Safe and Healthy Schools/Communities

2010-02-26T06:25:00.000-08:00

Chew on this for awhile. This is a piece for Steven Covey's The 8th Habit.
The social mirror is what other people say about us and how they react to us. It is their perceptions, opinions, and paradigms about us. From this social mirror come our self-maps or our images and judgments of ourselves. We hold ideas like, "I'm not a creative person," or "I'm good with numbers."
The idea that we should "live from imagination rather than from memory" refers to the social mirror. The social mirror is based on our memory of how other people have treated us or reacted to us. It is sometimes confused for our self-concept. Our potential on the other hand, is what we imagine we might become. Because the information we obtain from the social mirror is based on what other people think about us, it can be wrong or only partially correct. So in a sense, what we see in our imagination as our potential can actually be a more correct picture of what we're like than reflections of the social mirror are.
We affect other people through the paradigms that we hold of them.
Our paradigms of others may cause the problems we blame on others.
We all see the world, not as it is but as we are. We look through the frame of reference, the pair of glasses, the paradigm, of our whole past background and experience. If we want to make small improvements, work on behavior and attitudes; if you want to make major improvements, shift your paradigm (how you see the situation and your role in it)."

Thoughts on PBIS and Metal Detectors

2009-12-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

Hey don't get me wrong, I think PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Supports)is the best thing in behaviour management since maple fudge but will it really work to develop responsible, productive citizens of the future? Yes if schools have in place in their practices a way for students to discover appropriate behavior, feelings and choices.

Think about this quote "So teaching children to do as they're told is not a good enough aim for behavior management. Instead what I'd like children to learn to do i to think for themselves, what I call "to be considerate". Not to think what would happen to me if I get caught doing such and such misdeed, but what effect would my behavior have on other people (Porter 2000).

In the article Talk It Out Solutions by Caralee Adams,

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750554
she gives reference to three ways to help students build autonomy, a sense of self, empathy, a sense of belonging; Restorative Practices, Responsive Classroom and Second Step. (Responsive Classroom is a lot like Tribes TLC Process, yes I am a Tribes trainer, hint, hint.) These previously named processes or curriculum put in place a stronger system for behavior management and influences practices used to work with students.

Dignity in Schools

2009-12-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

At the Matters of the Heart Conference sponsored by the Department of Public Instruction-Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Education Network (WATODEN); I had the privilege of meeting and listening to Ted Wachtel president of the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP). As part of the IIRP one can sign up for an e-forum email; below is an aricle from IIRP about how Restorative Practices helps build student inclusion in our schools.

Dignity in Schools Campaign Releasing National Resolution for Ending School Pushout. Over 180 organizations from across the country, including the International Institute for Restorative Practices, have signed on to support the Dignity in Schools Campaign National Resolution for Ending School Pushout, a call to action for our school systems to end harsh discipline policies and law enforcement tactics that push too many young people out of school each year.

The resolution calls for schools to implement positive alternatives that protect the human rights of young people and keep students in school, including "evidence-based discipline policies and practices, such as Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and restorative practices."The resolution points to a range of factors, including excessive suspensions, expulsions, and school arrests, which contribute to the "pushout" crisis in our schools. Our current disciplinary rates are the highest in the nation’s history and have more than doubled over the past three decades. Historically disenfranchised youth, including students of color, students with disabilities and students in poor communities, are impacted the most by these policies.

Over the next week, signatories to the resolution will raise awareness in their schools and communities by presenting it to their school boards, state legislators and federal policy-makers and disseminating it at local events, on radio programs and at community meetings. The resolution is being released as states submit applications for Race to the Top Funds made available under the federal stimulus package. Federal Department of Education guidelines recommend that states and districts use these funds to promote positive school climates and discipline.The Dignity in Schools Campaign is a coalition of advocates, organizers, youth, parents and educators united to call for human rights solutions to school pushout. Dignity in Schools Website http://www.dignityinschools.org/index.php

Our mailing address is:
International Institute for Restorative Practices
PO Box 229
Bethlehem, PA 18016
Add us to your address book http://www.iirp.org/
Copyright (C) 2009 International Institute for Restorative Practices All rights reserved.

Save Our Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program Toolkit | CADCA

2009-11-20T11:32:00.001-08:00

Save Our Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program Toolkit | CADCA

Posted using ShareThis

No Money No Priority

2009-11-20T11:12:00.000-08:00

What would it look like if all funding for alcohol/drug and violence prevention was taken away from education? It very well could happen with the proposed budget to zero out Safe and Drug Free Schools and Community grants.

The Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) have proposed Bridged Funding to keep an infrastructure in states until other prevention dollars are set up. In the blog above you can find the link to CADCA.

Here are some examples of letters written to our states senators to continue support of SDFSC grants.

