Classroom III

This has been a challenging week. The main point has been vandalism of two our our five iBook laptops. It has caused our teachers to simply turn them off and lock up what we have left and just tell the students no laptops until the person that damaged the laptops is identified.

Sure, that punishes the students that are trying to learn and follow the rules. But, when you have one unscrupulous “student” that can destroy 40% of your laptops by breaking the LCD monitors and “no one sees a thing”, and you have no budget to replace or repair them- what else are you going to do. If the perpetrator of these destruction of school property can get away with it, that person will continue to act out. It is like any serial killer/criminal. They habitually break the law. It is a sickness. A mental illness.

I will just be so darn happy when the next seven weeks are over. Call it survival mode. Call it burn-out. Call it what you want, but it is real. It is never ending. Teaching in an alternative school is wearing on my core. I do not want to sound completely disgruntled- but, it is not fun any more.

I wonder how schools with each students with their own laptop handle butt wholes that crack those $400 plus LCD monitors. In the past two years, we have had three broken with only 6 laptops. That is a 50% rate. We may have made a terrible mistake in spending our textbook money on laptops. The iBooks we have been using are four years old and need to be upgraded. Here is the real but- but, if alternative school students are actually becoming more aggressive and angry, would textbooks be more durable?

This question is important to me. With a major portion of our student population now adopting the gang culture’s motto of “snitches get stitches”, the honest bystander fears retaliation from passive aggressive and violent acts of thugs. Even if they witness the LCD getting cracked by a student throwing a metal nut at it, the bully can keep them from reporting what they saw. I am frankly sick of it.

My recommendations to prevent this from happening next school year: If laptops are to continue to be available in our alternative school.

• Students that are assigned to our alternative school need to pay a fee for laptop insurance. This money need to paid before they are allowed to touch or even go into the area laptops are in use.
• Parents and students must agree to pay for any and all damages to assigned laptops not covered by insurance. Example
• Keep laptops in only one classroom. The door to that room must be locked if no one is in the classroom.
  • Laptops Left in Unsupervised Areas

    Under no circumstances may laptops be left in unsupervised areas. Unsupervised areas include the school grounds and campus, the cafeteria, locker rooms, library, unlocked classrooms, dressing rooms and hallways, and any place outside of school. Any computer left in these areas is in danger of being stolen. The student and parent are responsible if a laptop is stolen.

    Unsupervised laptops will be confiscated by staff and taken to the office. Disciplinary action may be taken for leaving a laptop in an unsupervised location

• Arrange the room so all monitors are visible at all times- in a U shape.
• Install close circuit security cameras with web monitoring so the principal can view the classroom at all times.
  • “Call it the No Child Left Unsurveilled Act.

    On Thursday, federal lawmakers will hold a hearing on a proposal to let public schools use millions in federal grants to blanket the halls of learning with surveillance cameras.

    Those grants have typically been used to install metal detectors, lights and locks, as well as paying for security training for students and employees.

    The bill adds closed circuit surveillance cameras to the list of items eligible for Justice Department Safe School grants, ups the funding to from $30 million annually to $50 million and increases the feds share of any outlays to 80%, up from the current 50-50 split.” Source: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/lawmakers-propo.html

• Install additional security- LoJack in each laptop.  ($49 per year)
• Metal detector: install a walk through model at all three entrances. The front door, our side door, and the door going into our ReDirect building. MSRP - $4,495.00 each.

With temperatures in the lower 70’s today and upper 60’s yesterday, fruit flies have invaded the sweet potato processing plant next door. I have sprayed Black Flag so much that my coffee tastes like bug spray. If I had the money, I would be on a cruise or in the mountains skiing. However, low teacher pay makes this only a dream.The exact same thing- Invasion of the Fruit Flies, last year at Christmas time.

