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8th Grade Transition
This January 8th grade teachers will make recommendations for academic placement in the 9th grade. Parents will receive this information by mail along with the HS Program of Studies course catalogue. Students have the opportunity to choose up to two electives from the business, visual arts, technology, music, and family and consumer science departments.
As part of the transition process special educators and counselors from the middle school and High School meet to best design appropriate programs for each individual child. Parents are then invited with their child to a personal conference with the elementary counselor, a high school counselor, and a special educator if appropriate, to finalize the best schedule possible. This year those conferences are scheduled during school hours the weeks of January 26 and February 2.
The Value of Creating “Glass Half-Full” Opportunities
Some back-to-school musings with Dr. Bee
In the August 2008 back-to-school issue of Teaching Exceptional Children, editors Alec Peck and Stan Scarpati dedicated seven of the typical seven feature articles to the topic of school and family collaboration as the strongest means by which we can provide positive behavioral supports for children in each of their environments. Well, what perfect timing! As we begin yet another school year, every member of the Demarest learning community – children, teachers, parents, administrators, D.A.R.E. officers, crossing guards, nurses, support staff, you name it – makes the same wish. When all is said and done, each wishes for a positive year. Easier wished than granted, we say? Maybe so, but contributing writers Maureen Conroy and her colleagues (Positive Behavior
Interventions and Supports – Classwide Interventions/Effective Instruction Makes a Difference, pp 24-30) offer some common sense tips we may want to use in the conspicuous absence of a magic wand or lamp. By adapting several of her classroom suggestions to our children’s home AND school worlds, I suggest we may move towards creating more positive daily experiences for our children and ourselves.
1. Remember to use close supervision and monitoring. If we are in the same space together, we can supervise better and intervene for the good, FASTER! Leaving children alone for extended periods of time (especially with little or nothing to do) creates gaps. Better to be close, check in frequently, and make opportunities for catching the good than waiting to mop up an hour or half an hour later!
2. Set up, teach and frequently review rules of operation. Children do very well when their worlds contain understandable, simple and consistent rules that they can learn to use with automaticity. The more “Do’s,” the better. Do you remember when you learned to brush your teeth? Probably not. It was a step-by-step process taught with direct instruction that you had to practice and which required parent-patrol and direct supervision. I’d bet you think through these steps anymore….brushing your teeth is hopefully automatic for you by now, just as are many other activities of daily living (I can’t say for me, since I’m re-learning the art using a spin brush!).
The point is, our children’s goals include acquiring as many of these auto-pilot behaviors as possible too. For example, they need to learn to follow safety procedures for riding in cars automatically, in every car! They need to learn shopping-in-the-mall and eating-in-restaurant behaviors. They need to learn a daily routine for organizing their homework and supplies to get them to and from school, and to do this they need instruction and supervision on both the passing and receiving ends (home-to-school and school-to-home) until they move the skill into the auto-pilot zone.
3. Increase Opportunities to Respond to requests (OTR’s) Simply put, Maureen suggests that we cue the behaviors or tasks we want our children to exhibit so that they have a greater chance of getting them right. For example, I observed a great exchange between a parent and her son who had a tendency to ‘forget’ where he put things. As they walked into their kitchen, the mom pointed to a small IKEA wooden crate by the door and said, “This is your back-pack crate. Where does your back-pack go?” The boy tossed the back-pack into the crate as he said, “In the crate, mom, you know that!” Mom’s positive response (a mini High-5) and “You’ve got it, kiddo,” set a really positive tone for the home-from-school-have-snack-and-then-start-homework routine.
(The house also had a family “key basket” by the family room door. Even dad automatically tosses his keys into the basket when he comes home……no more “Did anyone see my keys!?”) A fifth grade content area class provided a similar OTR experience. As the class entered, the teacher said, “Remember that we start class by sitting in our seats, and putting our books, one pencil, and our homework folder open to today’s work on the desk. Everything else, under our seats. How do we start class?” I was amazed to hear the kids parrot the instructions as they followed them to a tee! The result, the whole class got a bonus point they could save up to trade later for an optional assignment.
4. Increase Contingent Praise! Everything is NOT praise-worthy! If you’ve had the opportunity to listen to or read The Last Lecture, by the late Randy Pausch, his caution of the cost of reinforcing mediocrity really hits home. It echoes Nana’s well-worn: “Any job worth doing, is worth doing well!” Not almost well. Not close. Well!In order to be effective, praise should be behavior-specific, and contingent upon successful display of the desired behavior or behaviors. Saying, “You’re such a good class!” and “You were such a good boy!” carry less oomph than, “You all got ready on time!” or “You remembered all of your workbooks today!” A caveat: if you increase contingent praise, you have less time to
correct/punish and you will get better results! Pointing out that the glass is half-full with room for more good stuff has much more power than pointing out that it is half-empty, tsk, tsk!
5. Provide Feedback! Correct Errors! Monitor Progress! As human beings, our kids included, we like to know where we stand in relation to behaviors our social network expects. We need accurate feedback. Our kids need accurate feedback. If it’s wrong, help them correct it (Don’t fix it FOR them!). If it’s correct, reward it. And, most importantly, find a way to show growth and success as change over time. The World Wide Web provides a gazillion visual examples we can use to provide positive feedback of growth. There are thermometer charts, pie charts, stacks of animals/cars/aliens charts, sophisticated teen-pre-teen cool charts! But, we don’t even have to reach that far. A colored pencil and paper will do.
Remember, the fridge isn’t just for perfect papers. A concrete example:
If your house was like ours, there was a growth chart on the inside of the closet door. Two little souls, now 6’4” and 5’7” still look at that chart with a sense of pride and reflective smiles when they come home to visit and happen to go into that closet for a coat (and that was just for growing taller). Enjoying where we are can be sweetened by opportunities to see how far we’ve come! What a way to fill up those glasses!
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