Lost at School: Chapter 9

I agree with Liliana referring to  "What it looks like in each school is determined by that schools administrators, teachers, students, and parents working together towards common goals". This is so important because this is what makes the school feel like a united community. When staff in a school are not all on the same page in regards to their goals, students success, and achievement, things are dysfunctional.
If the staff are not on the same page then they will not be able to support their students success, or build trustworthy relationships with the students parents. If everyone is not aware what is going on with students like Joey then the cycle of suspension, and detention slips will always be the end result. Having procedures, and a plan that everyone is following will help improve the situation.


Chapter 9: Lives in the Balance


What stood out to me in this chapter-


"Helping challenging kids has to become a priority in each classroom, each school, each system." (282)
- I agree, it is important to have functioning school systems that follow a similar plan and procedures for challenging students. I also agree that we should not waste the potential of these students. They deserve the right to have a chance. They are just waiting on the guidance from their teachers, parents, and supportive educational faculty and staff.


- I loved how Mrs. Woods told Joey she is going to miss meeting with him, and she would like for him to come visit every once in a while. (284)


- Glad that Mr. Armstrong has come to his senses regarding Crystal. He spent so much time trying to determine her future, and seemed like he already given up on her. Now at the close of the story I am glad he is noticing the reinforcement that the discipline group is doing for Crystal. Yes, she may have some ways to go- but there is potential there. The summer program seems like a great start. Since Crystal deals with issues of abandonment she seems to follow to the wrong crowd. I am glad that Mr. Middleton, Mr. Armstrong and the other faculty have began to find the source of the problem; they now can strategies around it.


Final Thoughts:
I thought this was a great book, however some of the content seemed repetitive. I wish we started off reading Lost and then maybe read Wonder. It was so much detail to digest, that I had to really set time aside- so I wouldn't just read it to get it done. I wanted to actually take my time, so that I could incorporate some of the author's advice and philosophy into my own.

Lost at School: Chapter 8

Chapter 8: School of Thought

• Some key components that cut across all schools. 
- Leadership
-Individuals
-Structures

Things that stood out to me from this chapter: 

"Kids who exhibit challenges at school typically evidence challenges at home too." (242-243)
- I thought this was pretty interesting. 

"Not coincidentally teachers often feel most uncertain,  exposed, and defensive in interactions with parents,  feeling that their competence and professionalism are challenged. " (244)
-I think this would be good to know as a parent and as a future teacher. 

Question: how do property in culture impact the effectiveness of the CPS model? 

Answer: "At the risk of seeming insensitive I think property is overrated as an explanation for challenging behavior in kids.. . There are kids from in impoverished circumstances who succeed. There are kids from wealthy backgrounds who don't those who come from wealth often have parents who will stop at nothing to access good care they have the resources and wherewithal to find and pay for it. Some receive every poor kid anyway... People from similar backgrounds sometimes have an easier time connecting and communicating with each other but I've yet to run into an ethnic group whose members do not value having their concerns heard and address… "
- I would have never even made that connection. I totally agree with this perspective as well. 

Questions: 
1.) How do you feel about Mr. Armstrong's views on Crystal? 
2.) Do you think he has somewhat of a point for feeling the way he does regarding Crystal?  Do you think he has completely just given up on her future, and is being negative about the disclipne program? 

4&5

  

People always jump to conclusion about kids behavior issues. rather that had some empathy to understand why he or she does that. Dr. Bridgman first convinced Joey, Joey’s mother, and Mrs. Woods to sit down and try to develop a “Plan B” for Joey. They all three struggled, but little by little they identified Joey’s lagging skills and came up with a plan to help Joey overcome the problem. Once Joey started to benefit from his plan, Mrs. Wood worked with her colleague, Ms. Franco on how to use the formula for Plan : Empathy , defining the problem, and invitation to the student to help in their own plan. I think is a great idea involve students in their plan to improve. As teacher work in community is essential because students need to feel the support from others around them.  When Ms. Franco used the Plan B, she has some difficulty, but she continued  working with her student until she had a breakthrough.Chapter 6 talk about Mrs. Wood is using a effective strategies to manage Joey behaviour in classroom.

If you were to ask the same open-ended question as Mrs. Woods does about the kids in her class not getting along, what types of issues do you imagine would surface in your class?

3&4

Teachers have all kinds of academic and behavioral expectations for their students. But what happens when those expectations are not met? Educators need a plan. The author outlines options for handling unmet expectations he calls Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C

Plan A:  When adult impose their wills to the students . For example teacher ask student to discuss topic and students refuse to discuss it.
Plan B:  Teacher and students work as a  communities. Working together toward find solutions so that both address. The lagging skills are taught.
Plan C: Involving dropping a given expectations complete


There are two primary analysis tools the author supports to help define what skills are lacking for a given student. These tools are: 

1. ALSUP
2. Situational analysis

Teacher use these skills to solve problems and helping challenging kids and adult as community. Greene are argues kids are challenging when the cognitive demand exceed their ability to make to adaptive decisions, and made maladaptive instead. He refers to these as incompatibility episodes. The AlSUP helps us find and pinpoint these problems. We can look at these as discussion guide. Rather than working in isolation, it is better to bring a team of people who know the student to work together toward a goal. The team have to focus on what is causing the incompatibility?

