When “Building Culture” Becomes Gaslighting

We’ve all heard it: “We need to build a positive school culture.” It’s the phrase that gets tossed around every time there’s an issue with student behavior or academic performance. But let’s get real for a second—how many times has “building culture” been used to gloss over the fact that there are serious problems in […]

The Midnight Hustle: Why Are Teachers Still Awake?

The other night, she was IN THE BUILDING at 1:00am. Our contract day starts at 7:20AM. I was like, “WTF????” Because I can give her free access to my entire product catalog. I can meet with her for an hour every other Thursday during PLC. But she needs more help than that.

Wake Up, Roosters! It’s Morning!

I write this as I sit outside the locked school at 6:02am. I can’t believe I’m here before the cross country coach. I’ve got at 6:30am parent meeting to discuss a student’s pending reevaluation. This kid has been having a rough time, even by my behavior classroom’s standards. I know that the kid’s mom doesn’t […]

Back to School Front-loading for Teens

I’ve read a couple of good articles with ideas to prepare younger kids with EBD and/or ASD to come back to school. This article focuses on social stories, which are great for elementary kids and lower-functioning secondary kids: https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/pages/How-to-get-your-child-with-asd-ready-for-a-new-school-year. But what about those higher-functioning teens? My students would poop their pants laughing if I tried to give […]

Chasing the Elusive Data-Corn

Jenny and I are continuing to get all set up for the new year and the new program. Part of me wants to shut down because I feel so overwhelmed with the enormity of small, time-consuming tasks we still need to accomplish in the last 10 days before the kids come, but now that we’re […]