Dear Brendan,
I am writing to urge Congressman Obey to consider proposing an amendment and/or bridge funding for the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program. We are working closely CADCA, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America and other state coalitions and hoping Congressman Obey will take the lead on funding this proposal - maybe through another stimulus bill, supplemental, etc. We have attached CADCA’s detailed SDFSC rationale and justification for bridge funding for FY2010.
The Bottom line for Wisconsin is, if funding for the State Grants portion of the SDFSC program is not restored for FY 2010, most local educational agencies (LEAs) in Wisconsin and the nation will lose all of the current infrastructure (jobs, data, programming, curricula, training, etc.) for drug and violence prevention on June 30, 2010, including many of the Student Assistance Counselors who have been providing assessment and early intervention for high risk youth in Wisconsin secondary schools since 1987. Not only will many Student Assistance Counselors and other prevention/intervention specialists lose their jobs, but it will result in the loss of critical substance abuse prevention programs, activities, training etc. provided at the LEA level that will not be replaceable once staff are let go.
At a minimum the State Grants portion of the SDFSC program needs to be restored for at least one year, to ensure that there is school based drug and violence prevention and intervention infrastructure in every LEA in Wisconsin and in America, until a new program can be designed and funded in the reauthorization of Title IV in HR 1. This is especially critical given that drug use is going up for the first time in a decade and without the State Grants portion of the SDFSC program, there will not be any programming or school based infrastructure to deal with this.
Please urge Congressman Obey to help restore these funds for our state for at least another year to ensure appropriate planning can occur for a newly designed program.
Thank you for your consideration.
Submitted by Jeff Bentz

Dear Amanda
Would you please share my concerns with Senator Feingold about the loss of funding for Safe and Drug Free School Funds? We need to come up with some alternative funding to support these efforts. I have been a school counselor for 17 years and a social worker for 18 years prior to that. I will continue to have a job whether this funding is available or not so I am NOT writing to save my job. What will happen if we do not find some alternative funding is that I will not be able to take students to trainings that convince them to make healthy decisions, I will not be able to bring in speakers who teach kids how to educate and support one another to keep them safe, I will not be able to buy supplies to teach lessons, I will not be able to pay for curriculum that help kids make good choices. I KNOW that this funding DOES make a difference. I have seen the number of kids who smoke drop significantly in the past 30 years. When I was in high school in the 60's I remember reading in the paper every Monday morning about the deaths caused by drinking and driving the past weekend. I lost several friends in such accidents because no one taught us to abstain from alcohol or to have a designated driver. In WI, our culture is that we drink for all occasions and we used to believe we were lucky if we made it home and if not, well, that is the way things were meant to be. We still have way too many people who suffer from this horrible tragedy however the numbers are significantly less. We CANNOT stop teaching our kids about the affects of alcohol, drugs and tobacco. Kids MUST have quality education about avoiding unplanned pregnancies and learn how to treat others with respect. Without these skills, kids cannot and will not be successful academically. Our president has a goal of having quality education for all children so we produce the world's best scientists, mathematicians and business managers. This will not happen if we cannot teach our kids to make healthy choices first. Would we cut funding to public health and stop immunizing our kids from measles, mumps, polio etc? NEVER! Yet education is the only immunization we can give our kids when it comes to making healthy choices. I understand that our economy is in a terrible state and we have to learn to adjust to cuts just like most of our families have had to make deep cuts in our family budgets. But in my opinion this is where cuts cannot be made and actually we should find ways to increase funding to better invest in OUR youth.

Thank you for sharing this information with Senator Feingold and please feel free to forward this message to anyone else you believe may be able to have an influence on protecting our children.
submitted by Linda Luedtke

2009-11-18T09:01:00.000-08:00

How to Use ARRA Money to
Fund Tribes Trainings

15% of a districts ARRA Special Ed. money can be used to reduce referrals to Special Ed. (CEIS). Tribes is a process by which behavior referrals are reduced. Tribes is a research based process to build "inclusion" in ones classroom and school. There are 7 research based components to Tribes: Group Development, Authentic Assessment, Multiple Intelligence, Cognitive Theory, Reflective Practice, Cooperative Learning and Constructivism. These 7 components are used to reach the diversity of learners one has in their class. By building inclusion in a classroom students gifts are brought forward and a connection or bond to ones school and classroom is developed which opens the brain to learning rather then focusing on feeling different because of being in special ed.

There are a number of different workshops coming up. Basic Tribes is in February/March, High School Tribes is in April/May and then Middle School Tribes will be in June on Washington Island.

To learn more about these trainings go to http://www.cesa7.k12.wi.us/ To learn more about Tribes go to http://www.tribes.org/

E-cigarettes and Risks

2009-11-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

Electronic cigarettes are out there; kiosks, truck stops and on the Internet. They contain no tobacco but are shaped like a cigarette. They are operated by a battery and give smokers vaporized hits of nicotine, the addictive substance in traditional smokes.

Around since 2007, e-cigs could be the best thing since the nicotine patch or it could be the next health hazard for our youth.

http://content.usatoday.com/topics/post/USA+TODAY+editorial/620000944.blog/1