Chapters 7&8

On chapter 7 a question was asked that got me thinking "what about the other kids in the classroom"?  How are we going to reduce the negative impact of the challenging kid on the learning and safety of his classmates? And this is a question we all ask ourselves when we are teaching in a room how do we address the challenging kid without disturbing the other children, and bringing the attention to the child. Managing Challenging kids can be difficult because once the whole class notices or comes aware that the child is challenging they will not be welcoming to that child. I say this out of experience, I'm not saying it's okay AT ALL, but it can take a social emotional effect on the child. Again I'm saying this because last year I was working with a child and he was a very challenging child, and with that being said the parents also became aware of that so he was never invited to birthday parties or play dates, which to me was kind of sad because although the child didn't know about these events he was missing out on a lot of activities. Chapter 7 also mentions that each group of kids is different and I completely agree with this quote because the strategies that you might have used with one group of kids might not always work for another group of kids.

Chapter 8 mentions leadership and I think that leadership is crucial to a school if the leadership of the school and I mean administration, is not to part and have a vision of what they want the school to represent there won't be a chance that the school will ever work through the challenges that they face or are facing. That's why I think that team work, and having a community within the teachers is so important. And it's sooo upsetting when you are out in certain situations and your opinion isn't valued or questioned. I've been in situations where I work with a child one to one and what I thought that could have been done was never said because they never say with me and spoke what I have noticed they just dealt with it themselves and sometimes even pulled me away from the child which in most cases is worst and the situation becomes even more challenging than it already was.

How do you deal when you see a situation present itself and you have a solution but you cannot give your opinion? Or your opinion isn't valued?

Chapters 5&6

On chapter 5 I was really interested on how the teachers were speaking to the children, and focusing on the empathy part. There are times were we forget and we go straight to assuming what a child wants and needs and what is really wrong with the child. I feel for Joey in this chapter because he has a certain routine and since the substitute didn't know the routine he didn't exactly get into trouble but he thought he was, so he ended up seeming like a troubled boy to the substitute because he wasn't doing what "he was supposed to be doing", which is not the substitutes fault either. But thats what I'm saying that as educators sometimes we don't ask in the right way and we can set off  child. Thats why I think the steps are a great thing to follow because if he would have asked "what are you working on"? instead of saying thats not what were supposed to be doing then maybe Joey would have reacted differently. Sometimes the problem is how we word things, and the vocabulary we use. Moving on to chapter 6 I think that Mrs. Woods is using very good strategies for Joey into helping him not lash out or act out in class. The way she takes the time going in early to help him go over assignments, I think as a future educator I think if I had a student similar to Joeys situation I will definitely rely on these strategies for my classroom. Even now working with 4 year olds I try using certain strategies to help my students into communicating with me so that they feel comfortable to work together on getting them on the right track.

Lost At School: Chapter 7

In response to Lilana's questions:

"When staff in a school are not all on the same page in regards to their goals, students success, and achievement, things are dysfunctional. Do you think this is important? Why or why not?" 

 I think this is very important. As we see in the book many of the staff was not on the same page and it had an poor affect on the classroom & school community. It seemed like once they began to plan together and figure out different approach & strategies it became more successful. 

Chapter 7:

What I took from this chapter is the idea of Plan B for every kid;  Plan B Between Two kids; Plan B in Groups.  I also like the focus on community building.  What really stood out to me was:  "If plan B is applied to every kid then it won't be viewed negatively" (188.) This chapters main idea was built around community focus and how the kids with behavioral challenges often find themselves outside looking in. (Pg.186-187.) I also like the group problem solving. It moves focus from general education to Special Education. The author writes about the reward-and punishment programs being unnecessary. Some good quotes from the chapter: 

"Good teaching means being responsive to the hand you've been dealt"

"Fair does not mean equal." 

"In our classroom everyone gets what they need, " and In our classroom, we help eachother."

I was very annoyed by Mr. Armstrong however I tried to reason with his point of view as well. What upset me is the fact that he has completely given up on Crystal. In terms of Joey,  I am glad to see things shifting from a blame game to actually putting a plan into process. Mrs. Woods and Mrs. Lowell can now offer Joey some of the support he will need to continue on the journey of a fruitful education. As for Travis, he is creating an environment that is dangerous for other's, and Mrs. Franco is a bit overwhelmed. She notices her flaws by always implementing Plan A. With students like Consuelo who are very shy, it seems like the staff is finding ways to allow all of the students voices and concerns be heard. 

Questions: 

 What was your thoughts about Mr. Armstrong giving Crystal 4 detention slips? 

 Do you think he could find another way to help Crystal refocus on staying in school?