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Virtual Learning may be the time for Standards-Based Gradebooks to Shine

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Those who taught with me a decade ago know that I had an unusual “education” obsession: Standards-Based Grading. As a high school teacher, I sometimes surprised my colleagues with my stance on placing standards in my gradebook rather than assignments. Some argued that it wasn’t very collegial. “They are not going to be graded with standards in college,” I was told, and those colleagues may have been right. For every pro I discovered in constructing my high school gradebook this way, there seemed to be a con. In 2012-2013, I studied the effects of gradebook construction for my doctoral dissertation. And while I would love to share that study in its entirety, my conclusion was this: grades more accurately convey what a student has learned when constructed with standards and students are even more cognizant of what they have or have not learned, BUT constructing gradebooks in this way requires a mindshift for teachers, parents, and many students that would require a great deal of wor...
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Halloween is Just One of Many Nights to 'Share' Your Imagination

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Tonight, on Halloween, my daughter Cosette will go door-to-door seeking candy dressed as Hermione Granger, the notorious female lead in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. In the books, Hermione distinguishes herself as an intelligent and confident leader. She is loyal to her friends, brave, and handles problems calmly, seeking logical solutions. I am so glad Cosette chose a character with these traits to “be” when she goes trick-or-treating, because being Hermione is not just about putting on an outfit. My daughter’s imagination will truly allow her to be Hermione today. She’s even practicing speaking in a British accent all day so she can best play the part! And if my daughter can imagine herself being a person she admires, then so can I . As adults, some of us may physically put on a mask tonight; but the truth is, we’re putting on masks everyday. Social media allows us to try on masks on a regular basis...and that’s a good thing! If you’ve read my blog before, you know that I...
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Dialogue and Discussion Can Lead to Postvention Buy-in

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The CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention (NCI) Program Instructor Guide defines “postvention” by saying that it is an opportunity to “work towards change and growth for individuals who have engaged in risk behavior, as well as for staff members.” This tenth and final unit of the NCI training helps participants to recognize that without a postvention strategy, “crises are likely to occur over and over again.” This unit uses an acrostic model for the word “COPING,” allowing a word for each letter to represent an action that we should take – in order – when working with a staff and client after an incident. While the words are the same – Control, Orient, Patterns, Investigate, Negotiate, and Give – the actions we may take to prevent future crises may differ from students to staff. In my effort to best transfer this information to participants, I like to tell a story about a young lady named Kelli who was a frequent visitor to my office when I was an assistant principal. I discuss how ...
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Safe and Realistic Role-Plays Critical to Instruction of Restraint

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Unit 9 of the CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Training allows participations to learn restraints that are to be used as a last resort when clients are demonstrating behaviors that put themselves or others at risk. While the majority of this training conveys that there are many options staff members have to deescalate a crisis situation before needing to restrain an individual, the need to know and understand restraints that are proportionate and as least invasive as possible is a very necessary practice. In an effort to help training participants recognize the range of behaviors that may require a restraint, it is important to structure trainings in a way that move from “classroom models” to real-life scenarios as soon as possible. Classroom models help participants to understand the movements that go along with a restraint and help them to gain confidence that the restraints are designed in a way that will keep both clients and staff members safe. To do this, I typically mo...
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Don't Leave a 'Hole' in your Disengagement Strategy Instruction

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I have a gaping hole in my favorite dress shirt. Last week, while teaching Unit 8 of the CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Course, we were practicing clothing disengagements when a participant tore my shirt. Probably, I could sew it back together and get away with wearing it again. However, instead, I think I am going to hang it in a prominent location in my closet, serving as a reminder of two important things. First, I must always be cognizant of being the best model I can be of these disengagement skills. When I am demonstrating these skills, I am not just modeling techniques for my participants to practice in a few moments, I am also showing how effective these disengagement techniques can be! As a result, I don’t fault my participant who tore my shirt; I should have been more cognizant of how well I was “creating a lever” when the activity called for one. Importantly, this participant was clutching my shirt in a realistically aggressive way. She needed me to show her I co...
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The Decision-Making Matrix Helps Us Focus on Rationality

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A great deal of the CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Training focuses on “rationality.” For instance, we acknowledge that a person who is demonstrating “defensive” behaviors is “beginning to lose rationality.” At the same time, we are going to respond more positively to a defensive person if we, as staff members, have “rationally detached.” We are going to more positively influence behavior if we can control our rationality, and that is something that we have the power to do! While Unit 6 helps us recognize “unproductive” responses to defensive and risk behaviors, including “overreacting” and “responding inappropriately,” Unit 7 helps us to think rationally about crisis situations so as to avoid irrational (and unproductive) responses like these. Unit 7 highlights the Decision-Making Matrix, a mental model that places “severity” on a y-axis and “likelihood” on an x-axis, providing an objective way for us to measure risk. And more importantly, the matrix offers us an objective w...
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Get Creative Connecting with Fear and Anxiety

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The sixth unit of the CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Course focuses on “Staff Fear or Anxiety.” And to get participants thinking about our human responses to fear or anxiety, the Instructor Guide asks trainers to have a volunteer “make a loud noise wen they hear/see [a] cue.” The Guide goes on to say that “you want this to be unexpected so as to surprise/startle the group.” After this event occurs, the instructor is able to focus participants on the fact that our responses to fear and anxiety are both “psychological” and “physiological.” When I teach this unit, I like to see how many different ways I can get participants to recognize this point. For instance, instead of having a participant make a loud noise, I like to tell participants that we will be having a pop-quiz. “Nothing to worry about,” I tell them, “but if you don’t score at least nine out of ten, I will ask you to stay a little after we end at 4:00, so I can bring you up to speed.” This, as you can imagine, gets p...
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