Positive behaviour support refers to a supportive team based approach to identifying environmental issues that can be adapted in such a way as to reduce or eliminate disruptive or challenging behaviour which can then be replaced with a new set of behaviour skills.

Behaviours that are used repeatedly serve a useful function for the person, such as avoiding something unpleasant or gaining attention but they can also be negatively supported by how staff or other people react to these behaviours.

Student M has a range of diagnosis and a repertoire of behaviours that he engages in during his time at college. Staff have tried the usual behaviour strategies, such as group behaviour rules, individual rules, trying to remind the student of his behaviour and its effect and speaking to his parents about his disruptive behaviour. None of these have had any real effect on the level of disruption or the amount of attention he gathers for his behaviour.

It was clear from meeting the parents that he behaves quite differently between home and college, which in itself is not unusual and you will find a similar pattern with many students. Student M is on the Autistic spectrum, he has had various medical issues that have been resolved to varying degrees using medication, he exhibits OCD behaviour traits, has learning difficulties.

The process of functional assessment began with a meeting with both of his parents to discuss his behaviour and see what strategies they use at home and when he is not at college. The parents have found a way of reducing disruptive behaviour in a variety of ways that include keeping him busy throughout the week, especially when he is not at college, providing him with a space that he can have control over and altering the environment to suit his needs, but also maintaining a routine that he is able to function within.

The next step was for staff who teach and support the student M to meet and discuss his behaviour in more detail.

I have been eating a bigger breakfast later in the morning after my training and this has meant me not being hungry during the day. I enjoy a bigger dinner at night-time and feel that is enough for me. This week I need to try to eat more fruit and nuts so that will be my target. Secondly, I need to try to get more weights time in the gym, I want to trim and tone my body at the same time as getting ready for the 10K run.

I have managed to run round the whole park in 25mins and had the confidence to swap round my days if I needed to, so on Thursday I had a rest day and on Friday I did Thursdays training. This also fits into my work pattern.

Today I am doing some weights in the gym along with a jog to the hairdressers, then get my hair cut and jog home. I needed to do 45mins, so however long it takes me to get to the hairdressers from the gym, I just add-on the time to my jog when I am coming home again. I need to fit the exercise into my routine for it to be successful. Some people make the mistake of going totally out of step with their usual routine and this makes it harder to keep the training going.

I have some work to do on setting up my business at the moment, so I will try this week to do some of my training on the way home from work, which is possible looking at Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday’s programme.

So, very pleased with my progress so far, lets keep it up!

I had a clear purpose of just doing the one lap and to check my time. It was very wet and raining heavily when I finished, but I was undeterred. I felt well tired first thing when I got out of bed, but once I drank some water and sorted myself out I was ready to run.

This morning I was up at 5.30am and ready to go to the gym by 6.00am. I took the car as it was raining quite heavy again and just as well as the gym did not open until 6.30am! Once I got in I did not have too much time so went straight into my exercises after a 5min cycle and then left once I had done my weights, without cooling down. The weights I used were light as I do not want to tire myself out as I plan to do something each day.

I slipped straight into the exercises without too much fuss, remembering what I had done before and not using my exercise log sheet. I am feeling confident in the gym and feel that I will be able to mix up my programme a little once I have a few days under my belt. Anita Beans six-week programme works for me and I am using it to balance against the training for the run.

I was looking at myself int he mirror last night and can definitely see I have put on some weight. I never weigh myself, especially when training as it is a de-motivator as weight can fluctuate and muscles are heavy so you can look slimmer but weight more. I don’t want to build muscles but to trim a bit so I am using lighter weights and will increase reps instead of going for the heavier weights.

So far so good and hopefully I can keep this up.

But, one thing that I have been thinking a lot about is my own fitness. With a heavy schedule to set up my consultancy business it just seemed like the perfect time to start a training programme for a 10k run in June.

I enjoy the 10k distance, just right for me and the training is challenging without being exhausting. I have not felt up to much exercise for some time, and have developed my old habits of surfing the net with a bowl of cereal in the morning with tea and biscuits!

So, I decided to run a 10k race for the British Heart Foundation in June. I have done this route before, which is a winding and at times narrow route around shops and offices, but it has its challenges. I am hoping for a sub 50min run, but it really depends not just on my fitness, but also my ability to negotiate a route through the crowd.

Day one is Monday 22nd February, which allows for a 12 week training programme, repeating three weeks as I have 15 weeks before the event itself, so I have three weeks to play with if I get ill for example.

Day One on my programme is rest as it is a training programme for running. Therefore, I am re-introducing myself back into the gym for some light weights, jogging there and back again.

The theme for the first week is to set a new routine – earlier to bed, eat early and drink plenty of water. I need to be able to get up in the morning, hydrate and toilet and then jog to the gym for a 6.15am start.

