The Move to Columbia, TN
During my first five years teaching at The King’s Daughters School I took on more and more responsibility for the academic program, particularly in the area of discipline. I was committed to the concept of “out-lasting” behavior. Being a good B. F. Skinner disciple, I knew that giving students the “pay off” (in other words, giving in to their tantrum) in the midst of their behavioral episodes was counter productive, and would actually strengthen whatever negative behavior they were engaging in. I really didn’t want to make the job harder than it already was in the long term. I also had a long-term vision for behavioral change. These students had been practicing these behaviors for their entire lives. I wasn’t going to get them to change in a week, or a month, or maybe even a year. I looked for incremental change over time…and I was patient.
I was a teacher. Then I was designated, “Lead Teacher.” However, we really worked as a team and I don’t care about titles. The Program Direct who hired me left and another Program Director was hired. She left a year later and I decided to apply. One of the requisites was for me to obtain my Administrator’s Certification in Tennessee. To do that I had to purse my Master’s Degree.
A co-worker had received his degree from Trevecca Nazarene College in Nashville. The classes were all on Saturday. So I enrolled. Every 6 Saturdays, 8:00 to 2:45 I earned three credit hours. There was a lot of writing, a lot of projects, and I became very familiar with MSWord, Excel, and Publisher.
Jaron was an infant, I was driving two hours a day, and I was feeling spread thin. So we decided to move to Columbia. “The Mule Capital of the World.”
chris
To learn more about Trevecca Nazarene University
To learn more about Columbia, TN
No comments:
Post a Comment