Behavior and Habits (Another Book Excerpt)

            The last few weeks seem to have generated lots of tweets and blog posts on creating positive learning environments and achieving desired behavioral outcomes with our students. Many of the posts also speak to the need to steer clear of rewards, tokens, or awards as a means to achieving these desired outcomes. In our new book (Pyramid of Behavior Interventions: Seven Keys to a Positive Learning Environment http://tinyurl.com/3bxuyes), Hierck, Coleman, and Weber offer the following thoughts:
            Behavior is learned.  Repeated behavior is habit-forming.  If we want to form positive habits, we need to learn, practice and repeat positive behavior.  However, we do not want to leave the impression that we are so strongly behaviorist in our approach that we think kids will salivate at the sound of a bell like Pavlov’s dog.  B.F. Skinner and other behaviorists make some valid points, but this clinical thinking needs to be put into the context of human inter-relationships.  Alfie Kohn (1996) is also right when he says “behaviors occur in a context that teachers have helped to establish; therefore, teachers have to examine and consider modifying that context” (p.16).  Kohn goes on to argue that schools should be about community, not compliance.

            Covey (1989) helps us balance these two approaches and puts it into perspective when he talks about “proactivity”.  To be proactive is to be in control of our lives.  As Covey points out, “Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions” (p.71).  It is not simply a stimulus-response formula.  Between stimulus and response is choice.  Our freedom to choose, and our ability to make choices and decisions on how we will respond to the stimulus, determines our behavior.  Basically we behave in certain ways to either get things or to avoid things – physical, psychological, or emotional.  But we have control over the behavior we choose. To be sure, behavior is learned.  Thankfully, we can teach ourselves and we can teach others how to make positive choices regarding behavior. In other words, we must balance the behavioralism of B. F. Skinner with the humanism of Carl Rogers.

            It is our role as parents and educators to help kids learn how to make good choices.  We cannot assume they have these skills when they come to us, rather we need to teach these skills directly.  We have to believe that what we do with kids does make a difference.  We must believe that we have an influence on the way these kids change, grow and develop while they are in our care. At the heart of education is a positive, engaging learning environment where kids both know what is expected of them and are internally motivated to do it.

            While students are learning to become intrinsically motivated, they need nurturing and support.  Before students can internalize appropriate behaviours they need to learn the required skill set.  They need to learn and practice the skill set in the specific context.  To change behavior we need to, as Kohn (1996) suggests, modify the context in which student behavior occurs. This is not about manipulating behavior through fear or punishment.  Rather, this is about creating positive, proactive systems and structures that are conducive to students learning to become self-motivated. Self-motivation is recognized as a critical self-regulatory strategy.

            This should happen in middle schools and high schools, not just elementary schools.  The skills taught and the language used to teach it should be age appropriate, but it must continue as kids grow and mature.  Whether we call it social responsibility, citizenship, or character education, we owe it to our kids to support them as they learn to become full and active participants in our society. These are behaviors that can be learned.

            When a student has trouble learning these behaviors, we cannot dismiss it as a personality problem or character flaw.  We must not use excuses such as “He comes from a bad home” or “She lives in a tough neighborhood” or “Well, you should see the parents”.  We need to believe that intrinsically every child has the potential to act in a positive, productive manner.  Some need more instruction and support than others to get to that state of behavior.  We must separate behavior from personality.

            It is also important not to personalize the problem behavior.  That is, we should not generalize a bad behavior choice as indication of a “bad kid”.  Similarly, we should not take the poor behavior choices by students personally.  As adults we should not get angry or take the student’s misbehavior as an indication of personal failure on our part.  In the heat of the moment, this is sometimes difficult to remember. It’s just behavior. 

Teach Them How to Swim

            Much has been written and even more debated in schools and at professional development sessions about the need to prepare students for the “real world”. Those who advocate that this is the role of educators speak about the need to “keep it real” or “make it similar to what they will encounter when we are no longer there to support them”. Folks speak of the real world with a fervent disposition and a passion that belies the fact that many of us educators haven’t spent much time in that world. This dawned on me when my colleague Tom Schimmer (@tomschimmer) asked a seemingly innocent question: “How much time have you spent outside the ranks of education?” and by that he meant the extended period defined in years not just my summer times. I suspect my answer is similar to many of my colleagues – none.  I’ve been going to school every September for the past forty-five years. It really is the only world I know and can speak proficiently about.

