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Welcome to AWSA's bi-weekly newsletter! Below you will find our most recent edition of the AWSA Update Bulletin. Located on the side you will find current and past articles, current events and sponsor information.
January 16th Edition
Transforming School Discipline:
Shifting from power and control to collaboration and problem solving
Education innovation is important to ensure that we are providing the best support and preparation for our children for all aspects of their lives. Therefore, it is important to examine and improve our practices in all aspects of education, including how we respond to challenging student behaviors.
by Ross W. Greene Founding Director, Lives in the Balance; Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech; Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney
The statistics are staggering. Every school year in the United States, there are 3 million out-of-school suspensions, 3 million in-school suspensions, and dozens of millions of detentions. Every year, over 100,000 students are expelled and there are several hundred thousand paddlings, restraints, and locked- or blocked-door seclusions.
Students with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges are those most frequently on the receiving end of these increasingly archaic interventions. e most obvious distinguishing characteristic of these students is the fact that their behavior is more extreme: screaming, swearing, hitting, kicking, spitting, biting, throwing, running, destroying property, and worse. Of course, archaic discipline strategies typically aren’t administered to students whose behavior is less extreme: using their words (the holy grail of adaptive responses), whining, pouting, sulking, withdrawing, or crying. But regardless of whether a student’s behavior is more or less extreme, the field of developmental psychopathology is quite clear on the fact that the behavior is communicating that the child is having difficulty meeting certain expectations. Thus, behavior is simply the signal, the fever.
Read more.
Self-care: The “New” Leadership Essential
by Joe Schroeder, Associate Executive Director, AWSA
We are entering that time of the school year when the day-to-day challenges of the job can especially become “a grind.” This is a natural byproduct of serving a variety of folks who seek out your limited time, energy, and resources to meet their virtually unlimited needs and desires. Day after day, week after week, they keep coming and coming and coming…. Understandably, this can take a toll – and that cost often reveals itself mightily about now. In an era unprecedented in levels both of stakeholder needs and high expectations for results, how you sustain yourself and your daily energy is crucial. Thus, self-care is emerging as a “new” essential for school leaders, at a time when we are becoming increasingly aware that strong leadership is more critical than ever, yet when recent studies show that 89% of school administrators report feeling very stressed at least once or twice a week, when one quarter of all America’s principals leave their schools each year, and when one half of new principals quit by their third year in the role.
Read more.
The Tech Behind School Safety and Security:
A Brief Review of 10 Cyber-Physical Technologies for K-12 Schools
by Brian Casey, Ed.D, Director of Technology, Stevens Point Area Public School District
Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master
- Christian Lous Lange
Technology has changed many aspects of our daily lives, work and schooling. High-speed internet access, exponential growth in computer power, the ubiquity of personal mobile devices and the rise of social media have profoundly transformed our society. These changes have also revolutionized physical security. A vast amount of data are created by sensors, software and systems. Also known as “big data”, these data can be analyzed and used by artificial intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning to alert humans about potential security issues and to predict behavior. The ability to store, share and use data on the cloud and over high-speed internet connections also allows more systems to connect.
The systems used to manage facilities, communications, business operations, security and teaching are digital systems that are increasingly talking to one another and sharing data. As the digital transformation expands, school leaders must carefully consider the implications of new and existing technology designed for safety and security. What existing digital safety and security technologies offer schools the most benefit? Which new and emerging technologies hold the most promise for K-12 schools? What do school leaders need to consider before implementing new technology to enhance safety and security? This article will review 10 important examples of K-12 safety and security technology and offer guidance about the use and implementation of each technology.
Read more.
Get Your Copy of the 2019-20 Professional Concerns Report
Click here for AWSA's 2019-20 Professional Concerns Report. The report includes data on salaries, contract length, and members most frequently asked contract questions.
We are appreciative of the 450 members who completed the 2018 Professional Concerns Survey which is one of the primary sources for the report. We provided an overnight stay at Kalahari Resort and Waterpark to one member who completed the survey. The lucky winner was Peter Haubrich of Central High School in Westosha.
AWSA is grateful to Horace Mann for their support of this report.
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