Author of

 "Good Kids, Difficult Behavior" and "Discipline That Works: 5 Simple Steps" http://www.thehumanconnection.net   Volume 29 February 2005

Note from the Editor

Dear Educators and Friends,

Joyce will be conducting local training seminars again this year, so mark you calendar now for these special events. 

	Continuing Education Workshops for the Licensed Counselor, Social Worker, Marriage & Family Therapist, and Psychologist. MARK YOUR CALENDAR !! Earn Continuing Education Credit

March 17th Joyce will conduct a one day seminar titled:

Who Is Paying Your Energy Bill?

How to Protect Your Personal Energy Supply from Burnout and Exhaustion

Today’s educational environment is more stressful than ever before.  This course provides guidelines for helping busy professionals protect and enhance their personal energy in order to maintain health and well being while working in the most stressful situations.

March 18th Joyce will conduct a one day seminar titled:

The Bridge from Rage to Reason:

Therapeutic Techniques for Stopping Chronic Tantrums, Blowups and Meltdowns.

Children who have experienced severe trauma often become emotionally fragile.  Understanding a simple model of brain structure as it relates to intense emotional behavior will assist in helping children to learn how to express emotions appropriately without losing control.  The emotions/thinking/action model discussed in this workshop is a valuable tool in the process of motivating wounded children from rage to reason.

All those that are interested can obtain a registration form on line at our website by following this link:  http://www.thehumanconnection.net/Training/Registration_Form.htm

To learn more about the session follow this link:

http://www.thehumanconnection.net/Training/Workshop_Content.htm

 Mark @ The Human Connection

Check out "Ask Joyce" below for her answer to an educator's question. What would you like to ask Joyce? See how to send in your own question below! We look forward to hearing from you during this school year. Please let us know how it went if you try some of Joyce's suggestions. Joyce really wants to be a help to you.

 

If you like the newsletter, please consider forwarding it to your colleagues and system staff development specialists.

Mark@TheHumanConnection.net

Special of the Month for our Ezine Subscribers

This Month's Special:  Discipline That Works: 5 Simple Steps

  Book for $12.00 each     (20% Discount)

This book offers an uncommon but highly effective approach to helping children learn the things they need to know to be successful and happy in life.  The 5 Simple Steps are about effective discipline.  Good and appropriate discipline is meant to teach.  In fact, the meaning of discipline is "to teach".  One problem, however, is that discipline often does not get the desired results.  This is because discipline often gets confused with punishment.  Punishment, as is discussed in this book, is not the same thing as discipline, nor is it a substitute for discipline.

As Joyce travels and works with educators all over the country, she is constantly being asked--- "What do you do when...?" questions.  She has the greatest respect for "what do you do when questions" because usually the questioner is genuinely seeking new information and the teacher is willing to be a student.  Each month, Joyce will answer one or more of the most common "what do you do questions".  You are welcome to send one of yours.  She'll do her best to answer it.  Keep in mind, her answers may be different from the customary response but they are tried and true strategies for getting students to do what you are asking them to do.  Give yourself permission to try something new! Email Joyce at joyce@thehumanconnection.net  with any questions or situations you would like input on.  Let us know if we can show the question in a future newsletter or if you prefer to keep it private. We are hoping Joyce can help address situations you encounter and by sharing these questions/answers others can benefit as well.

To Make or Not to Make Accommodations

With more and more emphasis being placed on testing and proving results, many educators are struggling with the question of how much help is too much for a student who is seriously struggling to pass or when does a special accommodation become merely a fudge factor that doesn’t help the student or the teacher.

At the same time, there seem to be more and more students who need extra help to master the material that their peers are managing to get in the normal course of instruction.  I want to share a few thoughts on this dilemma and offer some suggest that may help.

          Stay focused on the ultimate goal of education.

When we get too focused on testing, we can forget that the ultimate goal is for the student to learn the material, and having learned it, be able to make use of the information to improve their lives and ultimately our society. 

