School Reform Project

Well I like them they really sometimes put up good impact on the class. She listens, like she’ll let us have have them and she’ll listen to our opinions and she let us vote on it.

When kids are assuming some of that responsibility themselves it it makes it makes it easier for for teachers it’s very easy to implement and it’s easy for the kids to handle it’s been positive the program is very positive we get to show the teacher how she is and she show us how we are we get the we get a chance to put out what we think give our own opinion and all that I think uh it’s good for the classroom for the students cuz we get to express our feelings and show we feel and get all ideas

out the purpose of this video is to share the early results of a specialized program chosen by the alternative education division of the St Louis Public Public School District the program is funded by the Walton Family Foundation to raise the quality of public school education in St Louis city so that more families can keep their children enrolled research identifies a culture with freedom and responsibility promotes an exceptional environment over a three-year period a local firm expanding human potential is providing an all-inclusive approach in which administrators teachers parents and students all partic partipate simultaneously in the program 18 schools receive training group and individual coaching and long range followup these schools are building internal practices to sustain their positive changes this program has taught me that I don’t know as much as I thought I knew you know you you’ve been I’ve been around for 31 years and um it would seem that you’ve seen everything and heard everything but there are some things that I don’t know even with all that experience um I think the teachers some of the teachers that have really worked with the uh group circles the group time um have been kind of surprised at some of the answers the children have come up with some of the solutions some of the discussions they’re getting more out of the children than they really thought they would I’ve seen a big uh difference in my students uh since we’ve gone to the classroom meetings the students are more outgoing they’re more Cooperative with each other uh they seem to get along much better and they also seem to have the idea of how to solve those little bitty problems that they they usually have over the last 20 years an extensive body of research in corporate health and Educational Systems provide amazing and similar conclusions they identify key factors that create and sustain an exceptional environment multi-million dollar research at the developmental studies centers in Oakland California collected data that repeatedly links a student and a teacher’s sense of community to Attitudes motives and behaviors with far-reaching ramifications in Jim Collins top selling book good to great he shows that only 11 out of over 14,000 Fortune 100 companies qualified as a great company criteria for the 11 included consistently hurel retention and an ever increasing ability to financially Thrive and prosper what made the difference what constitutes an exceptional environment and most importantly how do we learn to create and maintain one the class meetings are real good because um we can practice how to solve problems and then when kids do have a problem um and I call them aside then they have some idea of of how to go about solving it with my help it’s allowed me to look at kids’ behavior in a different way so that um if some if a kid is acting out kind of step back and think well what’s what’s the reason why he or she’s acting out and um then that gives me a better idea of how I can deal with it and kind of see it from their perspective they may have a good reason why they’re acting out and then I need to uh handle that a little bit differently than just um handing out consequences all participants are taught Hands-On encouragement strategies communication skills and conflict resolutions most importantly a true Democratic process is adopted generally our culture is not yet proficient in modeling and providing this dynamic in our families schools and places of business so what we’ll just review very quickly what the recorder does and that is to when we pull the problem out of the box we read it and we talk about Solutions and the recorder will write down the solutions and then we go on to vote and all of that Anna would you like to record yes teachers transfer responsibility as the entire class creates the agenda has equal opportunity to talk or pass and together they vote on issues so we’re going to start our meeting now with compliments okay are you ready meetings always begin with positive comments and sometimes the agenda includes planning for fun events than comp man Angela for being uh especially nice today for uh helping people often even in the younger grades a student leads the meetings while another takes on the role of the group

notetaker Anna is playing too much that’s it’s not very specific let’s see reasonable students are led to focus on positive solutions to problems and are taught to measure their suggestions against the three Rs Solutions must be reasonable respectful and related so how can we solve that problem when that situation comes up are you ready to write okay the teacher does not focus on imposing the right solution and allows the class to try out Solutions May Fail together they learn to make decisions and think through issues okay we’re going to go around and let’s talk uh to close our meeting we’ll talk about something in our lives that’s coming up that we’re excited about or anything that you want to share at all okay teachers often encourage the sharing of feelings and practicing mutual respect I’m looking forward this summer vacation Marissa I have a problem with you when you when you take my arm like this and then hold it real hard and you touch my bone and that hurt kids often role play and have a great time working out their own Solutions puzzling through outcomes and are often surprisingly astute and creative yes yes I stop do you have a problem with me no okay expanding human potential fulfills two main objectives within each School using Concepts from adarian psychology the first objective is to create a consistently encouraging environment building upon strengths and meeting the four basic needs of all people proactively the four basic needs are to feel powerful lovable connected and contributing Research indicates that when these four basic needs are met people will behave with social interest cooperation creativity and enjoy their work to do to do this adults must do several things simultaneously they must withdraw autocratic punitive and reward-based practices which are extrinsically motivating they must move from these control-based methods to methods that are intrinsically motivating their challenge is learning to transfer responsibility ownership for behavior in academics becomes an issue for the group to confront and solve freeing teachers to be more effective and creative what I like about it the kids come with so many problems during the day and I can just simply say why don’t you write that down and put it in the box and we and I and we will talk about that at class meeting and that’s just been extremely helpful to put set those problems aside and deal with them later I’ve seen a positive change I’ve seen the kids uh respond better to all the staff mainly because I I think they have an opportunity for input now through the class meetings we’ve been doing doing this program for about 2 months here in our school and I’ve definitely seen a major Improvement in my classroom um I was skeptical at first I have to say but it really does work and the kids have come together and really enjoy having the class meeting and really help each other out in a way I was just not expecting at all I’ve seen um discipline improve I’ve seen team work um kind of gel better they work much better together now um they’re quick to help each other out whereas before they may have been reluctant to give suggestions to each other um they often ask me if we can have a class meeting um which I think is a very positive thing the trainers were very um very good at working with us they just put hours and hours into our training and definitely made us really understand how we were supposed to utilize the program I’m definitely looking forward to um next year cuz we started this at the end of our school year and I haven’t gotten to see how it works with a brand brand new class but I am just thrilled and excited to try this in August with a brand new class and I’m sure it has changed and will change my teaching style a lot most of us when under stress react and draw up on controlling disrespectful and counterproductive responses the second key role expanding human potential plays is to provide parents and School staff with the means to recognize the purposes of misbehavior and to master more health ful responses to it redirection of misbehavior in an honoring way is a key skill in which both adults and children feel better about themselves expanding human potential will continue to powerfully assist in this project and as rapidly completing delivery of the first tier of services to the initial six schools they recognize a strong commitment to create powerful and exceptional climates within St Louis City Homes and schools at this point point in the project many participants are pleasantly surprised at their results it’s been positive um both on the part of the students but as uh the teachers as well I think uh teachers need to feel uh that they’re capable of making a difference um they need strategies that work they need strategies that they can uh that they can utilize um and U try out in the real Arena um time is short and so if they are able to pull some things together that are effective that means they’ll dig deeper and um the benefit will go AC all the way across the board like I said I was a skeptic but now I’m sold on this program it is wonderful and it really is worth taking the time out of your day to use a class meeting