My office - the rec center

At some point this summer I came upon the tweets and posts from Oskar Cymerman (@focus2achieve). He was pushing the idea to #starbucksmyroom: where he was looking to change the way in which his room looked and felt to create a space more welcoming and inspiring for students. I found his idea extremely intriguing and continued to follow his story. I watched as the hashtag took a hold on what became a small movement of folks looking to really change up the way in which their classrooms looked and felt to better support students.

I was inspired and decided it was high time I did something about my office. I took advantage of our move to the city and brought in a couch and a fish tank. Here's the result.

This desire to change my office's look and feel was much more than a wish to improve the ambiance. It came from a deeply seeded place, knowing I needed to change my overall practices. As I prepared to start my third year in administration I took a look back at the previous year. During that reflection one major piece stood out to me.

The number of scholars and the frequency with which I suspended scholars was atrocious.

My frame of mind was to "teach the kids a lesson" and "show them how the real world works". I wanted to make sure that they knew there was a line in the sand and there was a consequence for crossing it. There was a belief that if I suspended scholars, not only will their "behavior" begin to change, but so will other scholars who struggled with similar "behaviors". 

Boy was I wrong!

As I worked to change the design of my room, I began to think of the scholars who would be coming in for one reason or another. What type of person did I want to be? What were the relationships I wanted to build? What outcomes did I want to achieve with my scholars? 

It was during the rearranging of my office (along with a lot of reading and soul searching) that I decided I had to find a better response to scholar behavior. 

Suspension could no longer be my go-to response. 

At the beginning of the school year I sat down with my behavior interventionist and shared with him my "newfound" line of thinking. Thankfully he was on board and we got to work. 

And as the beginning of the year started my office began to warmly welcome scholars, and my responses to their "behaviors" started to take affect. I was spending more time mediating, calling home, bringing parents in, and sitting in class with scholars. I spent less time calling parents to inform them of suspensions and much less time printing, signing, and mailing suspension notices. 

I ramped up my incentive initiatives with my scholars. More of my time was spent reviewing their grades and checking in with their teachers. Parent phone calls moved to parent texts that allowed me to connect more often and more positively. There was more time spent playing basketball in the gym and less time engaging in power struggles in my office. 

But I felt I needed to do more and that I needed to hold myself accountable. So, I created something called my administrator building management plan. Specifically created with the most common behaviors that scholars "struggle" with and how I wanted to respond. Each time I went to type in "suspension" I told myself there had to be another option. In the end I created a document where only three areas called for the suspension of a scholar: drugs, weapons, and serious physical harm. 

Scholars, without knowing it, began to buy into my system. They started to expect phone calls home, knew that a mediation with a peer was coming, and even realized that their mama was more than happy to come up and help them along in their academics. 

And so finally it was time to see if the work was all worth it... the fall dance. There were certain requirements scholars had to meet in order to attend the dance. Only a certain number of tardies, only a certain number of behavior referrals, and no major discipline reports over the two week incentive leading up to the dance. 

The past two years this meant that when the dance began the scholars who didn't meet the requirements were to attend study hall. Inevitably, the scholars who would benefit the most from the positive social interactions and time being a kid, were placed in a study hall for and hour and a half and asked to "catch up" on their grades. 

So I was nervous to run the report for study hall on Thursday afternoon. 

Friday morning came and the same scholars who I have worked so hard to invite into my office for positive reasons, for restorative practices, for mediations and parent phone calls home, were the scholars who packed my office on Friday morning. All of them wanted to know if they could go to the dance.

And one by one I was able to tell scholar after scholar, YES!

Yes they could go! Yes they met the requirements! Yes they were doing way better getting to class on time! Yes their GPA is truly that high! Yes there are no missing assignments in their classes! 

And my office was buzzing with energy.

Scholars stayed and talked. Shared what they wanted to do at the dance. Asked if their friends had the money they needed to get in and to buy snacks. They talked about the songs they hoped to hear or the people they planned to cross on the basketball court. 

And my intervention specialist came in to see the pack of scholars in my office. His response was brief, and so reaffirming. 

Man, Sahli... your office looks like the rec center. 

YES! That is what I wanted! What I have been working toward! This is what my scholars deserve!

I do no pretend to be perfect, and I have much more work to do. But today... I am so thankful that I went after #starbucksmyroom and changed not only the look, but the feel of my space. I will continue to work toward supporting my students in more creative and caring ways that will hopefully help them navigate the classroom and the community!