Circle of Courage

Joey is often verbally and physically aggressive with his peers and teachers. Sarah is constantly off-task and rarely does her homework. Billy doesn’t care if he hurts other’s feelings. These are just a few of the challenging behaviors that educators confront in their schools and classrooms. Selecting effective strategies to prevent or intervene in these and similar behaviors in a fashion that leads to self-discipline, responsibility, community and a positive learning environment depends on understanding the communicative functions of behavior. Participants in this workshop will be actively engaged in affirming and strengthening this understanding. By the end of our time together those in attendance will be able to:

1.Describe and explain the basic needs that motivate behavior as expressed    
  by the “Circle of Courage”; and
2.Apply what they have learned to developing strategies for proactively 
  preventing and/or intervening in challenging behavior or strengthening   
  school climate.

Registrants will be expected to complete two brief exercises and a short reading assignment prior to attending the workshop. This material will be mailed to each participant approximately two weeks before the workshop.

For details about the Summary of the Day click here

About the “Circle of Courage”

The “Circle of Courage” is a well known, widely used framework for understanding the basic needs (belonging, mastery, independence and generosity) that motivate behavior. It derives from native-American child rearing practices and has proven to be effective in developing practical classroom and school wide strategies for positively impacting the behavior of students and adults and strengthening school climate.

Who Should Attend

This workshop is best suited to elementary, middle and/or secondary school personnel or school/district teams. Individual participants or team membership might include administrators, teachers, school counselors, special educators, Educational Support Team members, school health professionals and paraprofessionals.

Trainer Ron Rubin has been involved in education for over 30 years. He’s taught inner city and rural children and youth, prison inmates, and numerous members of our school communities. Along the way he’s been a principal, a consultant, and a faculty member at the University of Vermont. During the past several years Ron has contributed to the development of model discipline system guidelines (including strategies for preventing and responding to bullying behaviors) and policy recommendations for the use of timeout rooms and physical restraint. He has also played a leadership role in the development of Educational Support System Guidelines, formulating recommendations and guidelines resulting from the Commissioner’s Task Force on School Violence, and contributed to developing a process for assessing and strengthening school-based discipline systems. Most recently Ron has seen some of his work published in Reclaiming Children and Youth. Ron provides training and technical assistance in a variety of areas pertaining to discipline and school climate. He is hopeful, likes to laugh, and writes poetry.