            Others who believe we should mirror what is out there forget that we exist in a different world. As I have moved through various leadership roles, my vacation time has decreased but my last contract still called for six weeks. Many of my teaching colleagues can easily add another four weeks to that total (even discounting busy times and the extra work all educators perform, there are still two weeks at Christmas, one week at Spring Break, and as many as ten weeks in the summer) which does not match up with any of my friends plying their various professions in the real world. I know this can easily be defended by the volume and complexity of work that educators do during the school year but it’s a fairly unique situation.

            Those who cry foul about not matching with the outside world often use this as the rationale to argue against second chances or to argue for academic consequences for social misbehaviors (late assignments, truancy, cheating) as if to suggest that we must prepare students for the harsh realities by mimicking them. Yet my own practical experience (failing my driver’s license the first time) and checking into other professions (doctors, lawyers, airline pilots) indicates to me that the real world is full of second chances and remediation. When I failed my test I was provided with absolute clarity as to what I needed to improve. The natural consequences were that I had to take another lesson, wait longer to drive my car, and book another test. Upon completion I wasn’t told it was unfair to those who passed in one attempt. Nor was I given conditions on my license like no driving on weekends or bad weather. The professions listed above provide second chances. Not all of us are going to the Doctor that graduated top of their class. Some are going to the bottom achiever who may have made errors along the way. All of us can be satisfied with our medical care however because we know all who graduated have met the standard. Similarly some lawyers need more than one attempt to pass the Bar exam and some pilots spend more hours on the flight simulator. Once they have mastered the learning outcomes they are free to practice their craft.

            As for the notion of consequences and the suggestion that the world is all about sink or swim (and therefore our schools should also be sink or swim), I love the response Dr. Rick DuFour gave at a recent PLC conference during his keynote address. “To prepare our students for this notion of a sink or swim world, we ought to teach them how to swim.” We are blessed to have students grace our hallways for a significant portion of their lives. While I may be convinced that the real world is different from our educational world, I think it’s critical that we take the time we have with them and arm them with as many skills and strategies to face those challenges, that we provide an environment that allows for mistakes to be made and growth to occur, and that we take them from where they are and bring them to where they can be.

            During my schooling I learned how to diagram a sentence, find x, conjugate a French verb, perform a left hand lay-up and despite all of the emphasis behind each, I have not been asked to ever demonstrate any of these in the real world. I can see the skill development that might teach a student something that might be relevant moving forward. I also know it is rarely expected that both the task and the boss change every hour, and yet this is what our students face.

            The push to replicate the real world only seems to occur when the discussion is focused on what and why students need to change. I appreciate the fact that our world is significantly different and value the opportunity to work with students to help make that transition smooth. The real world will have them soon enough. Let’s have them enjoy the world they are in. 

DSBN Academy - A New Approach, Unlimited Possibilities

     I recently had the pleasure of visiting the newest school in the Niagara Falls school district (DSBN). The Academy was born out of the recognition that education plays a vital role in helping children to overcome the effects of life’s challenges. The comprehensive social and academic support provided by the DSBN Academy will be key to empowering students to become the first in their families to graduate from a post-secondary institution. The school opened in September with a cohort of grade 6 and 7 students and will add a grade each year until a full 6-12 student body is in place. 

     From the start of the day where Principal Tom Reynolds greeted every student as they came through the main doors and they, in turn, greeted me (and many of the staff members) with a firm handshake and a cheery good morning, through their recognition of me as I visited their classrooms, and concluding with their deep and meaningful questions and comments when I spent 45 minutes with them in an assembly, I was very impressed with what has happened in the first few months of the school's existence. Make no mistake about it - the students at the Academy come from a variety of backgrounds and little of their experience to date included success at school or aspirations of continuing beyond fleeting thoughts of high school graduation. You can always count on kids for the unvarnished truth and I was humbled by both their public and private comments that reflected some real struggles and some forming dreams.

