gh, wexford, cranberry, North Hills
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY AND MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPY
DAVID O. SAENZ, PhD, EdM, LLC
William Butler Yeats
Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand.
Native American Saying
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Excellent classroom management is invisible
Managing a successful classroom, one where instructional time is high, disruptive behavior is minimized, and students feel safe, can be complicated. Running an effective school that supports such a classroom can be even more demanding and complex. But these things can and have been done by many!
My approach
My expertise is in "tough schools" where the frequency, duration, and severity of disruptive behavior is relatively high; however, I'm also fully capable of working in schools interested in going from "good to great".
I work closely with your school's leadership team and discipline committee in order to form a collaborative partnership that increases cooperation and commitment to the process. As management and leadership partners, we jointly facilitate a highly structured process that allows the school to design the model that best fits its culture and needs. All of this is done within the parameters of what solid research, experience
and previous success indicates is most effective.
Over the years I've developed expertise in research based, school-wide behavioral management programs, such as Positive Behavioral Intervention Support (PBIS), CHAMPs, and Assertive Discipline, The specific model is not always what's important, though: instead, it is the consistent application of the chosen model, on an hourly and daily basis, that determines the successful outcome. The key ingredient is strong and supportive leadership, followed by committed staff.
In addition, an organizational development approach is used as a basis for systems change. Many schools request external expertise in the areas of corporate leadership, team building, executive coaching, and program management. Organizational development consulting is designed to infuse the executive team with the necessary transformational capacity to implement the changes necessary to address ongoing behavioral issues, staff resistance, inconsistency in implementation, staff burnout and compassion fatigue.
How data is used
Data driven decision-making is heavily stressed. Data is generally collected "in the raw" --not from reports and office referrals generated within the school, but from direct observation, teacher interviews, student interviews and even video taping (if permitted) of actual instruction. This objective data provides the most eye-opening, reliable and valid source for "reality based" decisions, feedback, monitoring and for successful execution of the plan.
Expected outcomes
The expected outcomes of consistently and faithfully implementing a school-wide behavior management system:
- decreased office referrals and suspensions,
- increased classroom instructional time,
- improved teacher and parent relationships,
- increased teacher/staff expertise for classroom management; and,
- improvements in staff morale (which lowers absenteeism, burnout and use of sick time).
- increased standardized scores for the entire school and for students who frequent the office for misbehavior.
When the issue is not classroom management or school-wide behavior management
A well developed behavioral system cannot replace excellent teaching. Excellent teaching skills can prevent 90% of all disruptive behaviors in class. Neither can an excellent plan replace the most essential ingredient for successful learning, that of creating and maintaining a safe, nurturing, encouraging, and caring environment for everyone. I am a firm believer in the Professional Learning Community (PLC) model, which emphasizes collective team work in which leadership and responsibility for student learning are extensively shared, a focus on reflective inquiry is stressed, student learning is central (as opposed to simply teaching and presenting material), shared values and norms, and development of common practices and feedback. Schools with PLC's tend to be highly effective learning centers. "If your teaching but the students aren't learning, then your simply presenting"... and this is where many classroom management problems surface.
Act 48 credit credits: I offer a highly dynamic, school-wide and classroom focused behavioral management training as a public service (free of charge). The training is designed to offer practical, realistic, user friendly and workable tools for teachers, counselors, the school's Discipline Committee and other school members. The training is generally between 3-5 hours, and is based on the specific needs of the school. Many schools have taken advantage of this for their Act 48 credits.
