Crisis Guidelines

Crisis Guidelines

 

We are saddened and shocked by another school shooting.  Senseless violence.  Our own killing our own.  Displaced anger.  Mis-managed grief. 

We live in a time when our schools must address the issues of grief.  Today, with our condolences to the families and schools in Ohio, I will share an excerpt from our publication: Crisis, Grief, and Loss...and How to Help Your Students Through It.

In times of crisis, when nothing can be done to change the horrible facts, schools must:

Encourage academics.  Do not ignore the crisis; but keep students focused on academics.  Academics is our job.

Encourage options.  Allow flexibility in your projects.  Written assignments, for example, may deal with reactions to the crisis at hand and parallels between your topic, our current crisis, and our students’ personal experiences.

Encourage hope.  The human spirit is incredibly and wonderfully resilient.  We hurt; we’re angry; we’re afraid.  But we will overcome!

Encourage help.  Allow your classes to write letters to the families of the deceased.  Allow projects that provide food, clothing, and shelter for victims.  Endorse related humanitarian projects such as helping at a food kitchen.

Encourage healing.  Allow students to talk and write about their emotions.  Also allow them to periodically ignore what has happened and focus on their passion.

Encourage health.  Use the crisis as an incentive to increase substance abuse prevention programs.  Use your study skills curriculum to help them channel and deal with anger constructively.

Encourage truth.  Keep students informed and squelch the rumor mill.  Keep obsessions with the gory details to a minimum, but tell the truth.  We have a huge capacity to imagine horror scenarios when we don’t know what is happening.  We also have a huge capacity to deal with what is real in creative, constructive ways. 

http://www.lockettlearning.com

College or Career? What It Takes

College or Career?  What It Takes

 

Academic Ed or Vocational Ed?  So often we fight over which should prevail.  Here’s some food for thought:

Colleges want entry level freshmen who can read, write, think, and calculate at a level of content mastery in a rich curriculum. 

Businesses want entry level employees who can read, write, think, calculate, communicate effectively, and work on a team toward a goal.

We’re not really so different.  My ideal is two-fold:  1. that every student graduate eligible to enter the college or university of their choice...even if they choose not to go, and even if they choose to choose to graduate with their grandchildren; and 2. that every student graduate high school with a “sellable skill.”

Often, people ask, "What would it take for our students to be able to go to college?"

We know exactly what it would take. We don't always know how to make it happen.

1. •For students to be eligible for their chosen college or career by the time they graduate from high school, they must participate in a rich core curriculum leading to appropriate content mastery. SCORE students are placed in rigorous academic classes.
2. •If students are to be successful in these classes, they need to learn effective study skills. SCORE students are taught study skills as a formal part of the curriculum. Study skills are reinforced across the curriculum and in tutorials.
   
3. •If students are to be successfully up-placed in the curriculum, they will need academic support. Academic support is available through SCORE classes, tutorials, and group study sessions.
4. •If high-risk students are to be successful in a rich common core curriculum, teachers must use whole-brain, state-of-the-art, multiple modality teaching techniques. SCORE teachers, with study skills as a basis, use strategies that empower students and state-of-the-art methodologies.
5. •If students are to be successful in a rich academic curriculum, they must eliminate negative factors in their lives that would detract from their success. SCORE programs mentor students and enlist appropriate support networks when a student has a need that is negatively impacting academics.
6. •In order to be successful academically, students need support at all levels: family, community, peer, and education. SCORE programs foster positive peer pressure, family communication, community support, and teacher mentorship.

While we’re at it...let’s teach students to communicate effectively and to work on a team toward a goal.  That way they’ll be career-ready, too.

SCORE is committed to the ideal that all students can succeed in our rich content classes. To bring about success, SCORE endorses a comprehensive, holistic approach to educational reform, based on the above assumptions. If any of these elements is missing from a program, the end result will be diminished. When these elements support one another toward a common goal, the results in student achievement are dramatic.

Check us out!  http://www.lockettlearning.com