Pro D with Martha McAlister

On Friday I attended the Pro D day at SSE. I don’t think there was a better way I could have spent me day. Martha McAlister, an instructor at Camosun, came to the island to do a workshop for some the ECEs on the island. We had a group of 8 people; a mix of daycare workers, co-op teachers, parents and ECEs who work at the different ELF programs…and then of course there was one student (me!).

We started out with an introduction; we told everyone our name, a bit about our program and then a challenge and a strength we felt we had. It was nice to meet all these different people working in early childhood. I met the women who run the ELF programs on the outer islands, as well as down at Fulford School. I also met Andrea from SS Daycare and Melanie from the Co-op Preschool. When it came to strength and challenges, again, it was very interesting to hear from all these different women. When it came to me, I gave my challenge before my strength because I feel they’re interconnected. I feel that my biggest challenge is my lack of experience because of my age; at the same time, I feel that my strength is the fact that because I’m young and without a lot of experience, I am a quick learner and have a very “moldable mind.” I also said that I’m very lucky to have such a great teacher!

We talked about two main points. The first thing we talked about was engaging families and the importance of family involvement as well as the difficulties we have with family involvement. It was very interesting to listen to the differences in the issues with ELF vs. the issues with a daycare or preschool. It was pretty funny because almost all the women said that they love the children they work with, but they all come with these pesky parents attached! I guess because I’m young I’ve had great response from parents because they’re happy that I’m getting the experience that I am…or maybe we’re just really lucky to have such great parents at Little Blue!

I think that one of the most interesting points that someone brought up was that the trusting bond we form with parents is the foundation for everything else. We were also given a great quote about the fact that children will always do better in life when they have a support network. I find that in everything I do I’m learning something not only new, but also interesting and relevant…except everything is almost obvious in a way. I find myself learning these things like children will do better with a support network and saying (to myself of course) “Well that makes so much sense! Obviously this would be true.”

One of the major ways to engage families was to consider the three C’s: Capable, Connected, and Contributing. It was then mentioned that even though we go out of our way to make kids feel capable, connected and that they’re contributing, but we often forget that parents need to feel that they are capable, connected and contributing. I thought that was really interesting. We also talked about the 3 areas of family involvement for School Success: parenting practices, home/school relationships, and learning at home. A little observation that I just read in my notes (yes that’s right, I took notes): **all of these areas have in common that they show an involved/ caring parent- relates back to children being more likely to succeed with a strong support system.

I guess I never considered that success at school starts before actually attending school. I also never realized that success at school is largely dependent on the home life…another one of those “Well duh!” moments!

The second main point that we talked about was dealing with challenging behaviors. This was the part of the workshop that I was most looking forward to because I think that it would be the most relevant for me. Working with autistic children will definitely have me dealing with challenging behaviors, that is for sure!

We talked about the Behavioral Functional Analysis (Antecedent → Behavior → Consequence), which I found very helpful. I have a feeling that if I get into the Applied Behavioral Analysis program at Capilano University (which is what I’m aiming for), this is exactly the sort of thing that I will be learning about.

Side note: Just Googled “Functional Behavioral Analysis” and the first thing that came up was titled Teaching Children with Autism: Functional Behavior Analysis. Hmmm…

The antecedent is what happens right before the behavior occurs. Connected to the antecedent are the Setting Events. Those are the stressors that the child brings with them. These stressors can be external or internal. One of the ECEs gave us a good analogy. She said that she thinks of the Setting Events as the kindling and the Antecedent as the match. Another women said that she thinks of the antecedent as the “trigger.” For someone who has never heard of the “antecedent” or the “setting events” before, these analogies were extremely helpful! There were two things that were mentioned that I never even thought about: the first was the fact that we don’t want to be an antecedent, and the second was that all behaviors are essentially communicating something; it’s just up to us to interpret what they are communicating. Unfortunately, we sort of ran out of time, so we didn’t really talk about behaviors or consequences, which I found really frustrating, because that was what I was really looking forward to!

The last activity we did was called a Solution Circle. None of us really new what to expect, but it turned out to be a wonderful activity! You chose someone to present their problem and you chose someone to be the note taker. The first step is that the Problem Present gets 6 uninterrupted minutes to explain their problem Everyone else just listens. If the Problem Presenter is done before the 6 minutes is up, you just sit in silence and wait incase they think of something else. The next 6 minutes involve everyone else brainstorming. The Problem Presenter isn’t allowed to speak during this time. The rest of the group must come up with as many creative solutions as they can. The next 6 minutes are dedicated to a dialogue between everyone in the group. This is the time when the brainstormers and the Problem Presenter get to discuss any questions and try to come up with more solutions. Finally, the last 6 minutes are used to come up with a concrete plan of action that the Problem Presenter can take. We decided on a plan of action for the next 24 hours, as well as something they could do in the next 3 days. Then someone volunteered to call the Problem Presenter to make sure they had followed through on the action plan.

Overall, it was an excellent day and I’m really glad I attended! I feel like I learned so much! I also feel that I’m really getting a head start with everything that I’m going to learn in the future.

My next blog entry will be sometime next week and it will focus on the Making Tomorrow conference that I’ll be attending.