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Furr High School
Dr. Bertie Simmons, principal of Furr High School in Houston,
spends more than half of her time during the school day listening to students
who have been referred for discipline, and talking with them about character
education. At Furr, Dr. Simmons has shifted the typical negative approach to
dealing with student misbehavior into a positive approach.
"Kids know when you don't care — you can't fake it with them. But you care
more when you know more. I embrace the philosophy that it's impossible to know
too much about a person. It's what you do with what you know that matters. And
that's where MindOH! comes in."
Dr. Simmons thinks MindOH! is unique because it gets into the
heads and hearts of students. "I've been around education for more than 40
years and I've longed for something like MindOH! that would help me to know
what it is that's causing misbehaviors. This is the first time I've bumped up
against something that gives me that information."
Channeling Student Leadership Qualities in a Positive Direction
In addition to being the principal of the school, Dr. Simmons
also teaches a music history class of 69 students. One particular student was
constantly interrupting and not listening. "I had decided I would probably kill
him and tell God he died of natural causes," she joked.
One day, Dr. Simmons had simply had enough of this student,
took him out of class to the student referral center, and informed him she was
sending him to an alternative school. According to Sheri Brown, the student
referral center teacher, the student never wanted to see Dr. Simmons again
because he was so angry. She sent him to the computer to go through MindOH!'s What's
Up? module, and observed his change throughout the process. In the
beginning, he took his frustrations out on the keyboard, but as he continued
through the module, he got less and less upset. By the end of the module, he
begged Ms. Brown to allow him to go talk to Dr. Simmons -- he felt an urgency
to apologize and communicate what had really happened.
Ms. Brown sent Dr. Simmons the student's What's Up?: Student
Incident Report about 30 minutes later. From reading the student's
answers, Dr. Simmons saw that he felt like she wasn't listening to him, and he
was acting out to get her attention because he needed to talk to her.
"After school I called him in and talked to him ... he
completely turned my heart around. When I listened to what he had to say and
realized all of the problems he was dealing with, I withdrew my request to send
him to the alternative school, admitted to him that I had made a mistake and I
had learned from this, and told him that I was going to help him in every way I
could. That was about a month ago. We have not had one problem with him since.
That is a huge success story if you knew the student I'm talking about, and
it's a huge success story because it changed me -- it helped me become not only
a better teacher and a better principal, but a better human being."
Dr. Simmons recently addressed her music class about the
significant drug problem Furr was facing. The class suggested putting together
a school play, convincing her that if they could touch just one student it
would make a difference. Dr. Simmons agreed, and the class took time out of
music to put on the play — they wrote, produced, directed and starred in
the school play about drug education.
"This kid that I had been planning to send to an alternative
school had one of the leading parts. He went out and interviewed people, he
wrote his own script, and he performed it - he was a real star in the show.
He's completely different. He has a sense of self worth that he didn't have
before. After I spent time listening to him and he was telling me the problems
he had, I realized that he felt really badly about himself. After we chatted
for awhile, he seemed to like himself better and think he's an okay person
after all."
"MindOH! made a profound impression on me when I read the student's answers [on
the Student Incident Report] and realized that he had been honest in
his responses. That's something that I value."
How is MindOH! being used at Furr?
Furr High School uses MindOH! to supplement everything they are
trying to do: to create a culture of understanding, caring and personalized
instruction for students. All of the assistant principals have MindOH! on
computers in their offices, and Dr. Simmons plans to engage the entire staff
with MindOH! next year. She has found that MindOH! empowers students to relax
and open up, which gives administrators a lot of information about the student
and a better idea on how to address problems. MindOH! has enhanced the
relationships between the assistant principals, student referral center
teacher, and students.
"They are beginning to understand each other better. I can see
it in the way they relate to each other. None of us are void of a need for
character education. You can know math, you can know science, and you can know
all of those other subjects, but if you don't know how to be a decent human
being, then it's not going to be of much value to you. And that's where MindOH!
comes in: to support students in becoming successful."
Improving Efficiency for Furr’s In-School Suspension Coordinator
As the student referral teacher at Furr High School, Sheri
Brown spends 100 percent of her day dealing with misbehaviors of students who
have been taken out of their classroom setting and sent to the in-school
suspension program.
The MindOH! program has made a lot of changes in Furr’s
discipline program. Previously, when students were sent to Ms. Brown for
discipline referrals, she would initially have a lot of problems getting the
students to settle down and do work.
