Dr. Ross Greene

Our Educators Panel tackled the problem of bullying today.  This may not be surprising, but they concluded that bullies are lacking important skills and have unsolved problems...and the bullied are, too.

If things aren't going so well with the students with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges in your school, you're not alone! Helping challenging kids in a classroom...while attending to the diverse needs of the other students...and trying to make sure they all do well on high-stakes testing...can be a daunting challenge. In this program, Dr. Ross Greene -- author of The Explosive Child and Lost at School, and originator of the Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) approach -- helps you view challenging behavior in a more compassionate, accurate, productive manner and intervene more effectively. Want to learn more about the CPS model? Do you have questions about how to get the ball rolling on using the model in your building or classroom? Are you running into trouble in your attempts to use the model with a particular student? This is your opportunity to get your questions answered and listen to how other educators are using the model and overcoming some of the hurdles involved in responding more effecti

In this program, the staff at Anytown High School learned about the Empathy step of Plan B, and plan to take things for a trial run before the next program.

Our school principal, Tom, came very close to using Plan A with one of his challenging students. But then, at the precipice, he went back to Plan B...and lived to tell the tale.

In this program, Dr. Greene will continue helping the staff at Anytown High use the Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems to understand one of their most challenging students and identify the unsolved problems that are contributing to her challenging episodes.

In this program, the staff at Anytown High School got some practice using the Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems to view the difficulties of a challenging student through new lenses and identify specific problems that need to be solved. To be continued...

"The foundation of understanding is the willingness to listen." We don't know who said this, but it's what we discussed today on the Educators Panel.

A new feature for Collaborative Problem Solving at School! Listen in as Dr. Greene helps the staff at Anytown High School (a real high school in the U.S., location undisclosed) implement the CPS model in their school...with real discussions that may help you implement the CPS model in your school.

Well, the title pretty much says it all. But you'll have to listen to hear the answer.

What's the best way to respond when colleagues say a student is "choosing" to behave inappropriately or is being "manipulative"? That's what the Educators Panel tackled during today's program.

The title pretty much says it all...do listen!

It's that time again...time for us to hear from four educators who've been implementing Collaborative Problem Solving in the schools and classrooms...and all the hurdles and successes they've experienced along the way. Don't worry...you can still call in to ask questions or comment!

In this program, Dr. Greene discusses the difference between a popular school intervention -- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) -- and Collaborative Problem Solving. The biggest difference begins with your definition of the "function" of challenging behavior, and that definition has tremendous implications for how you go about trying to help.

For the first half of this program, Dr. Greene focused on a common question: to what problems can Collaborative Problem Solving be productively applied? (Hint: it would be easier to identify the unsolved problems to which CPS can't be applied.) Then he focused on an email he received from a teacher trying hard to help his/her colleagues embrace the CPS model, and had some suggestions for how to move things forward.

In this program, Dr. Greene answered some important questions about Collaborative Problem Solving. At what age is it appropriate to try to solve problems collaboratively with kids? Can you really solve a problem collaboratively with a student if s/he doesn't think there's a problem to solve? How do you organize the effort within a school building? A very informative program!

Today was the first edition of a new feature for this program: the Educators Panel, which airs the first Monday of every month. Dr. Greene was joined by two educators (two more will be joining in next month) to talk about behaviorally challenging kids, the difficulties in helping them effectively in schools, and what's going in their own schools to move things in the right direction.

Today's program aired live from the Child Assessment Unit at Cambridge City Hospital...a unit that has eliminated its use of locked-door seclusion and virtually eliminated the use of physical and chemical restraint. There's a major initiative to eliminate the use of restraint and seclusion in our public schools, and the effort requires the same ingredients in a school as it does in a restrictive therapeutic facility. Restraining and secluding kids doesn't solve the problems or teach the lagging skills setting in motion challenging episodes, and doesn't keep staff or classmates safer. We've learned too much about why challenging kids are challenging -- and have alternative interventions that are far more humane and effective -- to continue using these archaic procedures. A must-listen program!

In this program, Dr. Greene responded to emails he'd received from parents who were running into difficulty with school discipline programs that were inconsistent with Collaborative Problem Solving. Should adult-imposed consequences still be given when problems are being solved collaboratively? What do such consequences accomplish? How are they counterproductive?

In this program, Dr. Greene responded to an email he received from an educator who'd done her best to help a challenging student, against some tall odds. He also discussed how solving problems (collaboratively) teaches kids many of the skills they're lacking.

Alright, summer's over and it's time to get back to the challenge of implementing Collaborative Problem Solving at school so that we're understanding and helping kids with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges -- and their classmates and caregivers -- better than ever. Implementing the CPS model is hard work...but nowhere near as hard as NOT implementing the CPS model! In this first program of the school year, Dr. Greene answered a lot of the emailed questions that he received over the summer.