From the desk of ... Mary Robinson Reynolds,
Re: [ACE Study] Documentation: a NEW Humane approach that WORKS

Dear Difference Maker,

While I don't know if the Principal in the article below has incorporated any of my programs, it is almost word for word - the starting point - of all that I provide for you step-by-step in my Academic Success 101 program and certainly embodies what will happen for your entire school with my Make A Difference with the Power of Acknowledgment Program.

What I've designed for the leader in mind - a specific - step-by-step - field-tested approach to putting an end to this craziness in our schools once and for all.

'Field-tested' meaning that when I was a classroom teacher, and 50-65% of my students were severely at-risk - the Stanford Achievement Test Results for my students showed a 2.5-3.0 years of growth in my care. That's no small feat.

Why? Because I did things differently than other teachers, and my students thrived while many teachers just sat in the teacher's lounges talking disparagingly about kids and their parents and/or kicking kids out of class.

I'm talking about at-risk 6th, 7th and 8th graders reading and applying college level materials in one year's time and replacing their habit of giving excuses to "owning their decisions."

How did I do this?

I knew that the first 9-weeks where the most important weeks of the entire school year.

I asked "What was going on for you..." lostcausekid.makeadifference.com

I spent the largest percentage of my energy and focus upon the building of a cohesive - caring classroom community!

It may mean we missed a day or even two of subject matter (these were high end at-risk kids), but we TOOK CAREof BUSINESS in the social emotional department - all the craziness that goes on. And we accomplished this in the first 9 weeks. Beginning week 10, they not only caught up, they excelled!

ALL because I MADE TIME to deal with emotional health and well-being, together with the students. We created a community that was able to learn together and hit on all cylinders. Every student. 100% of my students succeeded, no matter what their economic status. I'm not telling you this to brag, but to illustrate exactly what's possible...

REASONS OR RESULTS?

April 23, 2012
by jestevens

In ACE Study Documentation that a NEW Humane, structured way of approaching our student actually works.

THE FIRST TIME THAT principal Jim Sporleder tried the New Approach to Student Discipline at Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, he was blown away. Because it worked. In fact, it worked so well that he never went back to the Old Approach to Student Discipline. This is how it went down:

A student blows up at a teacher, drops the F-bomb. The usual approach at Lincoln - and, safe to say, at most high schools in this country - is automatic suspension. Instead, Sporleder sits the kid down and says quietly:

"Wow. Are you OK? This doesn't sound like you. What's going on?" He gets even more specific:"You really looked stressed. On a scale of 1-10, where are you with your anger?"

The kid was ready. Ready, man! For an anger blast to his face...."How could you do that?" "What's wrong with you?"...and for the big boot out of school. But he was NOT ready for kindness. The armor-plated defenses melt like ice under a blowtorch and the words pour out:"My dad's an alcoholic. He's promised me things my whole life and never keeps those promises." The waterfall of words that go deep into his home life, which is no piece of breeze, end with this sentence:"I shouldn't have blown up at the teacher."

Whoa.

And then he goes back to the teacher and apologizes. Without prompting from Sporleder.

"The kid still got a consequence," explains Sporleder - but he wasn't sent home, a place where there wasn't anyone who cares much about what he does or doesn't do. He went to ISS - in-school suspension, a quiet, comforting room where he can talk about anything with the attending teacher, catch up on his homework, or just sit and think about how maybe he could do things differently next time.

Before the words"namby-pamby","weenie", or"not the way they did things in my day" start flowing across your lips, take a look at these numbers:

2009-2010 (Before new approach)
798 suspensions (days students were out of school)
50 expulsions
600 written referrals

2010-2011 (After new approach)
135 suspensions (days students were out of school)
30 expulsions
320 written referrals

"It sounds simple," says Sporleder about the new approach."Just by asking kids what's going on with them, they just started talking. It made a believer out of me right away."

Don't wait another school year to get these kind of results for your school!

Watch this movie: Lost Cause Kid Movie - lostcausekid.makeadifference.com

Reaching out to make a world of difference NOW!

PS ...To Learn How to Re-Label Children for the BEST, long-term, self-sustaining results for Academic Success for THIS School Year go to: www.AcademicSuccess101.com - companion program to the book.

Academic Success 101 is a Self-Paced Online Course with downloadable MP3s that you can listen in on my One-on-One Hot Seat Coaching of Parents, Faculty, Directors and Administrative Personnel.

You REALLY can make THIS YEAR the MOST ENJOYABLE school year ever by learning the Power of Your Attitudinal Energy to FIX students (faculty and staff) with an attitude!

GET EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE...


www.MakeADifference/Wristbands


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