Chris+Cochran


 * Chris Cochran**

__Idea for Major Project, June 28, 2012__ This is a collaborative resource for teachers to build practical wisdom, strategies and concepts for interventions that can help students with disruptive and problematic behavior become more successful. The adage "we are better and smarter than any one of us" and since the collective wisdom and experience needed is already "in the room", this is an ideal way to gather and compare ideas to build teachers' skill for developing supportive classroom communities. These skills teachers develop and refine have a direct impact on student learning in helping some of our most challenging students to better access their education. Several teachers in my school have talked about they would love more ideas on what to do with students in difficult scenarios and situations, and this will allow us to multiply and integrate that collective wisdom we carry with us.

__**Major Project Proposal**__

This project is intended to be a resource for two groups. First, for the learning community of staff at Imlay Elementary in Hillsboro, OR, and second for the broader community of educators serving children and youth who experience learning obstacles within traditional school and classroom-learning formats. Initially, it will serve as resource site for teachers to find tips, tools and information for addressing problematic student behaviors in their classrooms. The eventual hope is that it will serve as a collaborative site of resources that teachers can share with others, based on their diverse experiences and areas of expertise. Just within Imlay Elementary, the staff have an extraordinary body of collective wisdom, experience and skills that has not been brought together in any formal way in relation to behavioral interventions and understanding. My goal is to build the structural components needed to make it easy for teachers to access resources and ideas related to behavior, while also being able to give feedback on these ideas and offer resources and input of their own, based on their experiences. I anticipate introducing this to them as we start the coming school year this August. Media used will include Word and PDF documents, and links to videos on sites such as youtube, ASCD, and Love & Logic. There may be a need for myself or others to post videos at a later date. Because this project is fairly specific in focus to the school I work in and to the topic of behavior interventions and technology that can be used in that area, I have not sought out partners for this.
 * **Course Objectives** || **Standards** || **Application for this Project** ||
 * Investigate the tools that enable the networked world. || Teachers demonstrate a sound understanding of technology operations and concepts. || Gather resources for teaching that reflect best practices in a centralized site that improves convenience, relevance and access for teachers. This will support consistency and quality of practice. ||
 * Describe and apply approaches to living with integrity in the networked world. || Teachers understand social, ethical, legal and human issues surrounding use of technology in schools. || Teachers will be able to access resources related to ethics of teaching interventions, and provide insight on issues in applying these concepts in the their classrooms. ||
 * Participate in the networked culture. || Teacher use technology to enhance their productivity and professional practice. || Teachers will gain more experience accessing resources online, as well as contributing to the body of professional resources. ||

__This project is based on three philosophical foundations:__

As we might teach the skills needed for math or writing, we approach the social and emotional realms looking with eyes to see what skills students may need to learn and develop, including but not limited to emotional regulation, listening skills, perspective-taking, taking turns, trust-building and expressing one’s needs and wants respectfully and effectively.
 * Skills-based:**

We start with the belief that one’s success and happiness is inextricably connected with her/his ability to engage and interact successfully with others, both in terms of caregivers, peers and those to be cared for. This belief directly lends itself to the idea that success is either only truly experienced as a community, taking into consideration the welfare of our weakest members. Therefore, we either succeed all together or come up short when there are people who “fall through the cracks”. Attachment is viewed both as one’s ability to develop and sustain positive, interactive relationships with caregivers and peers, and also in terms of the community’s ability to support this attachment in occurring consistently on a broad scale. This approach may be best summarized as emphasizing the importance of the soil around the seed. If we are going to invest great efforts in changing the behavior of plants or humans, it makes sense that we give adequate attention to the garden we are growing them in, and the relationships contained within.
 * Attachment and Community-based:**

ABA is an approach to behavior that uses learning theory to modify behaviors by focusing on the observable relationship between behavior and the environment. With this approach, one often starts by analyzing the behavior within the context of the immediate environment in order to asses what the function(s) of the behavior may be. At a very basic level, the goal is to address and meet the needs of the individual in order to modify behavior towards more desired behaviors that work for everyone involved in the learning context. The value of this approach is in the emphasis on understanding the individual’s motivation and needs related to the targeted behavior. By understanding what is important to the student, we can individualize the approach and interventions that we use for that student. Within this realm of ABA, there is also the need to consider the role of developmental needs and phenomena that we all share on different levels. These include sensory needs, dietary considerations, thought patterns, cognitive abilities, and so forth.
 * Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)/Behavior Modification:**

Thoughts...

I think the Intervention Ziggurat Model may be a good resource to start with as I design the site around a few primary models. Although it was developed for working with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, it has so many useful concepts for one's work with students from a range of backgrounds. I will insert a file with the visual layout of it. The basic premise is that it guides the practitioner through various areas to consider when assessing a student's needs, addressed or unaddressed, from developmental tasks to sensory needs. Also, as I reflect on what has helped me most in working with students, I have found myself going back again and again to Love & Logic concepts and techniques. While I hope to eventually have a large collection of L&L resources, this file on classroom interventions is a good place to start. Visited Scot's page and enjoyed seeing his pictures of his family, and learning more about what all the different types of platforms available for online collaboration and communication that he has included on his site.
 * Chris' Journal:**

Visited Devorah's page, and I appreciate her accurate description of herself. I also find myself interested in how faith has lent itself naturally to her instruction in the nursing program. I would love to hear more of her thoughts on ways that worked to integrate faith into content in the coursework and class discussions. With the online component, I wonder what areas of study this will help with most and how teaching faith online will work. I imagine some areas will serve better as entry points than others for this focus on faith, and I'll be interested to hear her ideas further on this.

Visiting Sandra's page, I am interested in her thoughts on using tech in special ed, as I have also worked in that area. I am interested in ways that tech can not only enhance learning but relationships in the classroom. People often see tech as being unrelated to relationships, so I am interested to find ways that it can support them beyond the obvious like FB.

Visiting Matt's page, it is apparent that he has a deeper level of comfort and proficiency with online instruction and interaction than my own, so I am curious to see how he goes about communicating his project to us in class. Talking with someone in person always helps me connect more with them in looking at their online content. This has also been true for me with this wiki project.