Dan’s Blog
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Start of School Goals
Welcome to the new school year. Consider kicking it off by working with your students on setting behavior and/or academic goals. I tell younger students, “One goal makes our heart happier, and the other makes our brain smarter.” Frame the discussion in terms of strengths and opportunities. “We are all good at some things, and…
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School’s About to Start! Woo Hoo! …or not
While at a restaurant earlier this week, I really enjoyed a conversation coming from the booth next to me. Two brothers were talking about the start of school. The soon-to-be first grader told the waitress he couldn’t wait! The soon-to-be eighth grader…not so much. It made me sad, and it made me think. As a…
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Lost in Space
Teachers, the May winds of change are starting to blow, ushering in summer and all manner of crazy and challenging behaviors. Though our students might not be able to articulate it in words, they sense the upcoming change and are reacting as expected. Routines help ground us. When we get in the habit of doing…
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Overflowing Inboxes
Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed? Over-scheduled? Over-worked? I regularly hear these sentiments from educators around this time of the school year. I can tell we are deep into a spring semester based solely on the number of emails I receive. When it comes to answering emails, I have a system that serves me well. Once…
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Testing Obsession
I find it fascinating and disturbing how much emphasis we place on paper/pencil evaluations in the school system when most job-related assessments are performance-based. I was one of those students for whom this misplaced emphasis created challenges. I never performed well on traditional assessments. My SAT and ACT scores were frightening, and I came close…
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After You.
“After you.” It’s a simple phrase and gesture, but one that provides insight into a person’s perspective and disposition. Although this is an automatic response for many when passing through a doorway with others, when the stakes are higher, I’m not convinced the overwhelming collective response is to think about the well-being of others. With…
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Moving Beyond Jerry Springer
I’m fascinated by human behavior. As I recall, my interest was sparked when I was in high school and read The Canterbury Tales. It taught me about the power of observation. You can learn a lot about people by watching and listening – which is what I did on two separate trips to Canada this…
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Educational Telenovelas
The weeks leading up to spring break can very emotional for educators, as evidenced by many schools that look like scenes from telenovelas (Latin American soap operas.) The combination of high stress and low tolerance levels often lead to power struggles – both in the school and home settings. Keep in mind, as tensions rise,…
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Hefty! Hefty! Hefty! Wimpy! Wimpy! Wimpy!
Some individuals might remember this tagline from a 1984 TV commercial. It refers to the strength of garbage bags. Do they hold in the trash or break open leaving a big ugly mess? What a great question – and great behavioral lesson we could apply to our thoughts and words. As I get older I…
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Good Job
If we want to build students’ self-confidence and help them get into the habit of evaluating their own choices, we might want to rethink the way we provide feedback. Just as I don’t want kids making good choices out of fear of punishment, I also don’t want them doing so out of an expectation for…
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Social Skills
Do you know kids with poor social skills? Kids who want to interact with peers but don’t know how? Kids who look dazed and confused when not accepted by others? My wife and I have a cat who suffers from this problem. Meet large Marge, our youngest rescue cat. We were told she belonged to…