10 Reasons Why…

Educators Need Professional Development In The Areas Of Student Behavior Management And Anti Bullying

Introduction

Since the dawn of public education teachers and schools have focused on the academic achievement of students.  All students were expected to leave school with basic reading writing and math skills. Some kids excelled and went on to institutions of higher learning, some were trained at a trade such as carpentry, or auto mechanics, and still others left school with those basics and worked at more labor related jobs such as factory or office work. Everyone who left secondary school did have the basics just at different levels. Every student may not have had the capacity to go to college but just about everyone finished school and had the ability to function in the real world. With the onslaught of state mandated testing in so many school districts throughout the country teachers are still pressured to ensure that students achieve but the landscape has changed and hitting the bull’s eye is far more difficult than it was say forty years ago. The bull’s eye is tough to hit because teachers are now being asked to hit a moving target. The target keeps moving because the levels of disrespect, and irresponsibility pervades our schools and basically you can’t hit something that won’t sit still, keep quiet, come prepared, stay motivated, and who really has taken no ownership for their own education.

Local and state boards persist though in their belief that success is based upon achievement not on effort and character. The faulty philosophies that have come out of some of our colleges that focuses more on methods of instruction rather than behavior management has both young and veteran teachers alike trying to figure out how to hit that moving target. In schools right now we don’t need one more test, or in-service that helps teacher’s understand how to teach to the test we need a comprehensive program that focuses squarely on student behavior management, teaching respect, and encouraging responsibility.  Our young teachers who have been in the field for between three to five years may not know any different and are hounded daily regarding the academic achievement of students whose behavior is out of control, and veteran teachers who have done a good job of reading the tea leaves are planning for retirement because the work load is increasing to the point that it is becoming unmanageable. Our focus in education needs to be on steadying the target and improving student behavior, not on improving test scores. If we begin to focus on behavior, character, and effort rather than achievement test scores will naturally go up because we will begin to develop willing learners.

Colleges need to provide stronger training in the area of behavior management for future teachers and we need to provide more comprehensive training in the area of behavior management for teachers who are now in the field. Here are ten good reasons why:

 Take a look at the schools

The behavior in our schools has deteriorated to the point that we don’t worry about school violence we worry more about school shootings. We are forced to get everyone to the finish line without mastery of basic content. So many kids come into schools with negative learned behaviors that we are forced to develop conditions to support the behavior. (As an example, kids with ODD or ADHD were few and far between 40 years ago.) Schools would find different environments for the kids with severe behavior problems (Then about 10%) and send them down the path of the army, get a GED, or a trade school. Today there are so many kids with chronic behavior problems that are both conduct and clinical and you can’t throw out the entire twenty to thirty percent of the school population. These kids are no here to stay and they are going to make it tough for kids who want to learn to learn. So, if we want to teach the other seventy five to eighty percent we better figure out how to manage behavior problems.

This isn’t forty years ago

Let’s face it years ago parents supported the school and dealt with their child’s misbehavior. Today we have to fight the kid, the parent, and at times city hall. In addition the behaviors that we dealt with forty years ago were of the garden variety like having a playground fight, or goofing off in class. Today the levels of disrespect, and irresponsibility, are at such high levels that younger teachers have begun to view some of the behaviors as the “new norm”  and anytime there is the slightest improvement they fall all over the kid with praise causing the kid to feel good about himself for no apparent reason.

Standardized testing is not a measure of achievement

Teachers are trained to teach to the test. Even for content related testing during the year there is this unspoken fear of failing a kid. Most kids have an inflated view of their academic ability and don’t realize their shortcomings until later in life when grades are more meaningful. Good grades are nice, but mastery is better. Students move through grade after grade with unmastered skills and a lack the necessary prerequisites to learn new information. This produces frustration, anxiety, and tension resulting in behavior problems.

Life is about relationships

Ask any employer. They are more concerned about the attitude of their employee than whether or not they can do the job. They believe that they can always teach a person the skills on their job description, but they can’t teach the person how to get along. School is supposed to be a microcosm of society. Employers want their employee’s to be respectful, responsible, have a good attitude, can get along, show up, and are on time. Sound like school? If this is what employers want we should be teaching it; that is if we can find the time in the overly ambitious curriculum that is being used to help prime a kid to pass a test.

We don’t know how to have productive conflict

There are so many intergenerational dysfunctional problems in our families, schools, and in society in general that have been discussion forums in faculty rooms. No answers, just discussions. The topic of the day here is the inability to confront each other, a student, parent, or an issue, or maybe our own demons. Productive conflict is something that is taught it is not an innate skill. Teachers may have difficulty with conflict strictly based upon their own life imprint. It is a skill that needs to be taught to our student’s so they can have a disagreement and do it with the right attitude, and they can cooperate even though they may disagree. When this skill is not taught, power struggles are inevitable and relationships get strained. Some families don’t even talk to each other because of an unsettled youth conflict that became an adult conflict. Don’t worry once kids know this they’ll pass the test.

