“I don’t know how!” “I can’t!” “I don’t want to!” “I don’t care!” Working in public education for 20+ years has afforded me the opportunity to observe some consistently true dynamics. One such interaction is the interplay between attitude, effort, and ability among students. In recent years there has been…
ANGER MANAGEMENT Walking is Calming
“I need to take a walk,” growls Joe as he storms into my office. “OK, let’s go,” I respond. Luckily it’s a nice sunny day. We walk quietly around the large parking lot together. I’ll be honest. I’m not thinking about what research is saying about this walk. I’m thrilled that…
QUIET PLEASE: DE-ESCALATION IN PROGRESS!
REMEMBER: When a student is escalating, our response will always impact the situation one way or another. Of course, no educator or counselor or parent or person of any sort, for that matter, would ever want to intentionally escalate a student. In the heat of a tense situation, however, we…
THE DIFFERENCE A SPACE CAN MAKE…
Sometimes a little difference is, in reality, a very big 180-degree kind of difference, a night-and-day type of difference. The details matter. Have you ever tried to freeze water at 33 degrees? What about calling someone but being one number off in their phone number, or worse yet, being off…
NO MORE MESS!
My desk will stay clean! I am tired of piles of papers everywhere! In the upper left corner of my desk is the pile that I will get to eventually. The bottom left pile has papers I need to deal with now. Papers on the right corner are there because…
HOW TO SURVIVE THE LOSS OF A LOVE: A Great Little Self-Help Book
Two colleagues I consider to be dear friends are retiring at the end of this school year. Typically, retirement of friends causes a little tinge of jealousy to rise up in me. Not so much this time. While I don’t see them often anymore due to a change in my…
Analyzing Office Referral Data
WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER! I certainly agree with that! When I worked as a behavior consultant, I spent hours and hours compiling office referral data. Our district wanted to analyze the data to look for trends. Thanks to my terrific sister, I was introduced to Excel Pivot Tables. I AM…
NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL INFERIOR WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT (E. Roosevelt): Lessons in Bully Resistance
February, the month of LOVE, is home to Valentine’s Day and, personally, my more preferred celebration, Random Acts of Kindness week. This year, RAK week is February 9th-15th. You agree, I’m sure, that RAK should be every day, not just a week-long celebration, but intentionally promoting it during this week…
BAGGAGE: We all have it!
My 20 year-old son is spending the spring semester in Spain. We are all excited and looking forward to his adventures. Apparently traveling in Europe is inexpensive as long as one does not check any baggage. So he (and I) completely stressed on how he was to pack in one…
Flashdance and Food Allergies?
Every now and again someone will post a picture on social media around “throwback Thursday” or such that takes me back to my childhood. Sometimes it is an old family picture that reminds me of life growing up with my parents and two sisters, and sometimes it’s a picture from…