Lots of helpful topics covered today including adjusting the model for kids with language difficulties, drilling for information, wording unsolved problems, and more!

A Hodge Podge of CPS Help

On the first Monday of every month at 3:30 pm Eastern time, from September through May, Dr. Ross Greene and four principals from schools in the U.S. and Canada cover a wide range of topics related to behaviorally challenging students and school discipline in general and Dr. Greene's Collaborative &amp; Proactive Solutions (CPS) model in particular.  You can call into the program to get your questions answered or submit them via email here.  And, if you can't listen live, all the programs are archived in the Listening Library on the Lives in the Balance website or through i-Tunes.

Helping Behaviorally Challenging Students

Well, we finally had our first program of the school year, and our primary focal point -- led by our newest co-host, Heidi O'Leary, Special Education Director in Topsham, Maine -- was on how to write a CPS-flavored IEP, driven by the Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems (ALSUP). This is big...

The ALSUP Writes Your IEP For You

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is very commonly applied for behaviorally challenging kids in schools these days...but is ABA compatible with CPS? Are we just talking different languages?

Are CPS and Applied Behavior Analysis Compatible?

Lots of territory covered on today's program, including a discussion about school values...but at the end of the program we discussed whether reward programs work for anyone in the building. We thought not...

Rewards are "Working"? For Who?

Kids with trauma histories may need Plan B even more than most, as it's where their concerns are heard and addressed and they begin to feel that they can influence outcomes. Of course, all kids need to feel that way.

Can Traumatized Kids Participate in Plan B?

Pardon the repetition, but crisis prevention is far superior to crisis management, and there are lots of things about Collaborative &amp; Proactive Solutions that make crisis prevention more feasible.

Best Thing to Do with Crises? Prevent Them!

If a student is highly volatile, unstable, reactive, and unsafe, there are a few things to bear in mind: (1) s/he didn't get that way overnight; (2) there must be many expectations the student is having difficulty meeting; (3) reducing those expectations -- Plan C -- is a very good way to get things stabilized; and (4) even if takes a lot of time and energy to stabilize that student, it's a lot less time and energy than that student is consuming when s/he's unstable.

Help! This Student is Completely Out of Control!

What happens when class size, systemic issues, and the overwhelming needs of students outstrip a teacher's capacity to respond adaptively? It can't be good...

When Good Teachers Are Asked to Do Too Much

If your school is implementing PBIS, you may be wondering which "tier" is the best fit for Collaborative &amp; Proactive Solutions. The truth is, CPS is relevant to all three tiers. If that's the case, how important are the tiers?

CPS and the Three Tiers

Along with four school principals, Dr. Ross Greene -- originator of the Collaborative Problem Solving approach (now called Collaborative &amp; Proactive Solutions) and author of The Explosive Child and Lost at School -- helps teachers and parents better handle behaviorally challenging kids in the classroom and at home through implementation of his approach to solving problems collaboratively.  This program airs on the first Monday of each month (September through May) at 3:30 pm Eastern time.

Yet another PhD trying to monetize a patchwork theory based on other people’s data tailored to support his claims.

If you are curious about their approach to science, listen to the 4/30/17 episode... they actually say that data are not everything. I’d be interested to find an employed physics researcher that continued to back their theory because “the data are not everything”.

Trash

Even though I am not a teacher or administrator, I found listening to this podcast incredibly helpful. It helped me to know what concerns teachers may have in starting CPS &amp; how to answer those. Wish there were new episodes :)

Parent listening...

Dr. Ross Greene

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.

April Educators Panel:  CPS and Bullying

In this program, Dr. Greene responded to emails he'd received from parents who were running into difficulty with school discipline programs that were inconsistent with Collaborative Problem Solving.  Should adult-imposed consequences still be given when problems are being solved collaboratively?  What do such consequences accomplish?  How are they counterproductive?

Pointless Consequences

How do we do a better job of understanding and helping students with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges in our schools...while simultaneously feeling like we're "holding kids accountable"...while attending to the diverse needs of other students...while trying to make sure they all do well on high-stakes testing?  Not by simply increasing detentions, suspensions, and expulsions or referring behaviorally challenging kids into the judicial system!  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. If you want to learn more about his model, have questions about how to get the ball rolling on using the model in your building or classroom, or are having difficulty using the model with a particular student, this is your opportunity to get your questions answered and listen to how other educators are overcoming obstacles and aplying the model.  You can join in live -- the program airs every Monday at 3:00 pm Eastern time -- or listen to archives of past programs.