PreventionThe best way to avoid problems with fruit flies is to eliminate sources of attraction. Produce which has ripened should be eaten, discarded or refrigerated. Cracked or damaged portions of fruits and vegetables should be cut away and discarded in the event that eggs or larvae are present in the wounded area. A single rotting potato or onion forgotten at the back of a closet, or fruit juice spillage under a refrigerator can breed thousands of fruit flies. So can a recycling bin stored in the basement which is never emptied or cleaned.People who can their own fruits and vegetables, or make wine, cider or beer should ensure that the containers are well sealed; otherwise, fruit flies will lay their eggs under the lid and the tiny larvae will enter the container upon hatching. Windows and doors should be equipped with tight-fitting (16 mesh) screens to help prevent adult fruit flies from entering from outdoors.EradicationOnce a structure is infested with fruit flies, all potential breeding areas must be located and eliminated. Unless the breeding sites are removed or cleaned, the problem will continue no matter how often insecticides are applied to control the adults. Finding the source(s) of attraction and breeding can be very challenging and often will require much thought and persistence. Potential breeding sites which are inaccessible (e.g., garbage disposals and drains) can be inspected by taping a clear plastic food storage bag over the opening overnight. If flies are breeding in these areas, the adults will emerge and be caught in the bag.After the source of attraction and breeding is eliminated, a pyrethrum-based, aerosol insecticide may be used to kill any remaining adult flies in the area.simple fruit fly trapA better approach, however, is to construct a trap by placing a paper funnel (rolled from a sheet of notebook paper) into a jar which is then baited with a few ounces of cider vinegar. Place the jar trap(s) wherever fruit flies are seen. This simple but effective trap will soon catch any remaining adult flies which can then be killed or released outdoors.

Source: http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef621.asp  Powered by ScribeFire.

I have never been a fan of Yahoo! Mail. But, all my students have Yahoo! email accounts. It is not blocked by our school district’s content filter, so I have been tinkering around on it today. The best feature about it of me is the address book. As a habitual user of .MAC and its AddressBook, all my contacts are expertly cataloged with photos and urls, Twitter names, and even a couple of SecondLife aliases. Yahoo! Mail allows easy import of vCard data from my Apple AddressBook. Yahoo! Mail’s categories is very intuitive. I imported several contacts which had old email addresses. Lots of my relatives have moved from Earthlink to Embarq and I had not updated their email addresses in Yahoo! By importing their vCards, all I had to do to update them was delete the old ones.I do not like it that Safari does not play well with Yahoo! Mail’s new version, so I have been using the old version of Yahoo. I have been having a heck of a time with Firefox on the Mac crashing. Maybe the recent Apple update and the new Facebook pluggin on Firefox will help. My cousin Dr. Frank Quinn recommended that Opera. I have not tried it since July ‘07. Flock browser is installed on my computer, but I never think about using it. If I install Opera, it would just take up space on my tiny hard drive. Opera is the default browser on the new Acer PC my mom uses everyday. She was constantly calling me complaining about Internet Explorer and Firefox not opening stuff and not being able to find buttons…she uses Opera without any issues. Woot!Yahoo! Mail is my new favorite app. It works and I can not beat the price. 

Well, it almost time for Christmas vacation. I read on Twitter that some schools are having classes through Friday of this week. That is so - Scrooge-like that it made me smile. I could not imagine how few of our students would attend school that close to Christmas. Anyway, I am happy today is the last day for a few days.As my wife left for work this morning, she reminded me that I need to move the Christmas decorations box back into the attic. Maybe if I could pry myself away from reading Pownce, Twitter, Facebook, Edublogs, and turn off the TV, and stop taking the dog out for a walk, and get off the couch …. I think it is called avoidance behavior or something.  Yes! I am going to move the boxes. In a minute.List:

• get some last minute shopping done
• boxes in the attic  12/19/07 updated
• install wireless drivers on PC laptop in home office
• clean carpet
• repair dripping faucet in bathtube
• clean-up my mess in the bedroom

Time to change my blog theme. I sort of like this one. It reminds me of Hahlo and the way Twitter looks. http://web.mac.com/blakej78/MiddleSchool/Podcast/Podcast.htmlEnjoy our vlogs/podcasts/claymation projects.

Fifth period class was well underway when one of my students asked if I had gotten the text. It was caught off-guard by the question. My first instinct was to say yes. However, day had not been a normal day. Students were mostly in shock. One of their classmates had been missing since November 19th. A body had been found and positively identified as the your male. Several of my students had known the student since kindergarten, others were related to him. The student that asked me about the text message was kind enough to share the message with me. I have deleted the names from the message but wanted to blog the content of the message. 

Fr: Jus yesterday Delemerz was found dead n we want 2 send lov 2 da family n hope that justice is doneR.I.P. DELEMEZ WE LOV U!KEEP DIS CHAIN GOING!De 6 9:14 a.m. 