I set a target of £100 to raise for my effort, but with a £50 donation already pledged, I will raise that to £150. Also, I am hoping to get a crowd of friends and family to cheer me on.

This is just what I have needed, a focus and a plan. Now I need to execute it to the letter!

The first group went well, although I had to run one session twice as I felt they were finding it hard to grasp the ideas I was showing them. Basically the training is made up of delivery of three key units, the first is where I show them RARPA and SMART target setting and they complete an exercise is setting targets for a user they know well around an activity. The next unit is where they plan a small, five stage project with users and the final unit is where they complete their plan and have a clear idea of what resources they need and what they need to do to get the project started.

In the first group I did a brain storming exercise, which is good practice when thinking about ideas but I decided this took too long and actually side tracked the team a bit, causing them to loose focus and therefore I had to repect the second unit. This group now I did not use the brainstorm and they are doing very well and are ready to complete the final unit.

In the training sessions I show the team how to use RARPA by giving them a sheet with one green, one orange and one red post it note on. The green is ‘Yes, I am confident I know’, the orange is ‘I am not so sure I know’ and the red is ‘I do not yet know this’ so when I ask them, who knows what we mean by RARPA, they all hold up the red post it. I take a photograph of the group. Then at the end of the session I ask them the same question, they all answer and hold up the green post it and I take another photograph. I have done an assessment and shown progress in session one.

I used a great ice breaker too to help them think about how they share information with their users. Often even as teachers we forget that students need to have information shared with them in a way they understand, and it is even more important for staff in this centre to realise that as they are not teachers. The ice breaker is me reading a script on how to fold paper to create a boat shape. I hand out a sheet of paper to each staff member, ask them to turn and face out from the room and then I talk through their questions, continuing my script and at the end I ask how has completed the task. Only one did as they realise early on what we were doing. The others found it confusing and hard to complete. I showed hem my example and they all looked at their own efforts, which were nothing like the same. I then showed them a sheet with images on and asked if they would have done better with this, and they all agreed. My point is that they need to make sure they users understand what they are saying or asking them otherwise they will lose them and the user will become demotivated.

I have learned a lot from doing these sessions and have just arranged for another organisation to have the same training. I am putting together a pack of training with hard copies of everything I have done with this organisation. I am receiving some coaching on setting up my own business and this is helping me reflect on what I have done so far an dhow to build my portfolio for other training when I am planning sessions with other groups and organisations.

Recently I went to see The Road by John Hillcoat and afterwards went to find somewhere to have a coffee. I parked the car and wondered around a row of shops with my camera in hand and found some interesting scenes and opportunities. Street lighting can be interesting but when you move the camera as you shot you can get some very nice blurred images. With the digital camera you see your image straight away and decide how to take the next picture.

There was a launderette open too and one of the washing machine doors was open and after taking a few general shots of the space I noticed that the door was creating a blurred, concave view of the room. I got closer and took a few snaps that look good and add a different dimension to the room itself.

On my way home from work the other day I was walking past an old factory space, the doors are always locked but this time they were open. Sneaking inside I could see that someone was taking photographs but I was more interested in the light coming through the broken glass of the windows.

I took out my camera and started to shoot away. Then, I saw that there was water puddled on the floor and this was reflecting the scene around. I zoomed in further and began to take several shots here, first focusing on the scene reflected in the water and then on the surface of the water. The final images are quite interesting and almost abstract.

So, the lesson here is to always have your camera with you and if you keep your eye out, you may be surprised at what opportunities come you way for some good photography. Also, look for a more interesting angel to take you photographs from. We often remain standing with our camera at eye level, get onto your knees and see how different the shot can be.

YOu can view my updated flickr site here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wavidism/

I felt a little unprepared for the session as I had had a very busy few days at work with some deadlines and pressures around a couple of issues that have come up around both a student and some service provision that required a lot of my time. Nevertheless, I have a lot of resources already prepared for my session on managing behaviour so I was able to put in a couple of hours into planning an engaging and challenging session.

The group, 11 trainee teachers, were very receptive and a pleasure to work with making the session both enjoyable but engaging for myself and the PGCE tutor who came along to observe and join in.

On the whole, I do not like calling my session managing behaviour as I feel it kinds of offers a very narrow expectation of what I try to acheive during the time I have with my students, but I guess it helps them to focus on a specific aspect of their work as teachers so I have never thought about any other title.

In my sessions, I aim to provide students with a forum within which they can use their own experience to consider how they can motivate and inspire their own students. I also place the responsibility firmly within themselves for anything that happens in their class that is disruptive to the learning process.

