How does Leaps help teachers & parents connect with kids?
How does Leaps help teachers & parents connect with kids?
We will provide a transciption of this audio shortly. Stay tuned.
High School Uses Leaps in Attendance & Discipline Office
High School Teacher, Melissa Rooney, talks about how her school uses Leaps in the Attendance & Discipline office. She says it helps students learn lessons that are going to be important throughout their lives. They also use Leaps in their In School Suspension program. Ms. Rooney emphasizes the importance of students not just learning that their behavior needs to change but also learning the core reasons behind their own behavior, with the benefit of gaining introspection and a deeper understanding of their own hearts and minds.
This school uses Leaps for
- Response to Intervention (RTI)
- In-School Suspension
- Classroom Behavior Support
- ReportingÂ
- Student Engagement
“We use Leaps in our high school to help students make changes in specific behaviors student have, it helps mold them and helps them make changes more personally, so it’s more lasting and has a greater impact. Leaps has been a great program for our school. It’s really helped kids to turn that corner and make changes that have had a lasting effect.”
District-Wide Implementation
Launching Leaps District Wide, By Topic
Many of our schools report that the best way to get their Leaps program going district-wide is to set a value or topic for each month of the school year. This doesn’t mean that you can only access 9 or 10 topics overall – there are hundreds to choose from! But it does help get everyone on the same page, “all boats rowing in the same direction” and it helps reinforce the message across all classrooms.
In the Classroom
Let teachers pick the appropriate lesson plan for their students that touches on the Topic or Value of the month. They have options for grade level / maturity level and there are different ways to approach the same subject. They really only need to do one official lesson plan to get the ball rolling. From there, every day teaching and classroom activities can spark short reminders in conversations about other things. For example, if the topic of the month is about Respect for Others, then a teacher can refer back to their lesson on Respect for Others, or Respect for Personal Space when a related subject comes up another time in class.Â
At the School
You can put up posters and signs – or assign students to design art work or bulletin board collages – to keep that important topic top of mind through the halls. Morning announcements and newsletters can reference the topic saying “It’s Respect for Others Week” so that the message gets home too. (More on this below) Teachers can wear t-shirts about respect or play songs about respect.Â
At the District Level
Administrators can see that teachers across the campus are district are using the lesson plans and if warranted, adding notes or reporting data as needed. You can also monitor any changes in related behavior – likely improved – at the end of the month vs the beginning. it’s oftenÂ
At Home
We provide parent activity guides to help families with younger children keep the lessons going at home. We also encourage schools to include their value of the week or month in newsletters and flyers going home. And for families with kids in different schools across the district, it is especially impactful for them to see that the high school and the elementary school are united, focusing on the same topics. This makes it easy for parents to spark dinnertime discussions or to reinforce key values no matter what age their kids are.
Here are some suggested topics for a monthly plan to go district wide with Leaps. Mix and Match as you like and don’t forget, there are over 100 different lesson plans covering more than 40 topics, so you are not limited to those listed below. Each topic includes 10-15 different takes in Lesson Plans that are age appropriate for all levels of maturity.
September – Making Friends: Great for starting out the new school year
October – School Rules: Not just following the rules but appreciating your school
November – Managing Stress: Helpful before finals & holidays (stressful for some)
December – Respect for Yourself & Others: Resonates very well, address bullying too
January – Communication & Presentation: Come back from break and start back strong
February – Managing Emotions: Dealing with resentment, goes well with Valentine’s Day
March – Having A Social Life: How to manage with other responsibilities too
April – Managing Time & Attention: As summer approaches it’s good to keep focus
May – Decision Making & Consequences: Always a good lesson to learn
For those schools looking to implement the annual calendar, we have a collection of images, short text blurbs, poster designs and flyers for sharing with students, sending home to parents and for posting on social media. We’re trying to make it as easy as possible to manage what is essentially a campaign for your school. Here are a few samples and if you would like access to the library, just ask. It is free to Leaps users!
Content from Julia needed here.
4th Grade Teacher Sees Behavior & Academics Improve
Lisa Young is a 4th grade teacher who has seen improvement in her students, both behaviorally and academically after using Leaps lessons and assessment tools. Her school uses Leaps for Response to Intervention (RTI) in Tier 2 groups as well as in the classroomÂ
This school uses Leaps for
- Classroom Assessments
- Response to Intervention (RTI)
- Classroom Behavior Support
- Tier 2 Behavior SupportÂ
- Reporting
- Leaps Lesson Plans
“Last year, I did the Leaps assessments for my classroom at the beginning of the year and several of my students were identified for intervention, so our behavior specialist worked with those students in small groups using Leaps lessons and by the end of the year, my students had made huge improvements in their behavior which helped overall with their academics and I was just very, very happy with the Leaps program.”
Success Story: Addressing Bullying & Helping Special Needs Kids
Tammy Geiger, a specialist who works with special needs children at Lake County Schools, shares her story about using Leaps lessons to change the bullying behavior of a student who was targeting a deaf person. The bully is known to be a member of a gang. After intervention with Leaps lessons, the student went home and started to teach himself sign language, unprompted, in order to apologize and to build a friendship with the deaf student. Sometimes the outcome is even better than expected.Â
This school uses Leaps for
- Response to Intervention (RTI)
- Lessons on Bullying
- Classroom Behavior Support
- Data CollectionÂ
- Reporting