     I was also impressed by the creed (listed below) that formed the basis of what the collective group is striving for. It's a vision shared equally by staff (they had to apply to be a part of the school), parents (they had to endorse the move and provide volunteer hours at the school) and the students (they had to summon a courage to commit and demonstrate an ability to shed some of the negative labels and experiences that had dogged them to this point). 

DSBN ACADEMY CREED

We Believe.

We are the young men and women of DSBN Academy.

We strive for excellence not because we say it but because we work hard for it.

We believe in ourselves, our teachers, and our families

To guide and teach us through our triumphs and tribulations.

We will not falter in the face of any obstacle placed before us.

We are dedicated, committed, and focused.

We never succumb to mediocrity, uncertainty, or fear.

We never fail because we never give up.

We make no excuses.

We choose to live honestly, respectfully, and optimistically.

We respect ourselves and in turn respect all people.

We have a future, for which we are accountable.

We have a responsibility to our families, our community, and our country.

We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers.

We believe in ourselves.

We believe in each other.

We believe in the DSBN Academy.

We are the Argonauts.

We Believe and We will Achieve.

     After the assembly I was touched to receive an Academy T-shirt and a statement from the student leadership that I was now part of the team. I look forward to maintaining contact with the school as it continues to grow and flourish. In my short time there I was moved by many individual students and felt a strong bond with the adults as they worked together to alter outcomes. Tom and his team continue to espouse (and model) the belief that all who enter the school will be successful. I saw evidence of this when I visited a class during mentoring time. The conversation turned to getting good grades (A's and B's) and why that was important. Rather than hearing some of the traditional responses I have heard around ranking and sorting or some sort of status, it was all about putting oneself in a position to receive funding for post secondary and that this was available to all of the kids at school.

     I have been fortunate as a presenter to receive some great positive feedback after a presentation. It all pales when I reflect on the grade 6 Academy student who patiently waited after the assembly and mustered the courage to address an adult he only recently met. I kneeled down so our eyes could meet as he said, in barely a whisper, "You rock! Thanks". Another one of those visits where I left richer than when I arrived. 

Students Olivia and Connor with Principal Tom Reynolds
and the author who is proudly wearing his new Academy T-shirt.

Out of Africa

Staff at the American International School of Abuja.
Many of the teachers in this photo will pursue
other teaching opportunities in the next 2-3
years. Their good efforts will transcend their time at AISA.
  

     My recent trip to Nairobi and Abuja provided some wonderful travel moments, which I’ll treasure for a lifetime. They are one of the value added pieces of being an educator and a great reminder of how fortunate I’ve been in this career.

     As an educator I was really keen to find out what would be different, better, worse, or common to my context. My context has been derived from 29 years as an educator in British Columbia in a variety of roles (teacher, vice-principal, principal, university sectional instructor, president of a provincial organization, Ministry of Education project manager, assistant superintendent, and executive director) and locations. But, it’s my context and it’s continually shaped by interactions with fellow educators.

     The AISA conference in Nairobi, Kenya brought me in contact with educators from at least a dozen African nations. That seemed like a good sampling and I set out to ask many questions during the seven-hour sessions I facilitated. I thought the student body at these schools would preclude any of the challenges I might have encountered. That was my bias borne out of the notion that if parents were paying large sums of money to send their children, it was likely that very few serious challenges would emerge for the teacher. Here’s where context plays a role again. The teachers described similar concerns and a range that exists in most schools I’ve visited. The pyramid of behaviors we describe in our book (http://www.solution-tree.com/authors/tom-hierck/pyramid-of-behavior-interventions.html) exist just as clearly. I was also regaled with many stories of student success and breakthroughs. If I had closed my eyes for a moment, I could have imagined myself in many of the schools I have visited.

