PROBLEM OF PRACTICE
In looking at a Problem of Practice, I wanted to focus on something that could leave the treatment of positive change with the teachers and students of Riverwood Elementary. Using my current discipline experience, the School Improvement Plan, and data from the documentary "Resilience", I decided to focus on ways teachers could help identify and be proactive to student triggers and provide strategies for when triggers result in maladaptive behavior in the classroom.
As a Principal Resident, I was handling a lot of student discipline that was the result of children making poor choices when looking at how to manage a particularly difficult situation such as peer conflicts, anxiety, frustration, and motivation. Upon further investigation, the reason many of the students were sent to the office was that the teacher had expired all the strategies in their toolbox with little to no change in behavior.
As a Principal Resident, I was handling a lot of student discipline that was the result of children making poor choices when looking at how to manage a particularly difficult situation such as peer conflicts, anxiety, frustration, and motivation. Upon further investigation, the reason many of the students were sent to the office was that the teacher had expired all the strategies in their toolbox with little to no change in behavior.
So, what if teachers were provided with different strategies that aligned with the school goal of using Restorative Practices within the classroom? Although our school data showed that teachers wanted to know about triggers, the discipline data showed that teachers needed to know how to respond to students after something went wrong. In designing the Problem of Practice, I also wanted to respect the teacher's time and not add something new to their already full plate. As a school, one of our school-wide PD's was going to be a book study, so I decided to use the book "Hacking School Discipline" by Nathan Maynard and Brad Weinstein to drive my Problem of Practice and add face to face meetings for support as teachers were learning and practicing the new strategies. I presented my project to the staff in the January 2020 Staff Meeting.
As a result of my presentation to the staff, nine teachers were interested in learning and participating in my Problem of Practice. I set up an initial meeting for the teachers to which they received a copy of the book and access to our learning platform on Google Classroom. In that first meeting, I asked the teachers to complete a survey and showed them how to access the chapter padlets that would collect their chapter reflections and wonderings. Although the goal is to impact specific students, I was also interested in the teacher's behavior as well.