behaviorally challenging students

On the last program of the school year, we were able to respond to some callers and some emailers...including one teacher who's very frustrated by her school system's approach to students' challenging behaviors and is having difficulty changing the system on her own.

Many schools have mission statements, but not an explicit description of values. Many schools have delineated values but don't pay attention to them. But values are what should guide every decision and intervention, so it's a good idea to know what they are.

As always, we covered lots of territory on today's program...including how CPS can help students who are in fight or flight mode and how to help kids who have very tough lives outside of school.

What happens when parents and teachers skip concerns and jump straight to solutions? Probably nothing good.

Our principals weighed in on this question...and lots of others.

Schools abide by a least restrictive environment standard in placing kids in classroom settings...shouldn't schools also adhere to a least toxic response standard in helping students with behavioral challenges?

What better to do on the final program of the school year than to spend one last session with the staff at Anytown High School?  We discussed the progress Anytown has made in implementing the CPS model this year, along with some goals for where to pick things up again next year.

On today's program, we revisited the necessity of working on unsolved problems proactively and systematically, rather than dealing with problems (emergently) when they pop up on a particular day. We also focused on how to get past some of the things kids say (we called them "show-stoppers") that seem to stall the process of drilling for information.

On today's program, the staff at Anytown reported on their progress in using Plan B with two of their challenging students. One student responded quite well to Plan B. But it was the other student who helped us learn about some of the ways in which the process can run aground.

Here on our last Educators Panel of the school year, the crew tackled that four-letter word again (TIME), discussed the potent effects of another word (empathy), and thought about what can be done now (at the end of the school year) to hit the ground running with CPS next year.  Don't worry...the Educators Panel will be back next school year!

The staff at Anytown had a new student to talk about today. So we did the usual: we identified lagging skills and unsolved problems, thought about whether the unsolved problems were specific enough, figured out who was going to take primary responsibility for solving each problem, and still had time left for some role-playing.  Next comes the hard part.

Can a new principal get a school moving toward a more humane, compassionate, effective approach to understanding and helping students with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges?  On this program, you'll hear about how Carol Davison -- Principal at Forsyth Road Elementary in Surrey, British Columbia -- is doing just that.

On today's program, the staff at Anytown High School reported on their initial attempts at using Plan B with a behaviorally challenging student...and get some feedback so they can do it even better the next time.

Our Educators Panel tackled the problem of bullying today.  This may not be surprising, but they concluded that bullies are lacking important skills and have unsolved problems...and the bullied are, too.

If things aren't going so well with the students with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges in your school, you're not alone! Helping challenging kids in a classroom...while attending to the diverse needs of the other students...and trying to make sure they all do well on high-stakes testing...can be a daunting challenge. In this program, Dr. Ross Greene -- author of The Explosive Child and Lost at School, and originator of the Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) approach -- helps you view challenging behavior in a more compassionate, accurate, productive manner and intervene more effectively. Want to learn more about the CPS model? Do you have questions about how to get the ball rolling on using the model in your building or classroom? Are you running into trouble in your attempts to use the model with a particular student? This is your opportunity to get your questions answered and listen to how other educators are using the model and overcoming some of the hurdles involved in responding more effectively to the needs of behaviorally challenging kids in schools. You can join in live -- the program airs every Monday at 3:30 pm Eastern time -- or listen to archives of past programs.

In this program, the staff at Anytown High School learned about the Empathy step of Plan B, and plan to take things for a trial run before the next program.

Our school principal, Tom, came very close to using Plan A with one of his challenging students. But then, at the precipice, he went back to Plan B...and lived to tell the tale.

In this program, Dr. Greene will continue helping the staff at Anytown High use the Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems to understand one of their most challenging students and identify the unsolved problems that are contributing to her challenging episodes.

"The foundation of understanding is the willingness to listen." We don't know who said this, but it's what we discussed today on the Educators Panel.

A new feature for Collaborative Problem Solving at School! Listen in as Dr. Greene helps the staff at Anytown High School (a real high school in the U.S., location undisclosed) implement the CPS model in their school...with real discussions that may help you implement the CPS model in your school.