PS 79 Programing Reflections by Michael Barrett

mikebarrett1 — 2024-06-13 19:34:52 UTC

Establish a more formal curriculum with clear standards and overall vision

2024-06-13 20:07:01 UTC

Great to have the movement time - a must to continue having.

2024-06-13 20:07:28 UTC

Walking the kids home was difficult, but also essential for the kids at ESA to actually be able to participate.

2024-06-13 20:07:33 UTC

Bringing in the case coordination helped; while it would have been better earlier, it made a difference at the end. Let's make sure we do this right at the beginning next time, and additionally, always have action plans for implementing feedback

2024-06-13 20:07:53 UTC

Dojo points were effective—something that should be established along with behavioral expectations from day 1. To improve, we should be clearer and more consistent about what x amount of dojo points individually and collectively equals

Follow ups on behavior

2024-06-13 20:08:30 UTC

I think following up on behaviors could use improvement - for instance if a negative behavior occurred one day that warranted a follow up with a parent - that this happens, and is coordinated with the rest of the team that is involved with this client - maybe via ETO, case notes, or some sort of tracking of this?

2024-06-13 20:08:36 UTC

I wonder if the amount of staff we had was too much, too few, or just right? Should we expand or restrict our rotation of staff?

2024-06-13 20:09:08 UTC

This was so so tricky for us:) I think we handled it as best we could, but hiring local staff (within a 30 minute commute) that speaks the language of the majority of our students who can teach 3-4 days a week, is going to help us improve in so many different areas.

2024-06-13 20:10:26 UTC

I think we can remove homework from the schedule—yes, it was an area desired by parents but it's just to inconsistent for our programming

2024-06-13 20:10:29 UTC

Is the homework time still useful or effective? Most of the time, kids didn't have anything. I defaulted to forcing Yousef/Andrew to read often, which was difficult but rewarding

Follow-up behavioral policies

2024-06-13 20:10:32 UTC

As mentioned under "behaviors" - having a more robust policy that is understood and implemented by all staff - as we had sometimes rotating staff, SSCs and SEL sometimes involved, I think behavioral policies were a bit inconsistent at times

2024-06-13 20:11:27 UTC

Having at least 1-2 staff that will be on location for the duration of the week for future programs?

2024-06-13 20:12:01 UTC

I think building program staff capacity would be great—perhaps the week before the program starts or in the first few weeks, we could have all-staff trainings to ensure we're all on the same page

2024-06-13 20:12:03 UTC

every time I was there, the kids said they didn't have homework, so that part just didn't ever get going as well as I'd like. It could work if we had a better sense of how much HW the school gives, and be helpful to have some tutors with us since it is so individual for kids. Sometimes the homework was just so beyond the kid's current ability that it was hard to dive fully into the concepts with the limited time and need to support the multiple students in the room.

Bring MTSS from NYSA to all programming

2024-06-13 20:16:09 UTC

2024-06-13 20:33:29 UTC

Relationship management with the school is key - the person on site should be the main point of contact. There should be a single person through whom the communication flows.