Let me explain this further. Bad day notwithstanding, and extreme issues or situations to one side, the teacher has control over the learning environment and therefore if anything happens to disrupt learning or the lesson, then the teacher has to accept some of the responsibility. But, rather than place it within those terms, I allow them to see what they can do to avoid having issues of disruptive behaviour in their classrooms.

An example is where we discussed the value of Ground Rules, not just as a tool to establish boundaries at the start of the year, but a tool that is ‘live’ and used regularly, such as when doing discussion work you may say ‘Today we are going to discuss ….. (whatever topic) ….. but before we begin, can someone remind us of the rules we have agreed to help our discussion run smoothly?’ There should be a rule for everything you plan to do in class – group work, activities, discussion etc and they should be negotiated and agreed by the class. Some people find the term ‘Ground Rules’ off putting, so what about ‘Expectations’? There are many ways this can be termed but the important aspect of it is that you, as a teacher, can set clear boundaries for behaviour, plus attached to that are clear consequencies for when a student is disruptive. Get the class to agree these too and you may be surprised how severe their consequencies may be – you will probably need to tone them down a bit.

The other crucial tool is getting to know your students – greeting them by name when they arrive, remembering something about them, such as their birthday or some significant event they had recently that you can ask them about or comment on. A simple example is football – some of my students in college support a team and usually on Mondays or Tuesday we discuss the weekends results. Make sure you have something to talk to everyone about – if there is a student in your class whom you do not do this to, they will feel left out and isolated damaging their self esteem.

Being prepared for class and having all the resources you need are obvious areas that need careful attention for a teacher. But, how many teachers get full and frank feedback from their class about how the session or course is going? Doing a learning styles assessment will help, but so will asking them ‘So, how did the session go?’ I ask my students similar questions each week and use the feedback I get to plan and/ or adapt the sessions I run. For one tutorial group I asked the students to do the scheme of work for each half term. It may seem a scary thing to ask your group how they felt your session with them went, but if you set this out as an expectation at the very beginning of your class then it will be a positive experience.

In terms of reacting, if you like, to behaviour tha thappens in class, you will know what behaviours occur regularly and therefore you should be able to have your response ready. Behaviour such as late arrivals, call outs, mobile phones going off, chatting, interupting – these should all be covered by your ground rules and your response is linked to the consequences of those rule breaks. If you find yourself reacting to these, then you are not preparing yourself for class.

I was thinking of perhaps posting on the top ten behaviour management techniques as a series rather than trying to cover everything at once. Count this as just thinking aloud for now.

I have spent most of my time trying to get back into the routine of exercise again as it can be so easy to fall into the trap of just rolling out of bed and having breakfast whilst sitting at the computer and surfing the Internet. I found that I was feeling lethargic and by the time I got to work I was already tired.

Now, I go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings for weight training using the weeks 1 and 2 exercise programme from Anita’s Better Body book. On Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sundays I have been using my dumb bells at home to complete some basic exercises. This has been great so far and I feel I can think about increasing either my reps per set or the weight for some exercises. I wanted to feel comfortable again in the gym before moving onto the programme for weeks 3 and 4.

Going to the gym serves many benefits, not just improving health and fitness levels, toning muscle and body but also I have found that it gives me plenty of thinking time. I have felt that my time is better used going to the gym especially in the morning as before I thought I could do something useful on the computer before going to work but just felt tired from looking at the computer screen.

Also, I can have some time for thinking over things – planning or sorting stuff out in my head about work or other issues – time that is spent doing these things makes me feel more prepared for my day. I have increased my overall fitness levels and have increased energy for the day. My day job is very tiring both physically and emotionally, so time improving my fitness and helping me to think over stuff has helped a great deal. I arrive at work more prepared and ready for the day.

Now I feel I need to look at the things I eat – on the whole, as a Vegan I eat very well and I believe it is very hard to eat badly – you have to work hard at it as most things we tend to eat contain many of the things we need to keep us healthy. But, for me as for anyone else, it is those ‘other’ things you eat that have either good or bad effects on ones health. I drink a lot of coffee and tea during the day, maybe three cups of coffee and three cups of tea – more at the weekends. Added to that I eat plenty of biscuits, maybe three each time I have a tea or coffee.

So, time to set tough targets here: only eat biscuits on the weekend – but not as to catch up on the biscuits I did not eat during the week. Drink either herbal tea or water during the day instead of tea or coffee – maybe save this for a treat at the end of the day. I think that will be a tough one to achieve and will require me to alter my thinking on the tea/ coffee break time I have during the day. But, you don’t know until you try I guess!

This week I will also be introducing more cardio workout, maybe the treadmill or cross training on the days I am not doing the weights to start with. I only have limited time in the gym as it opens at 6.30am and I like to be in work by 8.00am or 8.15am.

Watch this space for my progress!

