Navigating Middle School Student Behavior: A Comprehensive Insight for Bus Operators

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

2. The Concept • To assist School Bus Operator’s in their quest to better understand how middle school students react to their environment. • Who are they? • What do I want them to do? • Why?

3. Consist of Four Components • Physical (Onset of Puberty) – body, voice, acne, voice changes • Emotional – egocentric, acceptance, very little impulse control, desires conflict with behavior • Social – comfort zone, forming social patterns, normal is vital • Intellectual – what kind of thinking/reasoningmiddle school students are capable of

4. Intellectual Component • Stages of development Sensor motor 1-2 yrs, reality is only what they can see Preoperational 2-7 yrs, understands hidden objects and imagination -Starts to conceptualize, Abstract problem-solving 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.

5. Communication • Remember the third question of the premise: “What do I want them to do?”

6. IN A PERFECT WORLD

7. Active Communication Do’s • Listen • Contain Logic • Think before you speak • Include positive reinforcement • Value their input • Ensure a proper relationship

8. Active Communication Don’ts Shut-Up Please • Yell • Argue • Tune Out • Escalate • Think before you speak

9. Purpose of Communication • To get students to HEAR the bus rules, may require explaining in simple language. • To get students to LEARN, which includes following the bus rules.

10. Hearing • Getting the bus quiet enough. • Overcoming any disabilities. • Relating to their world. • Remembering that they are self-centered.

11. Learn • 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 • Long-term memory is a long lasting function and has a larger capacity (long lasting function and has a larger capacity)

12. Presenting the rules in a variety of formats • 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.

13. Regain Consistency • 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

14. Finally!!!!!!!! Repetition Repetition Repetition

15. Questions????????