Phoenix Rising from the Ashes--A Last-Chance Approach to Turnaround School Culture
Format
Individual Presentation
First Presenter's Institution
North Nicholas High School
Second Presenter's Institution
NA
Third Presenter's Institution
NA
Fourth Presenter's Institution
NA
Fifth Presenter's Institution
NA
Location
Plimsoll
Strand #1
Academic Achievement & School Leadership
Strand #2
Family & Community
Relevance
Relates to HEAD and HOME: Turnaround alternative school based on improvement in school culture through student empowerment.
Brief Program Description
Is poor student behavior and focus directing the daily sails in your school? Learn how to use student empowerment and student advocacy for smooth sailing. Young adults may arrive at our doorstep with nearly 20 years of at-risk factors on their shoulders, but simple steps can be taken to watch a Phoenix emerge from the ashes of low performance and distrust.
Summary
All educators recognize the lists of at-risk factors that are indicators of poor academic achievement, lack of focus, cycle of poverty, and possible incarceration. Most educators know some of the strategies to combat one or two of these at-risk factors at a time. While alternative schools seek to hire educators not only well-versed in these combat strategies, but willing and able to implement them every minute of everyday, the simple act of empowering students to advocate for their own education sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. Participants will review literature and research of successful student empowerment models and leave the session with a firm plan to develop such a program in their own schools TOMORROW. Turning around a school culture to one of advocacy for all youth IS possible in one day. Teachers will notice an immediate improvement in student academic achievement and academic focus.
Evidence
Educators often quote Madeline Hunter's "Kids don't care how much you know until they know how much you care" when focused on educator "soft skills," empathy, and "emotional intelligence." Building student trust within a population which has always seen the school system as the enemy is step one toward student empowerment.
Biographical Sketch
Janet Morris has worked in education for over 32 years--first as a high school English teacher, now a principal of an alternative high school. In between she has worked in curriculum and program development at both school-based and district-based levels, in urban, suburban, and rural locations--New York, South Florida and Alaska, to name a few. She has developed numerous highly-successful drop-out prevention programs and is well-versed and experienced in Turnaround Schools.
Keyword Descriptors
student empowerment, advocacy, turnaround, alternative, behavior modification
Presentation Year
2018
Start Date
3-7-2018 9:45 AM
End Date
3-7-2018 11:00 AM
Recommended Citation
Morris, Janet, "Phoenix Rising from the Ashes--A Last-Chance Approach to Turnaround School Culture" (2018). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 70.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2018/2018/70
Phoenix Rising from the Ashes--A Last-Chance Approach to Turnaround School Culture
Plimsoll
Is poor student behavior and focus directing the daily sails in your school? Learn how to use student empowerment and student advocacy for smooth sailing. Young adults may arrive at our doorstep with nearly 20 years of at-risk factors on their shoulders, but simple steps can be taken to watch a Phoenix emerge from the ashes of low performance and distrust.