None of my students needed to check their emails, MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, personal blogs, typepad, and more are all blocked. Still their social network was uninterrupted. My sympathy’s are with the families and classmates in their time of bereavement.Powered by ScribeFire.

Professional development (PD) in our district is now being offered via a paid online service called PD360. I have not tried it, but our administrators had a need to offer more PD and again technology offered a solution. Is it going to make a difference? IMHO, it will impact many teachers and help them keep their license, but I like to be inspired when I participate in professional development, not just get the credits.Last night, Saturday at 10:30 am EST, it was 10:30 am Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, and Jeff Utecht was presenting to a group of administrators at EARCOS. I was watching TV and had my laptop flickering on the couch as I recovered from a day at the NC Pecan Harvest Festival in Whiteville, NC. I had just reinstalled Twitterific after deleting the crash-prone Twitter app that I had really gotten accustomed to and liked its features– Snitter. Immediately on launching Twitterific, Jeff Utecht tweeted the URL to Ustream.tv where he was preparing to speak at EARCOS. I clicked on the link and within seconds my computer screen and I traveled 2000 miles to a conference room- LIVE FROM KUALA LUMPUR. Now, this old redneck has never been to where ever Kuala Lumpur is and on my teacher’s salary will never be able to afford such an exciting journey. However, through the magic of Twitter and Ustream.TV and the imagination and creative use of technology by Jeff forty or more virtual participants logged in on the Ustream.tv http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/d2UhYkjs8SxZP3G1QOqmDA and watched and chatted. The video I have tried to embed here but could not make the embed work so I have hyperlinked to site. I did not stay up to participate in it because it was getting past my bedtime. I embedded it here so I can remember to view it. I think I can download it to my iPod video by converting the Flash video to .mov using several apps out there on the web. I have a road trip to Raleigh today so I plan to try to download this to view on the drive to Cary, NC.My point here is that PD has to fit my life. The days of sit and get, bored out of my head PD is over. I can participate on my time, in my home, on the couch and replay what is unclear to me. Then if I have a question, I can email, post comments on the Ustream.tv site, or even Skype Jeff (after pre-arranging a phone interview using email: which is considered “proper Skype etiquette”) Note to self- do not just Skype a call to folks anymore. I Skyped the presenter live at the World View Symposium and got some bad looks. I will not do that again. Made me look dumb too. Now, I just need to write up these activities and have them approved at real PD activities so I can earn my credits for renewal of my teacher licenses. I think I can print out the transcript of the chat room as proof of my participation. Maybe we could ask Jeff to email us certificates of participation? Anyone have any ideas on this?

This past week, I have been exploring the new and or enhanced features for teaching included in Apple’s latest operating system upgrade- Leopard. In this post, I attempt to hash-out my thoughts on the new features that I am still shaking my head over. My only complaint about Leopard for educators and students is the price. $13 is about 10% off retail. Hello!!! Apple- you are killing me here. (I know bootleg copies are against the law, so I am not going to say anything else)

I opted to upgrade instead of a clean install. Brad Stocks, our network engineer for our school system recommended a clean install like he had done on his MacBook Pro. The process took a few hours, but I just started the installation and taught my classes. I walked by every time I had a chance and looked for error messages. When no error messages appeared I was happy as a kid at Christmas. Now, I read the first paragraph in the READ ME doc, and threw it in the trash can. Reading those documents just makes you sit in front of the screen and ring your hands like a mad man. I am from the just do it camp and if the install fails, then read the manual. However, I had made a complete backup of the hard drive onto an external drive.

Installation was too easy. When I tried to run iMovie ‘08, it crashed, iPhoto did not work very well but an Apple update fixed something and by Thursday afternoon, iLife apps worked without crashing. My point here is to say some issues seem to have been addressed by Apple very fast.

Now, which Leopard apps have I tried in the first week of use?