I had designed a rather tight session I must admit, fitting in a lot of activity but felt confident we could cover all the objectives I had set out. Unfortunately I had a rather busy morning and my planning became a little rushed and I think I had failed to figure into my session that fact that the staff are not teachers and perhaps some of the concepts I was trying to work with would be a little harder to grasp.

They are a great class to work with and I really enjoy being there with them. We have fun and it is relaxed, although this week the learning curve was steep for sure! In the end we were able to use the template I provided for the brainstorm – a simple topic web, and to start thinking about how to divide up the tasks for their project into different sessions that could last either a week or for a longer time.

To begin I recapped with the group on RARPA and SMART targets – where I used the traffic light cards to see who remembered what we had covered before. Those holding up the green cards could then explain to the rest of the group what they were confident in knowing. I used this again in the session when asking for feedback on what we had done and it is a good way of getting initial feedback which then allows for further, targetted questioning of those holding up either amber or red cards.

The room we have is low tech and means you have to plan what I call a ‘proper’ lesson. Sometimes it is easy to use technology and forget that learning needs to take place. An example of this, if you like, is from a conversation I had with a colleague on target setting. They teach an IT class, and with the other teacher in the class they had set group IT targets, such as designing a PowerPoint presentation. My view was that where was the individualised SMART target? I reflected that perhaps they could view the IT room as just another classroom which happens to have computers in it which they can use as and when needed. Then, when they have that in their minds begin to think of what do they want the students to learn.

With the lack of IT for these training sessions, I have devised a series of individual and group activities and I enjoy using humour and my more energetic style of delivery to help focus staff and motivate them throughout the time. Unfortunately, this week we started a little later and I had to rethink my lesson plan, which was a good experience for them as I share my session plan with the group so they can compare it to how the session actually went.

The brainstorming activity was more difficult to get flowing, and I had to work one to one with everyone to ensure they had the idea and could produce a topic web for their project. They worked with the activities they usually plan within the organisation, but two elements of the task they found hard to get first off. Many wanted to give the topic web a title, such as computing, Islamic group, art and craft but I said that the title of the topic web should reflect more on what they were planning for the users to learn – developing confidence in communication through stroy telling, counting change when buying things from the shop, developing creative skills by designing an Eid card. These titles will help them to think of all aspects of planning from resources, space, support issues, possibly thinking about individual needs/ targets and tasks.

This took a lot longer than I had originally planned and I then decided to just get the group to begin planning their session or projects. The original sheet I had which is similar to what we use in college seemed not to be suitable for the type of planning they wanted to do, so I had another one for them ready to use which was based on a weekly plan – something you might see or use in a youth club.

We got as far as seperating the sessions out for the week and through discussion I had them realise what they needed to do between now and when I come back again in a couple of weeks. The experience is proving to be very useful as I will be running similar sessions with another organisation in the borough, so I can draw from this when planning how to deliver the same training to a different group.

Finally, I ended the session with one of the many motivational stories I have collected from Chicken Soup For The Soul. I found them originally in a book I bought many years ago for one of my LDD groups called Building On Social Skills, which is a series of eight sessions looking at communication, team working, confidence building and dealing with conflict.

My lesson from this week is to find more time for planning and to be more organised with my time so that things I need to do are given plenty of space for thought and action, particularly if something somes up unexpectedly. Then, I could be more able to plan a session that fully meets the needs of the staff in this group.

The park where I live was built over 150 years ago and many of the views were ‘designed’ to have a visual impact. I wanted to pick up on a theme, not just Autumn – although in itself that is a worthy theme with the change in light and colour, but I was thinking about the way the trees are lined so as they provide beautiful vistas around the perimeter of the park itself.

Not only that, from running round the park, I knew there were some wonderful views through the trees, one in particular is a tree lined channel that is well trod from those who jog everyday, and is a stunning view in any season throughout the year.

The light was not good, a cloudy sky denying me the sharper sunlight that would cast shadows between the trees and perhaps create a strange reflected light from the yellow/ orange/ ochre of the fallen leaves carpeted around the tree trunks. But I felt confident my camera would respond well.

I used the landscape setting and just wondered around the path of the park for about an hour the other Sunday. Enough time to get some good shots along the way. Changing the camera between landscape and portrait gave me different views of the same scene, which was interesting. The landscape view providing a wider context to the composition and the portrait setting offering a tighter, compacted composition.

I still find it hard to take photos of people, although I do try – recently taking pictures of my students at a bowling competition. I was not so focused and some of the images are not worth keeping unfortunately. Something I need to work on I guess.

Have a look at my latest uploads here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wavidism/

I feel that my gallery of images is beginning to diversify and I am ready to think about letting a wider audience view my work, maybe sending out the link to friends and colleagues for feedback.