Transcript Slide 1

MAKING LIFE EASIER:
Surviving the Stormy Seas
A Different Approach To
Understanding Middle
School Students
Cassie White, Safety Specialist,
Kay Kanupp, Program Specialist
FAPT Summer Conference
July 6, 2008
The Concept
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To assist School Bus Operator’s in their quest
to better understand how middle school
students react to their environment.
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Who are they?
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What do I want them to do?
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Why?
Consist of Four Components
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Physical (Onset of Puberty) – body, voice, acne,
voice changes
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Emotional – egocentric, acceptance, very little
impulse control, desires conflict with behavior
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Social – comfort zone, forming social patterns,
normal is vital
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Intellectual – what kind of thinking/reasoning middle
school students are capable of
Intellectual Component
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Stages of development
Sensor motor
Preoperational
1-2 yrs, reality is only what they can see
Concrete
start to create theories that explain their world can full grasp
cause and effect reality can expand beyond what they see
and feel
Formal
can take a situation, think about it, predict various outcomes
based on the choices they make, typical of middle school
girls first-boys later towards high school age.
2-7 yrs, understands hidden objects and
imagination -Starts to conceptualize, Abstract
problem-solving
Communication
Remember the
third question
of the premise:
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“What do I want them to do?”
IN A PERFECT WORLD
Active Communication Do’s
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Listen
Contain Logic
Think before you speak
Include positive reinforcement
Value their input
Ensure a proper relationship
Active Communication Don’ts
Shut-Up
Please
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Yell
Argue
Tune Out
Escalate
Think before you speak
Purpose of Communication
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To get students to HEAR the bus rules, may
require explaining in simple language.
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To get students to LEARN, which includes
following the bus rules.
Hearing
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Getting the bus quiet enough.
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Overcoming any disabilities.
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Relating to their world.
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Remembering that they are self-centered.
Learn
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Short-term memory is limited in capacity and
duration (To get the desired information (the bus rules)
from their short term memory into their long term
memory
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Long-term memory is a long lasting function
and has a larger capacity (long lasting function
and has a larger capacity)
Presenting the rules in a
variety of formats
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Written: Posters, Student handbooks or
Handouts.
Visual: Your Example
Verbal: Going over the rules when the school
year begins. “Broken Record Technique”
Hands on: Demonstrate, Show other
examples and Practice.
Regain Consistency
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Don’t make empty, unenforceable threats
Keep your friendships, relationships and all other
emotional ties out of the situation. You are the bus
operator and they are the students
Try to understand how the student might interpret what
you are saying and adept your message for clarity
(Clarity doesn’t meaning louder)
Be aware what inconsistency affects have on students
and how they respond to you
Finally!!!!!!!!
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Questions????????