• Mail: Well, I do not make it a practice to send email to students, however, I love the enhanced mail features that includes integration with my calendars. As chairman of our School Improvement Team, I have to schedule meetings for our staff. This week, we had a meeting planned for Friday morning. My principal got a call after the teachers left school Thursday about the meeting scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Friday. She could have emailed me and I could have updated the calendar but she forgot to tell us. That is ok, when the teachers showed up for the meeting, they all rolled their eyes at me because I had emailed them from iCal and had invited them to attend. This upgrade works, but Google Calendar is still far ahead of iCal and Apple Mail. My daughter uses Outlook in her job- Apple Mail is a joke to her. However, for teachers, the features are more than most of us need. The most impressive tool in Mail is the built-in RSS reader. I have added several key RSS feeds that I read daily. For example, I enjoy the NY Times - Education feed. I have added an RSS feed from educators using Twitter.
• iChat: I had been testing the use of CamTwist with my students a couple of weeks ago as we explored video casting. I setup a Ustream.TV streaming video account and thought about using them to webcast student presentations. We had talked about trying to find another classroom to share our videos with. This is still something I am considering. The new iChat is really easy to use with students. Today, after my students completed their required “standard curriculum work”, we fired up iChat on a couple of computers in the classroom and launched Bonjour to share what they have been working on as a review. There is a photo from this activity.

I need to take the time to create a how-to video. However, teachers that have iChat in their classroom probably have the technology skills set to run this activity without my help. The trick is to have a firm idea of exactly why you are doing it not how. I used this activity for a motivational activity at the end of a grueling week of them learning about genotypes, phenotype, recessive, dominate, exons, alleles, and biology topics that had them ready to run away from home. Even high school students like fun activities. Reviewing what they have been talking about or reflecting is a great way to end a topic. iChat is a hit and we will be using it on our classroom intranet. It is safe and fun. The record ichat feature is a killer app for classrooms. The photo above is just part of the activity. Students can include images of themselves in their PowerPoint/Keynote projects, or slideshows online or on their wiki or blogs. I want to publish the movies they will be creating on TeacherTube or Google Video so they can include the clips in their work. The movie integrate with PowerPoint and Keynote to really enhance the content. The animated backgrounds are really impressive. Another wonderful use of iChat is how it supports conferencing. I attended a symposium in Chapel Hill a couple of weeks ago and one of the sessions was about how to use the $1o,ooo dollar industry grade camera to connect classes.

• Spaces: This part of Leopard is a winner in my book. Why? In my classroom, I am busy moving from student to student helping them with their learning projects as they work with their peers to master the topics we are studying and monitoring their progress and behavior. I have been very lucky so far this semester to have a group of self motivated high school students they actually love learning. I am challenged to keep up with their progress. I use Spaces on my desktop PowerPC, yup, my 2.5 GHz Dual Processor G5 with 2.5 GB RAM runs Leopard faster than Tiger. I am excited about this! Spaces helps me organize my work flow so I can spend more time with the students. We use Moodle in the classroom. Moodle’s learning management system helps me communicate student progress in that I have the students take quizzes, create HotPotato quizzes of key science terms, and contribute to a wiki page about biology topics we study. One of my Spaces is our Moodle page. I keep another Space with Mail running. The other two include the iPhoto and GarageBand or iChat.
• Front Row: When I hook my computer up to the digital projector, and use this for students to share their projects and conduct oral reports.
• Create Your Own Educational Apps: After reading the article on Wired by Leander Kahney I am going to take some time to read up on  this and try to find time to build something to use with my students. Hum, teach them to use it and see what they come up with.
• It is my goal to upgrade my iBooks with one MacBook per year until I can replace them all with the newer laptops.
  

