There are only three more days left in the class I am currently taking. Today (Wednesday) and tomorrow, pairs of students will present a demonstration of decreasing/increasing a student behavior. The presentation is based on a functional behavior assessment of a student (fictional or real) which was an earlier assignment. The presentation must include a summary of the FBA, an "acted out" planning meeting with parents, teachers, etc. for the purpose of developing a behavior intervention plan, the BIP itself, and a demonstration of how it will be implemented. Normally we would have been given the assignment and had three weeks to work on it. instead, we have three days! Aaarrrgh! We also have the final project, a behavioral intervention plan based upon the FBA we did, due on Friday, as well as the final exam. The instructor did not adjust the curriculum at all to take in consideration that the course would be completed in 15 days instead of 15 weeks, which has made it a challenge. Still, it is summertime, when most teachers are not working, and should have the time available to devote to the coursework. The problem is that with a major collaborative project like this one, it is almost impossible to squeeze in enough meetings in three days to draft, research, and revise. Oh, well.
My next class starts on Monday of next week. Same instructor, but longer day (9:30-3:30) and only two weeks long. If he does the same thing he did for this class, I am in for a wild ride.
This course has been very good. It focused on analyzing student behaviors, methods for increasing/decreasing behaviors, and developing behavior intervention plans. It all makes sense and could be useful. It's just that in the context of a classroom, with a thousand things going on at once, it is questionable how much of it will translate into use in the classroom.
One thing that was brought to my attention through a school critique paper, was that our school has no "schoolwide positive behavioral intervention and support program" (SWPBIS). Basically, we have no schoolwide program to encourage positive behavior and identify and decrease undesirable behaviors, other than a system of detentions and suspensions. We have never had any schoolwide professional development devoted to addressing behavioral issues, or creating a working, schoolwide plan for changing student behaviors. Our focus is strictly on punishment. Our schoolwide professional development has been total shit, (what color is your personality?) and writing the critique made me aware of the need for schoolwide training and some sort of across-the-grades continuity with respect to behavior expections and intervention plans.

Summer Class

On Monday (today's Friday) I started my first class: Managing Classroom Behavior. It meets for 2 1/2 hours a day, five days a week and runs for three weeks. That's fifteen consecutive class periods for a 3 credit hour class. It sounded good to me but the instructor is making no adjustments to the curriculum he uses in a regular 15-week semester so the first day's reading assignment was two chapters and the second day's assignment was 3 chapters! Now that we have slowed down to one chapter a night if feels like cake. The instructor is knowledgable, experienced, and interesting, so I am enjoying the class. This is a very good thing as he will also be the instructor for the second class I am taking this summer. That class will meet 6 hours a day, Monday through Thursday, for two weeks. Sigh...
Our first paper was due yesterday. It was to be a critique of the "Schoolwide Behavior Intervention Plan" at the school where we teach. Well, our school doesn't really have one. We have what might be considered pieces of one. One of the questions we were to answer in the paper was whether the school had provided any personal development related to creating a schoolwide BIP and when I thought about the four years I have been teaching there, I could not remember any PD devoted to this topic. Why? Student behavior is a major issue at our school. Why haven't we ever addressed student behavior in a schoolwide manner? It pissed me off, especially when I thought about all the agonizingly long PD days spent in inane workshops and presentations.
This fall, the middle school will be physically relocating to the high school. We (middle school teachers) have among ourselves discussed our concerns about the difference in behavior expectations and rules. The adminstration hasn't addressed this issue at all and it is worrisome. We will now be under the administration of the high school principal and we don't have the comfort level we developed over the years with the elementary school principal.
Another problem I am having is that I identify myself as a middle school teacher. Beginning in the fall, however, I will be primarily a high school teacher. I always intended to teach high school, but after the last six years I have developed a fondness for middle schoolers and their peculiar brand of charm. Now I am apprehensive about teaching older students! Well, I don't care--I am still putting up all of my stupid posters and bulletin boards.