongly believe this is what Warren Bennis is talking about when he says:

 “ Effective leaders put words to the formless longings and deeply felt needs of others.”

Hope is a powerful force...  does your school community recognize and grow hopefulness??

 

Looking and Seeing

“Even though life may have moved wearily and painfully through such a person, they have still managed not to let it corrode their soul.

In such a face a lovely luminosity shines out into the world.

It casts a tender light that radiates a sense of wholeness and wholesomeness.”

― John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Leadership- Vision and Gaps..

'The gap between vision and current reality
 is also a source of energy.
 If there were no gap,
 there would be no need for any action to move towards the vision.
 We call this gap creative tension.'
---Peter Senge

Leadership...

“There is nothing as useless

as doing efficiently

 that which should not be done at all.”

 ~ Peter Drucker

Good Teaching....Find the Zone...

“Good teaching

 is forever being

on the cutting edge

of a child’s competence.”

~ Jerome Bruner

TEACHING WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF……

•      If a child does not know how to read, we teach.

•       If a child does not know how to swim, we teach.

•      If a child does not know how to multiply, we teach.

•        If a child does not know how to drive, we teach.

•       If a child does not know how to behave, we………………..

Your Words...

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

             --Maya Angelou

Your Words influence the weather in your classroom…..

So...what words do you use and what is the weather like in your room?

Replace the tactics that don't work with ones that do

Things that do not work

•      NAGGING

•      BEING SARCASTIC

•      SCOLDING

•      YELLING

•      THREATENING

•      TURNING REQUESTS INTO QUESTIONS

•      IGNORING

•      NOT LISTENING

•      TOO MANY  WORDS

•      OTHER….

THINK ABOUT USING THE 3 "R'S"

REINFORCING

•      “I notice the way you remembered to bring all your materials to class, thanks”.

•      “I notice that you have taken the time to read the directions and now you are figuring out the next thing to do.”

•      “I notice the way you remembered where to turn in your work so I can find it.”

•      “ I notice………….

REMINDING

•      “Before we go to our next period, remind me what you will need to do.”

•      “Who remembers what we will need to get together for our history project?”

•      “If someone asks you to play a game, what are friendly ways you might respond?  Remind me.”

•      “ Remind me what happens in this class if someone makes a mistake.”

•      “George, I see you walking around the room, remind me what we are supposed to be doing now.”

•      REMINDING CAN BE USED AS A “SET-UP” OF EXPECTATIONS PRIOR TO DOING ANY TRANSITIONS.

REDIRECTING

•      “Pencils are for writing, Sam…..”

•      “I hear a lot of talking. This is your time to get your projects together.”

•      I hear conversations about T.V. shows. What do we need to be thinking about now?

•      I want to hear quiet voices….

•      I see this table is unsettled.  I will hold your papers for now. Tell me when you are ready to begin work. 

 Remember we all to have

   be finished before we________ this afternoon.