The crux of this discussion centers on the methodologies employed in structuring a group behavior meeting involving parents and educational staff. By eschewing the inclination towards blame and frustration, we can instead cultivate an environment that emphasizes collaboration, solution-oriented dialogue, and support for the student in question. I delineate a pragmatic framework that delineates essential components, such as articulating concerns clearly, utilizing data-driven observations, and fostering a spirit of partnership among all participants. It is imperative that we recognize the significance of acknowledging each party's expertise, particularly that of the parents, who possess invaluable insights regarding their child's behavior. Ultimately, we aim to transform potentially adversarial interactions into constructive collaborations that promote the child's growth and success.

The orchestration of effective group behavior meetings with parents and staff is a crucial endeavor within the educational landscape, one that demands careful consideration and strategic planning. This podcast episode offers invaluable insights into the methodology of setting up and leading such meetings, as articulated by Mr. Nicholas Kleve. The primary objective outlined is to transform potentially confrontational interactions into constructive dialogues centered on the child’s needs. By initiating discussions with a focus on the student’s strengths, educators can effectively disarm initial tensions and foster a collaborative spirit among all participants.

Moreover, Mr. Kleve emphasizes the necessity of adhering to a structured approach during these meetings. The absence of a clear framework can result in unproductive conversations that meander without reaching resolution. He introduces a five-step process designed to streamline discussions: defining the concerns, soliciting various perspectives, identifying behavioral triggers, brainstorming support strategies, and establishing an actionable plan. Each step is meticulously crafted to ensure that all voices are heard and respected, thereby enhancing the overall effectiveness of the meeting. This structured approach not only facilitates clarity but also promotes a sense of shared responsibility among educators and parents in supporting the student’s growth.

In summary, the episode encapsulates a transformative vision for group behavior meetings—one that prioritizes partnership over problematization. By fostering an atmosphere of collaboration and mutual respect, educators can engage parents more productively, ultimately leading to improved outcomes for students. Mr. Kleve’s insights serve as a guiding framework for educators aiming to navigate the complexities of behavior discussions with professionalism and efficacy.

Takeaways:

• Establishing a positive tone at the outset of the meeting is essential for disarming tension.
• Utilizing a structured approach prevents meetings from devolving into blame or frustration.
• Emphasizing a partnership between parents and educators fosters a supportive atmosphere for the student.
• Clearly defining concerns with specific data and observations enhances clarity and focus during discussions.
• Brainstorming solutions collaboratively with parents encourages shared responsibility and commitment to improvement.
• Concluding the meeting on a positive note reinforces hope and strengthens the relationship between parents and educators.

Links referenced in this episode:

• beafunkyteacher.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Be a Funky Teacher

Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.

He's Mr. Funky Teacher.

Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness, makes you feel good.

Like your favorite playlist.

Keeping that fresh and funky.

Yes, he does.

He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.

He can empower others, students and teachers.

It's all about hard work and creativity.

He brings out the kindness in everyone.

He's got the passion to teach.

You hear it when he speaks.

He knows how to build strong relationships.

If you're seeking the best bunkiest, he is it.

He will empower you to improve.

You'll be helping others and loving it too.

He's Mr. Funky Teacher.

Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.

I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.

Welcome back, everyone.

Today's episode is titled how to Structure a Group Behavior Meeting with Parents and Staff.

That's what we're going to be focusing on in today's episode.

But before we get into it, I have three things that I'm thankful for.

The first thing I'm thankful for is my brother continuing to get better in the hospital.

He's been in the hospital for quite a few days now and every sign that I see is a sign of progress that gives me hope and strength as a family that, hey, he's going to continue to get better.

Hopefully get released from the hospital soon.

I am sure worried about him, sure thinking about him on a daily basis, but I can't be up with him in the hospital.

Just even sitting by him in the evening is very comforting to me.

So it's been kind of a tough go there.

But I'm thankful that he's continuing to get better.

Second thing for my problem solving skills, the ability to think clearly and create creatively when situations get messy.

I am thankful that I have that ability to go through and problem solve.

