Location
Bowie C
Focused Area
Improving School Climate for Youth-At-Risk
Relevance to Focused Area
The very identifiers used to label youth as at risk speak to both internal as well as external hindrances to learning and success. An educator can only control the climate within his or her classroom walls. When one’s profession evolves to include fear for safety or the unknown ("What will set Johnny off today?") it becomes very difficult to impart knowledge and facilitate learning. This proposal offers intentional, strategic ways to reset the classroom atmosphere to improve the school’s climate, starting in the place students spend most of their time, the classroom.
Primary Strand
Academic Achievement & School Leadership
Relevance to Primary Strand
There is preponderance of research supporting the correlation between school climate and student achievement. Very little in the way of student success can be achieved when most of the day is spent writing referrals, engaging with an unruly student, breaking up a fight, confiscating cell phones or calling for the removal of a belligerent learner. This proposal offers participants a number of effective techniques to address any issue that arises in the classroom. Participants will discuss the emotional toll such behaviors take on them, engage in role-play, and explore proactive strategies that ensure classroom-climate control, lesson plan execution and limited disruptions are the norm. Leadership, from the teacher to the school administrator, can return to the organizational functions as they once knew them.
Brief Program Description
There has been a nationwide increase in the incidents of student-student and teacher-student altercations, referrals, suspensions, even arrests as a result of students' extreme behavioral responses to teacher discipline. Classroom instruction and student achievement suffer. This dynamic, interactive presentation will equip participants with groundbreaking methods and strategies to reclaim the classroom, keep teaching and learning at the center, and garner buy-in from students.
Summary
School Climate is one of the main dictators of student success. Every staff member the student encounters influences the school’s pulse, atmosphere and outcomes. Ideally, every school’s leadership offers support for the teacher and no teacher becomes disengaged (or worse, disenchanted). The reality is, external factors such as problems at home, behavioral issues, and even hunger impacts the school climate. Because most of the time spent at school is sitting in a classroom, the bulk of the student-achievement weight rests on the teacher, with pressure from school leadership, parents and the community to perform. This session is broken into two parts: 1) The presenter will share classroom practices utilized with clients in schools in the Southeast and model active classroom management behavior based on scenarios shared by participants. 2) Teachers will have the opportunity to role-play responses to a number of common classroom disruptors, describe the varying emotions that accompany school climate challenges, explore ways to break down barriers to student achievement, and discuss the importance of work/life balance. Participants will leave with a cheat-sheet, session materials (Including Effective Use of Classroom Space, Using Change as a Weapon, the Message of Mobility and the Power of Body Language), and a renewed sense of ownership, leadership and commitment to the career they love.
Evidence
The past fifty years of research on school climate and student achievement sends a resounding message that leadership and teachers play an invaluable role in ensuring students are successful. The solution this presentation proposes has been used successfully in middle school and high school classrooms, equipping teachers with much-needed alternatives to burn-out or resignation. For the student, it provides what MacNeil et al. (2009) describe as an avenue to greater student achievement and complimentary school ratings.
MacNeil, A.J., Prater, D.L. & Busch, S. (2009). The effects of school culture and climate on student achievement. International Journal of Leadership in Education Vol. 12 , Iss. 1
Halpin and Croft’s 1962 study is cited in Dahlquist et al.’s (2006) research of school climate and is one of the first to underpin teacher commitment and engagement as critical factors in establishing a climate conducive to student achievement. This proposal offers tangible ways to enhance the school climate, thereby mending the disconnect between the at-risk student and academic achievement.
Dahlquist K.L., York-Barr, J., Hendel, D.D. (2006). The Choice to Home School: Home Educator Perspectives and School District Options. Journal of School Leadership. Vol16. N4.
Format
Individual Presentation
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Ursula Yvette Scott is an award-winning educator and businesswoman whose work in both the public and private sectors has afforded her the opportunity to consult for educational programs across multiple counties in the state of Florida, tour the Jikei Colleges in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, and teach to (and learn from) students of all ages and many cultures during her 20-plus years in academia. She has worked with a number of At-Risk populations and influenced their individual and collective success in the classroom using innovative approaches that often encouraged parent involvement. Her dissertation examined the roles of student affairs and faculty stakeholders in fostering holistic student development and achievement. She holds a Master of Science in education and a Doctor of Philosophy in leadership. Dr. Scott is an English and Public Speaking instructor, consultant to doctoral candidates, and owner of PAtHS Advocacy Group, an educational support and tutoring company.
Start Date
10-27-2017 12:30 PM
End Date
10-27-2017 1:45 PM
Recommended Citation
Scott, Dr. Ursula Yvette, "Eliminating the Fear Factor: From "Us vs Them" to "a Classroom of One"" (2017). National Youth-At-Risk Conference, West (2015-2017). 25.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_vegas/2017/2017/25
Eliminating the Fear Factor: From "Us vs Them" to "a Classroom of One"
Bowie C
There has been a nationwide increase in the incidents of student-student and teacher-student altercations, referrals, suspensions, even arrests as a result of students' extreme behavioral responses to teacher discipline. Classroom instruction and student achievement suffer. This dynamic, interactive presentation will equip participants with groundbreaking methods and strategies to reclaim the classroom, keep teaching and learning at the center, and garner buy-in from students.