MindOH! has helped her because she sends the student to the
computer while she processes their paperwork. Where before she would have to
pull answers out of the student about what happened, they now have answers when
Ms. Brown is ready to talk to them.
“MindOH! has actually been a big time saver. Before MindOH!, a
lot of time was wasted — a lot of negative time because the student would have
to wait and I would have to wait. When the student comes in, their behavior is
often rambunctious: they’re mad, they’re upset, they’re just very difficult to
deal with. While the student was waiting, they were bubbling and it was just
getting hotter and hotter because they had nothing to do but sit there and
wait. Now, with MindOH!, they have a way to release some of that. And it saves
time when we get to talking. With MindOH! asking some thought-provoking
questions, the student is already thinking on a higher level when we get a
chance to talk. I don’t have to shoot the breeze … they’re already ready to
talk about the incident.”
“Sometimes we try to deal with every student the same way. I’ve
learned with MindOH! that not every student thinks the same way, every student
has a whole different mindset about why they did what they did, and what they
think their consequences should be. It helps that MindOH! asks them what they
think their consequences should be, and then we can deal with the student
accordingly.”
One thing Ms. Brown thinks is unique about MindOH! is that none
of the student data is saved, only aggregate information in the School
Administrative Database, and while she still hasn’t decided if she likes that
from an administrator’s perspective, she’s noticed that the students definitely
like that. “The fact that the students feel comfortable, and think ‘I can type
this in and tell it to the computer, and after I tell it to the computer I get
a printout that for the most part is mine, and nobody has to know. No one’s
going to look in the database and figure out what my thoughts were.’ There’s a
sense of security.”
Ms. Brown has noticed changes in students’ behavior after using
MindOH! — she’s found that they are a lot calmer and they think before they
act. On several occasions, even if a student remains a discipline problem,
they’re coming to in-school suspension for different infractions.
“MindOH! has enhanced my relationships with students because it
brings their thought levels up. It helps them to see the other side of the
story. It bridges the gap between teenagers and teachers.”
MindOH! Helps Freshman Student Stop the Cycle of Failure
Lesley Hernandez, a ninth grade student at Furr High School in
Houston, found herself in trouble quite often for consistently being tardy to
class, being rebellious, talking back to teachers and administrators, and
demanding things always happen her way. Teachers had talked to Lesley about her
behaviors, but she made up numerous excuses and always ended up in the student
referral center (an in-school suspension room), which was a place she didn’t
particularly like.
“I was secluded from my fellow classmates. I felt very lonely,
very mad. I felt like nobody was going to listen – they just put me into a
classroom without talking to me. I was to be there, do my work, and that’s it.”
One day, Sheri Brown, the student referral center teacher, sent
Lesley to the MindOH! What’s Up?: Student Incident Report module.
Lesley felt like it was a unique experience, and very different from the
confrontational meetings she had had with authority figures in the past. “I was
comfortable — I felt like it was just one-on-one, no one to listen, no one
to know anything. It was good. There’s no one there to control you, make you
nervous or angry. Put it this way — no one to make eye contact with!”
Lesley’s attitude shifted as she went through the What’s Up?
module. “After going through the program, I became more open minded. I felt
willing to be honest about things, truthful. I was willing to face consequences
– anything, you know. Because that’s how comfortable the computer made me feel
by what it was asking me. When it was asking me things, it helped me get to a
point where I could ask myself what was really wrong. I could finally say ‘it’s
my fault, and now I have to do something to get back on track.’”
Lesley said the computer helped her question her motives for
being tardy and talking back to authority figures. MindOH! helped her identify
the emotions she felt when she got in trouble.
“It taught me to face myself and face others, and be willing to
admit to the things I had done. It made me think ‘go for it, you’re there,
you’ve already done it, you might as well pay the consequences.’”
The Five Levels of Communication model in the What’s Up?
module helped Lesley identify how to gauge the difference between her thoughts,
opinions and feelings. She feels like MindOH! helped improve her self-esteem
and self-confidence.
“The biggest change I’ve seen in myself since the MindOH!
program, which really does have an effect, is that now I have so much pride in
me. Now I feel like ‘You know what? I’m going to prove [the teachers and
administrators] wrong. They think I’m going to come back, they think I’m going
to talk back again, they think I’m going to be tardy – I’m going to prove them
wrong. I’m going to go to school, and do my work and prove them wrong.
[MindOH!] has given me pride."
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