The third thing is supportive staff colleagues who step in, encourage me and walk along with me, working side by side when things can sometimes get tough.

As we know in the education world, sometimes things get tough.

You have your good days and then you have your challenging days at times.

And we have to recognize both and move through both the good times and the challenging times.

All right, y', all, let's get into it with looking at how to structure group behavior meetings with parents and staff.

Now, when focusing on if you had a behavior, if you have to have that behavior meeting, well, teachers can sometimes get really nervous about these.

I won't lie.

Sometimes I get nervous about these as well.

Hopefully at the end of this episode, I will have shared some guidance, some tips with all of you that might help you if you have to do something like this.

So if you're setting up a, let's say you got a behavior meeting coming up, you have a student who has maybe some challenging behaviors, and you know that, that you have to have a meeting set up.

Let's say either you set it up or you have a representative of the school set up the.

The meeting as you come into this meeting.

We set the tone early in the meeting.

These meetings can easily start with tension.

So it's our job to disarm that tension right away.

What I would recommend doing is start by naming the child's strengths.

Like, your son is such a leader when it comes to doing something in math, let's say.

And we want to build on that, right?

Like, like we want to say we want to acknowledge some strengths of the child.

That, that is critically important that we, we disarm attention by addressing some of those strains right away.

And then also as we're in the meeting, we, we need to say out loud that we're all on the same team here.

We need to acknowledge that it can't be us versus the parents or us versus the child and parent.

That's such a wrong, backwards type of thinking if that's what we're giving.

And if we come into a meeting where it's kind of like an us versus the parents and child mentality, it's going to backfire, it's going to not disarm the tension, and we're going to struggle, I believe, the rest of the meeting.

So you have parents who walk in nervous and sometimes are defensive.

We need to create a space where they feel like they're being respected as the adults in a room as well, and they're not feeling attacked just like we wouldn't want to walk into a room.

And, and, and we want to make sure as professionals that we're feeling respected to and not attacked.

We have to create that space for, for parents, it, it's.

It is absolutely a must that we create that type of environment.

Because I know I'm a, not only am I a teacher, I'm a parent too.

And if I was coming into a parent teacher meeting about my child's behavior, I might be in the defensive right away too.

And I know, and I know the teaching side of things.

It's just kind of, it's human nature.

I've had meetings where the tone completely shifted just because we Began by telling maybe a story of something where the students did something well that day or that week.

You can really shift the tone of a.

Meaning the temperature in a room.

We can lower the temperature of a room if things are feeling heated right away just by getting into something positive or sharing, you know, a positive strength right away.

We can, it can really impact things in a positive way right away way.

The next thing is to use a simple structure.

When you're, we're going through things without structure, these meanings spiral into storytelling or blaming or going in circles.

And so it's so important to, to have, have just a structure, even if it's a simple structure.

And so I, when I, when I go into a meeting, I think of, there's kind of like five, five kind of areas that I kind of lean into when I know I'm, I'm meeting with, with families.

Kind of like a, I guess like a five step flow of the meeting.

The, the first thing is I like to like define it in addition to like, as we're kind of getting settled, of course sharing that.

Well, you could almost say six things, but kind of just as things are getting going, like share, share a positive or share kind of like something just to bring down the tone.

I had mentioned that.

But as you get into it, five, five areas really define the concern clearly with the, with the family that's there.

Clearly use data, use some observations or note some specific incidences.

Like we've had, let's say seven office referrals for Defiance this month, for example.

You so use the, use data, use observations, use specific incidences and then, and then you can have people there like, like different, like, like let's say if there's a teacher or administrator or counselor or, or the parent, you, you know, different people can share their perspective.

That can add to the lens of the conversation.

What I would caution of as we're sharing, before you go through the perspectives, be very careful not to make it like, like a laundry list of where you're just going through it and you're airing out every little thing that the child has ever done wrong.

Because that's going to backfire too.

Because what parent wants to sit through and have a parent have a teacher air out every little thing that a child has done wrong.

You're going to burn that bridge with that adult that's in the room if you approach it in that way.