Teachers and students are running on fumes at the end of the school year.  The weather is warmer and the finish line is in view. What should your Collaborative Problem Solving efforts look like here in the home stretch?  Well, you want to start preparing for how you're going to improve your implementation of CPS next school year, and there are lots of things to focus on...all the focus of today's program.  Listen to the recorded program at your convenience.

The Last Six Weeks

On this program, we listened to another recording of a meeting at Anytown Elementary in which the Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems was being used...and this one was really good! A sign that a little feedback can go a long way...

Anytown Elementary: Return to the ALSUP

Dr. Greene responded to a variety of emailed questions on today's program, including several related to difficulties wording unsolved problems on the Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems.  Relevant (and hopefully helpful) guidance was provided!

Guidelines for Writing Unsolved Problems

In this, our final Anytown High School program for this school year, one of our core group members asked about whether she drilled far enough on the unsolved problem (skipping class) of one of her students. Both Dr. Greene and the other core group members were happy to pitch in on that. (By the way, Dr. Greene unknowingly had himself muted at the beginning of the program, so you'll need to wait a minute after the introduction before the program begins.)

Anytown High School #19: Did I Drill Far Enough?

Today was the first edition of a new feature for this program:  the Educators Panel, which airs the first Monday of every month.  Dr. Greene was joined by two educators (two more will be joining in next month) to talk about behaviorally challenging kids, the difficulties in helping them effectively in schools, and what's going in their own schools to move things in the right direction.

November Educators Panel

On today's program, Dr. Greene covered the key themes of his model...a great refresher for those familiar with the model and great place to start for the unfamiliar.  But before he got to the key themes, he had a very interesting discussion with a classroom teacher who was having some difficulty working toward a mutually satisfactory solution.

Key Themes of the Model

"It all starts with the Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems".  Identifying lagging skills ensures that adults have the right lenses on.  Identifying unsolved problems that are congruent with the four guidelines helps adults and kids know what problems they're trying to solve.  Both are indispensible.

What's Wrong With This Unsolved Problem?

The title pretty much says it all...do listen!

Why Kids Don't Talk (and other topics)

The Educators Panel shared their thoughts on an article that recently appeared in the Christian Science Monitor (click here) in which recommendations for improving school discipline from the Discipline Disparities Collaborative were described. And they had some thoughts on a bunch of other things too!

Four Ways to Improve School Discipline

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.

Fight or Flight Students

Those adult-imposed consequences that are so popular in schools these days...do we really need 'em? You can probably guess the answer...

Life Without Carrots and Sticks

Lots of good questions were discussed on this program, including how to determine whether a child would benefit from extra assistance from, for example, an occupational therapist or speech/language therapist...and how to use Plan B to address problems affecting the entire class.

Does the Student Need More Than Plan B?

The Educators Panel are joined today by Ryan Quinn, principal of Kennebunk Elementary school, a school that is currently in the early stages of implementing the CPS model. Ryan discusses how the implementation process is going thus far, adding that by using the model as part of the spectrum of interventions used at the school has already captured all of the kids that weren’t being understood and helped before. The Educators reflect on their respective experiences and offer advice on many aspects of implementation, such as how to move forward once a core group has been established, handling staff members who are nervous about implementing a new method of discipline, the importance of communication with parents regarding Plan B, and how the CPS philosophy reflects a shifting paradigm among current research and best practice in education.

Advice from Experienced Educators

Seismic

Dr. Greene and the principals focused on a variety of topics, but probably the biggest: the importance of shifting away from focusing on behaviors (and modifying them) and toward  the problems giving rise to those behaviors (and solving them).

Seismic Shift: Focusing on Problems Rather Than Behaviors

In this program, Dr. Greene helps a group of educators -- who are trying to re-engage a student academically so he doesn't drop out of school -- figure out why they've been "going around in circles" in their efforts to resolve the student's concerns using Plan B.  A few of the common ways in which Plan B can go awry -- difficulty "drilling" for information in the Empathy step, and proposing solutions before the concerns and solutions of both parties are well-understood -- were the focal point of this discussion.  A great, real-life example of how Plan B can veer off...and how to get it back on track.

Troubleshooting Plan B

"I'm bored" could mean many different things, all of which await discovery in the Empathy step of Plan B.  What are the odds that "I'm not motivated" is the student's concern? Slim and none.

Does "This is Boring" Mean "I'm Not Motivated"?

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