Three representatives from the Saugus Union School District’s behavior council updated the governing board Tuesday on the training the members received during the council’s most recent meeting on April 15.
Samantha Macaluso, a school social worker from North Park Elementary School, Christine Lowery, a transitional kindergarten teacher at Highlands Elementary, and Marissa Hapip, board certified behavioral analyst at Mountainview Elementary, spoke about how members gave positive feedback about their training with Conscious Discipline.
Macaluso said the council’s meeting on April 15 was a full instructional day in which the members were introduced to Conscious Discipline by a certified instructor.
The key takeaways from the training were that there are three parts of the brain that a student may go through during a bad behavior incident, said Hapip.
She said the framework discussed the survival state of the brain, which is responsible for behaviors like running, hitting, or hiding; the emotional state of the brain is responsible for behaviors like students engaging in power struggles or students name calling; and the executive state of the brain is responsible for learning.
“What really stood out to me about Conscious Discipline is that it is different and I think it has something more to offer than what we’ve seen with (positive behavior interventions and supports) or applying behavior analysis because it also focuses on adult behavior and adult responses. It teaches that these brain states do not only apply to students, but they apply to us as adults,” said Hapip.
She added that it showed the members that they can often enter the survival state or emotional state, which can impact how the student responds. She said it became one of the more important pieces the program offered in teaching the teachers the right tools to build a safer environment for their students and form a deeper connection with them.
At the end of the training, the members took a survey on whether they wanted to receive more training from Conscious Discipline and all 43 people who participated in the survey said they did want to receive more training, said Lowery.
She added that, as a teacher who has 28 years of experience, she found that the training provided a lot of simple tools teachers could use immediately in their classrooms that a lot of them said they had not thought of originally.
“I’ve been teaching 28 years. So honestly, I’m pretty set in my ways of how I do things. I’ve been in many workshops, cycled through many different trainings, but this training has actually caught my eye and made me stop and think about how I could use it effectively. So, after teaching many years and going to many trainings, to have 100% of adults in the room say they would like to find out more. I think that’s a great sign,” said Lowery.
Board member Chris Trunkey asked how much of the material is new for the teachers who are taking the training. Macaluso said that for someone like her who has a master’s degree in social work, the brain development information is not new, but for teachers it is newer for some.
Board President Patti Garibay asked when the behavior council was set to meet next. Superintendent Colleen Hawkins said that there had been a meeting planned for Friday but the members asked to cancel the meeting due to workload issues, so the next meeting is set for June 5.
She added that the June 5 meeting will be another training with Conscious Discipline to further help choose what core values and practices will be implemented throughout the district.