So as you're defining your concerns, don't define every concern.

You got to be very careful about that.

Not that you, you don't want to address some of the big, big areas, but you don't, you don't necessarily want to turn and do like a, like a shopping list or laundry list of, hey, every little detail.

And we're going to go for it because now, now the, the adults here, be very careful on that.

And then once again, you get, after you, you do share the, you define the concerns, you share the different perspectives as a team.

Then you can maybe get into looking at identifying triggers or patterns like when does that behavior happen?

Where does the behavior happen?

When does it happen the most?

Is it a certain time of day?

Is it a certain subject area?

Is it something related to something happening outside of school that you know nothing about?

And then just brainstorming as a team and making sure that that family member or the family members are included in this, where you're brainstorming supports and strategies for, hey, how do you help this child be successful?

And then after you brainstorm those ideas, you agree on some action plans here.

You write down who's doing what, when you'll check in and what success looks like.

You can see you can also talk about like, what's being done already.

And maybe some of those things can continue because they're starting to work.

Maybe they need just, it's important to share those and with family of what's working and rally behind those, those few items that are being done already.

You know, that's kind of part of it.

So once again, get into defining the concern.

You share your perspective, get into identifying triggers and patterns, brainstorm supports and strategies, and agree on an action plan with the family.

It's, it's interesting.

I had, in one meeting, we realized the, the behavior wasn't about refusal in general, it was about frustration with the writing task.

And you know, once we're nearing the trigger, the, the plan actually was unable to work.

So going through this process really does matter.

And then focus on partnership, not the problem.

You know, as educators, we don't want to send a message to the family that their child's a problem.

We want to focus on, hey, that there's a partnership here going on.

And parents need to know that you respect their voice and say, hey, we know you see things at home we don't see here.

You know, avoid, avoid saying things like us versus them, language or it's not the school against the parent type of, type of energy.

We don't want to give that at all.

It's, it's adults teaming up for the child.

That's, that's really, that's huge.

It's the adults teaming up for the child.

I could even argue that maybe in some respects it might even be appropriate to have the child there even to navigate this.

So you don't get that.

I've done parent behavior meetings where, where the child is actually there too.

And that can be extremely powerful too.

So being really careful about avoiding the us versus them language when talking to adults.

It's not the school against the parent or it's not the school against the child and parent.

We have to be really, really, really careful that we don't give that energy or that type of impression and, and you can do everything right and that impression can still be given.

So we, we just got to be really mindful of that.

We have to acknowledge the adult's expertise, the parents expertise, that you know your child better than anyone and that's why you're here and, and, and, and focus on, on the partnership and not, not the, the problems.

I encourage you to, to end the meeting strong with sharing positive statements about the child, confirming the next steps, setting up maybe dates for a follow up meeting if necessary.

Or hey, is it all right if we reach out to you?

Or maybe there's something in, in the plan that there is a regular reach out, you know, but kind of ending ending on a strong note.

I have seen parents leaving a parent meeting smiling and hopeful because we ended with, hey, your daughter is creative and resilient.

We're going to help her shine.

That's very different feeling than walking out discouraged and defeated as a parent.

So we as educators have a duty to approach it in a way where the people involved in the meeting feel good about how the meeting went.

That is so important for how we approach this.

Now.

Some big takeaways here.

A well run group behavior meeting can turn frustration into teamwork, y'.

All.

It's not about assigning blame.

These meetings cannot be about assigning blame.

It's about creating a plan where everyone feels responsible and yet also hopeful.

When parents and staff present a united front, the student feels that support and that's when growth happens.

That's when we see student growth happens.

That's when we see where we can, we can united hold a student accountable and see growth happen for whatever where it is that we want to see changed.

When you have structure tied with partnership in these parent meetings, that equals success, y'.

All.

It does.

And we as, as teacher leaders, as professional educators have that duty to do that.

So with that being said, to bring this episode to a close, I want you to remember to inspire greatness in young people.

And don't forget to be a funky teacher.

Bye, now.

He's Mr. Funky teacher, yeah he's Mr. Funky teacher,.

Yeah.