Student Services Training

10-17-22

Icebreaker activity

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Ball toss

Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion

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Best Practices for Discipline on the Yard

• Set up the environment: Be involved. Start activities.�
• Engage and Redirect Tell children what they can do, rather than what they can’t. So rather than tell the students that they can’t play tag, suggest alternative activities. Staying focused on the positive can reduce a lot of arguments and defiant behavior.�
• Teens respond to positive disciplinary strategies that involve them in the solution to behavioral issues. This approach might include mutually respectful dialogue about a problem and soliciting their ideas for solving it.

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Now we will break off into groups and brainstorm activities yard staff can implement during the students’ scheduled breaks.

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Paraprofessional Expectations on the Yard

Scan and Count

• Move constantly, never in the same spot for long periods of time.
• Make sure you are in your assigned area, actively engaging with students.
• Avoid power struggles. Don’t engage in arguments.
• Keep a positive tone and facial expressions.
• Use your radio when needed. Be mindful that people with scanners can hear what is transmitted.
• Avoid personal cell phone use when supervising and engaging with students.
• Listen and develop positive relationships with students.

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How to handle minor discipline on the yard using the Refocus process

Refocus - A predictable response to inappropriate student behavior following a warning.

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Avoid confrontation tones, multiple warnings, and debates. Utilize Teach-To’s to ensure students know the Refocus process and behavior flowchart.

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Avoid saying phrases such as,”If you do it again you will refocus” or “Do you need a refocus?” Instead follow the process.

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Example: Johnny and Jack are roughhousing on the football fields.

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Yard supervisor: Gives warning to keep their hands off each other.

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Johnny and Jack stop for a moment but then began roughhousing again.

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Yard supervisor: Takes both Johnny and Jack to a new location, removing both students away from the environment. Direct both students to fill out their refocus forms separately. This allows each student an opportunity to reset or de-escalate before returning the yard.

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If Johnny and Jack are caught a 3rd time roughhousing, their refocus will turn into a lunch detention.

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How to handle minor discipline on the yard using the Refocus process

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Things you can do if you have followed the refocus process and the student has now earned a lunch detention.

• Student Shadow: Explain to the student why the behavior was inappropriate and why the lunch detention is being assigned. The student will need to shadow you for the reminder of the scheduled time.

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In your groups create scenarios for us to explore.

Parkview

Armona Elementary

AE is updating their refocus form

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• This will be discussed at the next monthly meeting

Interactions with students (De-escalation vs Frustration)

• Check your own feelings before responding.

Ask yourself:

-Can I avoid criticizing?

-Can I avoid being judgmental?

-Can I try to see the situation from the student’s point of view?

Ask for help, if the answers are no.

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De-escalation Techniques

• Realize that the student may have dealt with stressful situations earlier in the day or the night before. Sometimes an incident is the tipping point for a student, rather than the cause.
• Remove peer spectators or take the student to a private or semi-private setting.
• Provide adequate personal space to the student.
• If you don’t know the student, introduce yourself & state your position at the school.
• Be aware of your body language.
• Speak softly & respectfully. Try to see the situation from the student’s perspective.
• Strive to appear calm even if you are upset or anxious.
• Avoid using sarcasm, teasing, reprimanding, or other negative comments.

De-escalation Techniques Continued

• Make sure the student feels heard.
• Repeat statements the student says & ask for clarification.
• Identify points of agreement.
• “This happened, and I would feel that way too.”
• Ask open-ended questions about the incident.
• Acknowledge the student’s emotional condition empathetically.
• You’re really angry, and I want to understand why.”

Keep vocabulary simple and sentences brief to allow the student to process what you are saying. Allow the student time to process information.

Set limits.

“Please sit down before we continue.”

“We can talk, but only if you stop swearing.”

Mediation on the Yard

• What is Restorative Justice & how is mediation a part of this?
• Mediation process
• Agreement has to be made to resolve the conflict by both or all students.
• Purpose of mediation is NOT to be best friends.
• Rules of meditation
• Be respectful.
• Actively listen.
• Avoid interrupting.
• An agreement is reached.
• How to recognize if a mediation is the best option
• Let’s role play!!

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Confidentiality

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• Students have a right to confidentiality.
• Limits of confidentiality.
• How to best protect a student’s confidentiality & yourself.

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Self-Care

• Why is it important?
• Benefits
• Lower cortisol levels
• Happier relationships
• Better sleep
• Improved immune response
• Increase in self-esteem
• Improved productivity
• Positive health outcomes
• More positive thinking
• Lower likelihood of depression and anxiety
• Self-care activity
• INCLUDE SELF-Care resources or ideas/links

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