     The school visit to the American International School in Abuja, Nigeria provided further evidence that schools are schools, kids are kids, and great educators practice their craft everywhere. The two days we spent on assessment practice yielded similar questions and successes to any I’ve conducted on home turf. In fact, what drove the point home of the effectiveness of pursuing the right outcomes came as a result of a relatively unique challenge the international schools face. They have a significantly high percentage of staff turnover annually. While my belief and much of the research I’ve read suggests a five to seven year window for effective leadership to emerge and take root, these schools hardly ever see anyone approach the lower end of that scale at the principal or assistant level. Teachers that stay beyond the two year initial contract are rare and those that stay beyond three are almost unique in their schools.

     You might ask how the school can gain an identity or have a vision with such turnover. That’s where attaching yourself to the right things becomes the glue to hold things together. Schools that pursue effective assessment practice and engage in ongoing formative assessment while providing descriptive feedback do so not because this is the passion of certain individuals on staff but because it’s the right thing to do. Having everyone fluent in this means that there are always some individuals that bridge those entering the staff and those leaving. It becomes something that is transmitted in the effective dialogue teachers engage in as professional learning communities. Rather than answers being derived from the well of “that’s the way we’ve always done it”, the answers need to make sense to those coming in as being the best way to do things. 

     Despite working with numerous groups over the last few years on assessment and professional learning communities, the obvious benefits of these initiatives in an immediate way had escaped me. I was stuck in my old paradigm that it took time for these to take route and become effective and that meant having committed people stay for long periods to ensure the work survived. Thanks to my colleagues in Africa, I was reminded that these things work because they are the right pursuits for educators to follow.

Time Is On My Side (Yes it is....)

     I was inspired by a recent post by Chris Brogan (http://bit.ly/pVGHWN)  "The time we're losing" that Darcy Mullin (@darcymullin) brought to my (and others) attention. In it Brogan argues that we have plenty of time to accomplish our goals but get caught up in other people’s “urgent and emergent” or get distracted by time wasters that prevent us from reaching our goals.

     I’d like to take the notion a little further by suggesting that time is our most precious resource in schools today.  How we use that time says a lot about our priorities and, in essence, defines what our school is all about.

     Think about your last staff meeting.  How much time was devoted to professional conversation compared to “administrivia”? When you get together with your colleagues is more time spent on the “great late debate” or on improving outcomes for students? It becomes apparent very early on in my visits to schools when I hear the nagging conversations focus on hats, food in class, and tardiness that a shift needs to happen if we are to move forward with the real reason we’re in the education profession. I’m not suggesting that these items should be blithely ignored but that they need to be addressed and then monitored (but less frequently than academic and social-emotional outcomes). Consider the discussion on tardiness. In essence this is a time waster focused on devising a consequence that will eradicate this problem. As if 150 years of public education and the educators over that time have never discussed the issue or found the silver bullet. Over the years the conversation is rendered moot when I ask any gathering of educators if there is anyone who has never been late to a staff meeting. It’s the rare occasion when I see a hand raised, and that individual is usually challenged by their colleagues on the veracity of the notion.

     I like to start my work with groups off by asking people who or what inspired them to become teachers and to recall a positive moment in their careers. I love watching how animated the discussion becomes and how positive and alive people are during the five minutes. Inevitably I end the sharing far too early which reminds me of a couple of things. First, teachers like to talk and share good news. Second, we don’t get enough time to do that. While I agree with both these sentiments, I conclude the activity by reminding the group that, more often than not, they have not taken even five minutes nor shared with a colleague a positive experience that occurred in recent memory. Yet, most will have spent considerably more time than that on things that did not generate have the excitement the five-minute activity did.

     The challenge for us is to keep the focus on “the main thing(s)” and not get distracted by all of the background noise. If the starting point is to create a five minute chunk , what’s holding you back?

Moving Forward (With a First Step Back In Time)

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only

connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that

the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to

trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

Steve Jobs

         I made a career decision to pursue what I am most passionate about and where I might have the greatest impact as an educator. Decisions like this rarely come lightly and the first steps are always the most cautious. My inaugural step away from security was made more comfortable by a return to familiar ground.