I have been using Twitter since this past summer and have gleaned numerous teaching and technology tips from educators online. Sharing links to blog posts and live web casts are better than iCal when it comes to reminding me of online events. So, if you are one of the Twittering Educators listed below or just thinking about participating- just do it!My Twitter user name is: Blakej  Steve Dembo (teach42)URL: http://Teach42.comBio: Education, Technology, and all things geek.Location: ChicagoJennifer Maddrell (JenM)URL: http://www.designedtoinspire.com/drupalBio: wife / grad studentLocation: USJohn Pederson (ijohnpederson)URL: http://www.ijohnpederson.comBio: I do K12 education professional development.Location: Platteville, WI, United StatesEwan McIntosh (ewanmcintosh)URL: http://edu.blogs.com/ewanmcintoshBio:Location: EdinburghD’Arcy Norman (dnorman)URL: http://www.darcynorman.netBio: ed. tech. developer at the Teaching & Learning Centre, University of CalgaryLocation: CalgaryDean Shareski (shareski)URL: http://ideasandthoughts.orgBio: likes soup and just got a haircutLocation: Moose Jaw, SKAlan Levine (cogdog)URL: http://cogdogblog.com/Bio: Barks, growls, and digs for bones on the webLocation: ArizonaJeff Utecht (jutecht)URL: http://www.thethinkingstick.comBio: Technology SpecialistLocation: Shanghai, ChinaWill Richardson (willrich45)URL: http://www.weblogg-ed.comBio: LearningLocation:Marcie T. Hull (ecram3)URL: http://www.ecram3.blogspot.comBio: teacher • artist • house painterLocation: PhiladelphiaBud Hunt (budtheteacher)URL: http://www.budtheteacher.comBio: I’m learning.Location: Colorado, USADiscovery Education (DEN)URL: http://DiscoveryEducatorNetwork.comBio: Connecting teachers to their most valuable resource… Each other!Location: GlobalAaron Smith (theartguy)URL: http://academicaesthetic.comBio: Husband, artist, Christian, and geek. FYI: I don’t tend to list people as friends if they have 1,000s of friends already.Location: MarylandEdTechTalk (edtechtalk)URL: http://edtechtalk.com/Bio: A collaborative community talking about educational technologyLocation:Jennifer Dorman (cliotech)URL: http://cliotech.blogspot.com/Bio: Learning by being clickableLocation: Bethlehem, PA, USABernie Dodge (berniedodge)URL: http://webquest.org/bdodge/Bio: WebQuest guy. One trick pony (so far).Location: San DiegoGraham Wegner (grahamwegner)URL: http://gwegner.edublogs.orgBio: ICT Coordinator and Classroom Teacher - always exploring, always learning.Location: Adelaide, AustraliaLee Baber (LeeBaber)URL: http://web.mac.com/lbaberBio:Location:Charlene Chausis (cchausis)URL: http://educatingeducators.blogspot.comBio: … all about educating educators and integrating instructional technologyLocation: Lincolnshire, ILJose Luis Cabello (idocente)URL: http://ciberaulas.blogspot.com/Bio: EFL teacher in Madrid. http://englishteachinglab.blogspot.comLocation: Villanueva de la CañadaVicki Davis (coolcatteacher)URL: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.comBio: Teacher, blogger, technology geek, MotherLocation: Camilla, Georgia 31730Paul Allison (paulallison)URL: http://paulrallison.blogspot.comBio: I’m a biker, a blogger, a consultant, and a father. I’m a husband, a photographer, a podcaster, & a runner. I’m a searcher, a teacher, a vlogger, & a webcaster.Location: New York, NYKarlana Kulseth (hawaiianbrat96)URL: http://www.karlanakulseth.com/blogBio: Mom, Wife, Student, Substitute Teacher, Photographer, DigiScrapper!Location: Las Vegas, NVcheryloakes (cheryloakes50)URL: http://www.cheryloakes.comBio: webhead,Wow 2.0, technology coachLocation: Wells, MEDavid Miller (davegobe)URL: http://davegoblog.wordpress.com/Bio: Chemist and father of two wonderful daughtersLocation: NE Ohio and sometimes SLMiguel Guhlin (mguhlin)URL: http://mguhlin.netBio: Share more.Location: TexasRussel Montgomery (montgorp)URL: http://mrmont.wikispaces.com/Bio: husband, father, teacher, geek and pilgrimLocation: Perth, WADanielle Abernethy (dabernethy)URL: http://it4teachers.blogspot.comBio: Instructional Technology Coach - not currently linked anywhereLocation: Brooksville, FLDavid Warlick (dwarlick)URL: http://2cents.davidwarlick.comBio: 30+ year educator, technologist, programmer, author, & public speaker.Location: Raleigh, NCSheryl NussbaumBeach (snbeach)URL: http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.comLocation: Virginia Beach, VADavid Jakes (djakes)URL: http://www.jakesonline.orgBio:Location: Naperville, Illinois, USAKristin Hokanson (khokanson)URL: http://khokanson.blogspot.comBio: Technology Integration “coach” come play for my team :)Location: PADanita Russell (DanitaR)URL: http://leecountyschools.wikispaces.com and my blog http://danitarussell.edublogs.orgBio: I am a 15 year veteran middle school teacher now working as an instructional facilitator trying to learn all that I can.Location: Sanford, NCWesley Fryer (wfryer)URL: http://www.speedofcreativity.orgBio: husband, dad, educator, catalyst for learningLocation: Edmond, OklahomaChris Lehmann (chrislehmann)URL: http://www.practicaltheory.org/serendipityBio: Principal of the Science Leadership AcademyLocation: Philadelphia, PAChuck Bartowski (ChuckBartowski)URL:Bio:Location:Stephen Downes (Downes)URL:Bio:Location:bbelardi (bbelardi)URL: http://bridgerblogs.blogspot.com/Bio: Elementary School Library Media Specialist* Web Master* DEN PA Leadership CouncilLocation: PIttsburgh, PAbobsprankle (bobsprankle)URL: http://www.bobsprankle.comBio:Location: Wells, ME USAMartin Pluss (plu)URL: http://martinpluss.edublogs.org/Bio: I am a runner, geography teacher and ICT Integrator.Location: SydneyElaine Plybon (glad2be)URL: http://www.geocities.com/lanerpaloozaBio: Science Instructional Specialist, mom to fiveLocation: Texasrickweinberg (rickweinberg)URL: http://techedguy.blogspot.comBio: I am a technology professional developer for 22 school districts in NY StateLocation: NY/PAphilcrissman (philcrissman)URL: http://philcrissman.comBio: I’m a tech guy who remains convinced he is a creative.Location: MinneapolisCRStengel (CRStengel)URL: http://blog.mtlsd.org/FarFromBlogginBio: Tech Director with great interest in bringing 2.0 tools into classroomsLocation: PittsburghCory Peppler (pepteach)URL: http://cpeppler.edublogs.orgBio: English teacher, dad, tech junkieLocation: WisconsinHallDavidson (HallDavidson)URL:Bio:Location:Eric14774 (Eric14774)URL:Bio: World History Teacher At Bolivar-Richburg Central School Striving To Integrate Technology.Location: Bolivar, NYWIREDScience (WIREDScience)URL: http://pbs.org/wiredscienceBio: WIRED Science premieres nationwide October 3, 2007 (8:00 p.m. PT/ET) on PBS.Location:k12online (k12online)URL: http://k12onlineconference.orgBio: Free worldwide online conference for educators centered on 21st century learning.Location: Third planet from the sun.chanbliss (chanbliss)URL:Bio: Elementary Art TeacherLocation: Florida