There are too many adults with poor attitudes

Kids are kids for a short period of time. Then they become adults; with the same crummy attitudes. Even the most intelligent of adults can have such arrogance that they are painful to be around. This is the other eighty percent of our school population. Knowledge without character produces this type of know it all mentality. They were once kids who did well in school but never developed the character in order to know how to make the best use of their intelligence.

Our students lack empathy

As a society we just don’t have the same concern for each other as we once did. By this I am referring to the overall concern that a family has for the elderly couple up the street when there is a heavy snow fall, or helping someone with a dead battery, or bringing meals to a shut in. Adults don’t care as they once did and our kids care even less. There are too many students who stand around in school when someone is being bullied. But let’s always be sure that the kids pass the test.

Bullying behavior is on the rise

Hurt people hurt people. Bullies come from dysfunctional families, are angry, and take out their anger on others. They made that decision around the age of five. Everyone knew there was something wrong but not enough was done to quell his/her misery. Early intervention didn’t happen and we ended up with a bully on our hands who interferes with the learning of others and creates an emotionally unsafe learning environment for everyone.  Let’s take a test.

Kids seek revenge

It’s not enough to get even anymore and have a fair fight and get it over with. Today revenge is the way kids level the ground. They just want don’t want a pound of flesh, they want a pound of your flesh and the flesh of five others. Victims who have been bullied don’t know how to fight back or have a productive conflict they digest the abuse and then act out when the time is right. Stop testing and start strengthening the victim. You will help them pass the test.

Some kids may be smart but they lack wisdom, and common sense

The smartest kids in the class could be the most deviant, and make the poorest choices. There are more kids today that can’t even make the smallest decision and can be led around by the nose by the wrong crowd. Smart doesn’t mean wise and at times even the smartest kids can lie, cheat, steal, and abuse others. Maybe even better than the average kid. There are all kinds of smarts and this kid is one dimensional, but he will pass the test.

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The Ramblings of a Dinosaur

INTRODUCTION

THE RAMBLINGS OF A DINOSAUR

I don’t even know why I am writing these essays. I really have never had a passion for writing. I was never very good at it- I’ve always felt that my strong suit was speaking. I’ve rambled on at speaking engagements about things that trouble me to hundreds of people and I do believe that my ramblings have value.

I am a baby boomer. I was raised over a bar and watched my parents work 14 hour days in their own business and, eventually, I did the same when I was 18 years old. I never had any intention of going to college, because I thought I’d naturally take over the bar, but my dad made me go. He didn’t want me to take over the business. He wanted something better for me.

During my first semester in college my cumulative average was a 1. I never thought I’d make it. Unbelievably, I did and graduated with a 2.9 cumulative average – not bad. I went into teaching Special Education in 1977 and learned how to manage emotionally disturbed kids. In 1989, I moved on into school administration. I began my administrative career as a principal in a school for disturbed kids and finished my career as an administrator in schools from between 500 and 3,000 students. .

I have watched the incremental changes that have taken place in the family, in schools and society over a period of over 40 years. Quite honestly, I am really sick about what I have seen. I always thought I was a principle centered person. I wanted to run schools in sync with my principles. Now I see that I’ve become a dinosaur. My ideas just don’t fit any more.

I went into public speaking around 1992 and have done in-services, work-shops, keynotes, parent programs, and student assemblies. When I speak to people, most seem to agree with my philosophy. But when it gets down to brass tacks, it just too hard to fight city hall, or your own kids, or the board of education, or a bunch of parents or maybe just the way things are in society in general.

Having taken a good hard look at the way things are today as opposed to the way they used to be, I have gone off on tangents at conferences and did nothing but speak from my heart. I feel as though my way of thinking is slowly becoming extinct, but I believe that people should still be listening to me. I have written a set of essays. Some paint a picture of me personally, some are about my philosophy as an educator, and some are about my observations about how things are going in the world right now. As I ramble on about these subjects, you will see why I call these essays The Ramblings of a Dinosaur.

 

 

 

2017-18 Professional Development Opportunities

Schedule Now For 2017-18

If you are planning for the 2017-18 school year you are probably looking for a quality in-service or keynote to start off the year. Jim Burns is a former teacher, and administrator with over forty years of experience. He has been a professional speaker since the year 2000. He is a college instructor, anti bullying consultant, writer, and course designer. In May of 2015 Jim was awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters for his almost 40 years of work in the area of student behavior management and anti bullying. He can speak to your staff on a variety of topics that are both humorous and enlightening. He believes that Everybody Knows about the true issues in education but for some reason can’t come up with the solutions. He offers self study professional development opportunities that can be found at www.bpconlineacademy.com. To learn more about scheduling an in-service or a consultation click on the link below for more information.

The Bully Proof Classroom