Beware that fear inhibits teaching and learning.

The extreme pressure to increase test results is generating a great deal of fear and anxiety among both students and teacher.  Fear blocks creativity and receptivity to learning.   It can prevent teachers from trying new ideas in their instruction, or making legitimate accommodations for differences in student learning styles.   It can also create so much anxiety in the student that the student is not able to store information in their memory so that it can be retrieved at test time. 

          Reassurance and encouragement counteract fear.

When a teacher frequently reassures students that he/she is going to try many different ideas and strategies to help a student learn as long as that student is willing to keep trying, then the concept of special accommodations for individual students will be perceived as the creative efforts of a good teacher.  Indeed it is.

Special accommodations are helpful when:

A student is making a sincere effort to learn or pass but can’t seem to get it.

A student is passing all other classes but is flunking or floundering in one.

A student is living in a chaotic or dangerous situation.

A student expresses hopelessness about life in general.

A student appears to have difficulty dealing with their emotions.

A student has experienced a serious trauma, i.e. a death in the family.

A student does not get along with peers or is the brunt of peer teasing or ridicule.

A student must take medication to help with focus or concentration.

          Special accommodations are NOT helpful when:

A student’s performance is erratic i.e. the student seems to pick and choose which work they want to do.

A student can clearly focus and concentrate but does not like to do so.  BEWARE:  Just because a student can concentrate on a computer screen does not mean they can concentrate on a book or a lecture.

A student asks for help.

A student is overly social.

A student has no defined emotional or physical disability.

March’s newsletter will discuss specific classroom accommodations that can help a student be successful.

Inspiration:

One good teacher in a lifetime may sometimes change a delinquent into a solid citizen.
Philip Wylie

Taken from ~ http://www.inspirational-quotes.info/index.html

Personal Energy Saver:

Energy Tip of the Month

Those of you who like to play in the snow and have had all the snow you want to play in are probably feeling pretty upbeat and full of energy by this time of year. Good for you.  There is a reason for your high energy level.  Play is super energizing. Very few things you can do will deliver as much of an energy boost, physically, mentally, and emotionally as good old fashion play.   Problem is most of adults have forgotten how to play or how to fit it into our very busy lives. 

I was talking to a friend this weekend about her eighty year old mother who has been a widow for a couple years now.  Her daughter, my friend, is not too keen on her mother living alone in a small town a couple hours away from her.  So I asked, “Well how is she doing?”  “Well”, she says, “She plays bridge twice a week.  She’s been playing bridge with these same women for 40 years, and believe me; those ladies are serious about their bridge playing.”  I said. “I can only imagine.”

I went on to tell my friend that the bridge and some of her mother’s weekly activities with church and friends have stood her in good stead for many years and are probably very much responsible for the fact that she is still able to live independently after the loss of a partner of nearly 60 years. As long as she can play, she will be fine.  Not only that, she plays at a game that requires a good deal of thinking, tracking, calculating and strategizing.  She probably has much greater powers of concentration than we do.

How many of you know someone like my friend’s mother?  Young or old, the people you know that play and laugh regularly are healthier and have much more energy than those of us who may be very responsible and hardworking but have forgotten the fine art of playing. 

So I say to you my friends, “Go out to play.”  If you don’t like to play in the snow or you only have cold weather this time of year, but no snow, like we do in Georgia or you don’t like card games, then think of what you did as a kid that you really enjoyed and go do it.  Just for fun.  It can lift you right up out of those mid-winter blahs.

The Human Connection

125 Highgreen Ridge

Peachtree City, GA 30269

Phone (In Georgia): 770-631-8264                     

(Toll free): 1-888-460-8022

Fax: 770-486-1609 

Email: For info about newsletter/website, contact mark@thehumanconnection.net

To order books, and get info on training programs, contact divinyi@mindspring.com

Website: http://www.thehumanconnection.net

Copyright 2004 The Human Connection