Key #1 Large Schools are not safe- but small schools lack resources and personnel to search and seize

Key #2 Student book bags- it is time for them to disappear from schools

Key #3 Teacher visibility- not seating at our desk (maybe that is why two teachers were shot in the resent school shooting on NBC this morning)

Key #4 Communication- if you know about a threat- put it in writing (triplicate copies and turn in one to the assistant principal(s) and one to the principal) Students have this “code of silence” and are afraid of telling on their comrades. Students have to know that not telling can get them kill anyway! Use of automated phone calling machines are popular in schools. But many of our parents are now using text messaging to communicate with their kids. The SMS feature needs to be added now.

Key #5 Special program/alternative school for disruptive students. This program provides a special classroom at each school for students who are disruptive or who have been involved in violent behavior. A teacher and counselor will be specially trained to work closely with these students to improve their attitude, behavior, and study skills. Special attention will be paid to students with learning problems. If necessary, counseling services may be extended to families of these students.

Key #6 School uniform program. All elementary and middle school students should be required to wear school uniforms unless parents opt out of the program. Each school will select its own uniform. The program will provide assistance to families who cannot afford to buy uniforms.

Key #7 Increased security equipment and personnel. This plan provides metal detectors and hallway surveillance cameras on each middle and high school campus. One new security guard will be hired at each school to help staff the equipment.

Key #8 Conflict resolution program. High school and middle school teachers must be trained in conflict resolution skills, which they will teach in various classes. Each middle and high school will develop a peer mediation program, in which students learn how to settle disputes among students. These peer mediators will also travel to elementary schools and train students in conflict resolution. This could part of our school’s NC Positive Behavior Support program.

Key #9 Parental Involvement- calling all parents using a “calling machine” helps communicate, but nothing beats Parent Night or Open House after-school events. I know the ones we want to see never come but information presented in these events help. Schools need to hold special night classes for parents. The classes will teach effective discipline techniques, how to deal with problem behaviors, and how to help students with school work. There will be classes for parents of students of all ages—from elementary school to high school.

Key #10 Just Do It!