         I had a chance to return to the school district where I began my career 29 years ago. I found myself swamped by memories as the plane touched down at the Williams Lake airport and the drive to town only added further color to my recollections. Dinner with former colleagues and a quick scan of a very old yearbook brought a comfort that clearly escaped Thomas Wolfe when he remarked that one can never go home again. It felt like putting on your favorite old sweater. The one that, despite a few holes, always made you feel warm.

         The success of the workshop the next day was fueled in equal parts by my desire to ensure the day was memorable for all of the participants and the support of some of my mentors from those early days as a teacher. That some retired colleagues would come out and spend time in a session spoke volumes of their dedication to their craft and of a relationship that started me on the path to where I find myself today. Words cannot adequately express my appreciation for the support I received as a “newbie” and the support I received as this next phase of my career as an educator gets established.

         What I came to realize at the end of that day is that we all make a different contribution to the success of students and to the success of each other. My circle of influence has shifted considerably in the last five years and I have become a better educator because of the contributions of so many others. There is still so much to learn and my metaphorical classroom (that I sit in as a learner and lead as a teacher) has no permanent home but instead has an ever-changing construct and population.

         My calendar going forward has trips to Kenya, Nigeria, Nova Scotia, Indianapolis, Niagara Falls, and Nunavut. I know there will be expectations placed on me to provide a spark to further engage the good work of colleagues in all of these locales. I also know they will all provide a spark that will ignite further passions in me to ensure that I can make a difference as an educator.  

It's All About Relationships

     The title of this piece may seem trite to some and a well used "catch phrase" to others but the truth  is, the longer I'm in this profession the more overwhelming the evidence that speaks to this being, perhaps, the one universal truth about our role as educators. Two recent experiences brought this home once more.

     I have to admit that high school reunions are not my cup of tea - at least as far as attending with former classmates - and I have passed on being a participant at any of them. However, I am always honored to attend when former students extend an invitation to be a part of their event. The most recent one was another chance to catch up with a wide range of students and see the growth that has occurred over the last two decades. It's always a treat to hear a positive recollection or mention of support and I continue to be amazed at how a seemingly innocent and unintentional act on my part was significant for the recipient. It reminded me of the Chinese proverb that states "the one that plants the tree rarely gets to enjoy its shade", but in this case I did get to enjoy the positive outcomes.

     The second event was more personal as my youngest daughter got married to her high school boyfriend. My new son-in-law also happens to be a former student that I suspended, and the story gets better. I was honored to be asked to be the Master of Ceremonies at the reception and my first question to the assembled crowd was "How many of you spent time in my office?" More than a third of the crowd shot their hands up including most of the bridesmaids and groomsmen. The best man got a big laugh when he mentioned how shocked everyone was to hear the groom was marrying the Principal's daughter. Fortunately, grade nine is not terminal. The kids I had to spend lots of time with and work to effect changes in their lives were now adults exercising (mostly) good choices and were happy to share their updates with me. I was the beneficiary of some personal sharing and positive feedback.

     Perhaps the most fascinating story came from Travis. My recollections were that he and I didn't go much longer than a couple of days between his visits to my office during his three years at the middle school where I was Principal. Most of the time was spent trying to discern what he was interested in and what we could do to engage him more positively in school life. He had his share of baggage but also had a spark that just needed to be fanned before erupting into the flame that would add definition to his life. Travis surprised the happy couple with this painting:

He had created it from two photographs he had and the clarity of his work make it impossible to misidentify the couple. I was stunned by his creation as were most of the guests, and asked Travis about his talent. He confessed to only starting this "hobby" as he was thinking about a gift and that the completed work took him the better part of a day. I was chuckling to myself thinking how it might have been nice to know after one of our lengthy school talks that there was this brilliant light at the end of the tunnel. It was great to see him accept accolades (and orders for future paintings) with a confidence that belied any of the struggles he may have once experienced.

     My mantra over the last number of years has been that every student is a success story waiting to be told. Helping them to discover and tell their story drives me forward. The rewards are numerous and the journeys incredibly satisfying.