Lutheran Family Services of Virginia
Today is a typical school day, and the six rising first-
and second-graders in Leanne Decker’s Minnick School
summer session class are doing what kids do during
recess—playing at warp speed.
They collect playground artifacts, shoot baskets, play tag
and pet imaginary dogs. There are a lot of “good jobs,”
a lot of “I love those manners” or “Thank you for using
your words” from Ms. Decker and her two assistants, Tony
Hostetler and Sean Powers.
So far not very different from many school or family
practices. But something is different: during recess Decker
is busy filling out communication sheets that briefly
describe each child’s behavior in 15-minute increments. At
the end of the day, the sheets go home with the child, along
with any concerns noted by Decker.
It is this continuous information-gathering and recording
that is the foundation of the successful School-Wide
Positive Behavior System (SWPBS) that the LFSVA Minnick
Schools implemented last year.
“Looking at this data over weeks and months helps us see
what days were good and where
the problems are so that we can
help head them off,” said Decker.
To help her students stay on track,
Decker’s classroom has a picture
schedule and a red countdown
clock to help students build time
awareness and transition to the
next activity. There are lots of
snacks available and the dispensing
of tickets, lots of tickets.
Tickets are a big part of the school-wide behavior
system, which emphasizes incentives and other positive
reinforcement from all of the adults in a child’s environment.
Can a new approach
to discipline set the
stage for learning?
Positively!Teacher Leanne Decker & students Photo by Dan Montgomery
“You want to teach children to make good choices; that is where the art is.”
—Brenda Showalter, Harrisonburg
Minnick Principal
cantinued inside...
FALL 2015
Everyone is invested in helping Chris learnWith the entire Minnick School invested in his success, Chris, the young fellow in the story, has made huge strides in classroom behavior. And that means he can focus better on learning.
At the end of the summer, Minnick School Principal Brenda Showalter sat down with the team working with Chris to look at his behavior data from the previous 12 months, mostly to make sure that he would continue to get the support he needed in the new school year.
What she saw was amazing progress. “His aggression graph was like a ski slope,” said Showalter.
Even with a month between the summer session and the start of school in August, Showalter said that Chris’s transition has been “phenomenal” and his progress steady.
Now Chris remains in the classroom; last spring, he was running out multiple times a day. Now outbursts are the exception, not the rule. Now he is able to learn and practice better ways to interact with his peers.
“It’s not just handing out tickets for incentives or collecting data,” she said, “it is looking at patterns and seeing what individual students need.” In Chris’s case, it is down time. He likes to retreat to a little spot in the school and be by himself.
“The key is that Chris has learned that he needs to earn his time alone,” said Showalter.
It’s likely that Chris will be able to return to his home school. Showalter and her team will work with teachers and staff there to make sure that he has some of the supports that have helped him succeed so well at the Minnick School.
For now, his Min-nick village will continue to help him learn the im-portant lessons of school—and life.
—Carole Todd•LFSVA has Minnick Schools in Roanoke,
Harrisonburg, Wytheviille and Wise with a new campus opening in Bristol at the end of the year! Would you like more information about our Minnick Schools? Visit lfsva.org or call 1.800.359.3834.
Chris
Photo by Dan Montgomery
Anyone in the school who sees a student showing good
behavior can hand out tickets that are redeemable in
the school store. “With SWPBS everyone is focused on
reinforcing good behavior,” said Brenda Showalter,
Harrisonburg Minnick Principal.
“Teaching is the difference between SWPBS and
typical discipline. Often students are disciplined after
the behavior occurs, and there is not a lot of attention
given to making sure the student understands the
better behavior,” said Showalter. “With this system
you teach the replacement behavior and then work
with students to help them use the new behaviors
more and the inappropriate ones less.”
Now it is after lunch and Chris has hit the wall. For
most of the day this tall, quick-to-smile rising first-
grader has happily transitioned from subject to subject,
from group to individual activities—even leading his
classmates in from the playground.
He doesn’t want to do math and is yelling “I wanna
play” over and over.
Hostetler and Powers come immediately to his side.
One holds up a large screen to shield him from the
overwhelming sensory input that has most likely
triggered his meltdown, and the other hustles him out
of the classroom.
And all the while, the rest of the students ignore him.
Completely. And for doing so, they receive a ticket.
The classroom assistants offer Chris choices: Do you want
a break? Do you want to continue working? Do
you want to sit in the bean bag chair? When he
makes the better choice, he gets a ticket.
The system is going well and the staff is seeing
improvement in behavior and learning what
works and what doesn’t. “No system works
for all children,” said Showalter. “Modifying
behavior is a dance. You look to de-escalate,
share the power, and offer reasonable options.
You want to teach children to make good choices;
that is where the art is.” —Carole Todd
Can a new approach... continued
Part of the best team ever: A new familyNick grips the bark of a backyard tree
and scrambles up to a perch among its
broad leaves. It’s a pretty good spot
for a photo with his parents. Nick was
adopted by Kelly and Mary Clanahan
last month, so he is, after all, the
newest branch on the family tree.
The Clanahans had prior experience
blending families. Nick, 16, has a
brother and sister from his father’s
previous marriage and two brothers
from his mothers’.
In addition, Kelly and Mary are high
school track and cross-country coaches
of the sort who treat their teams like
family. They have lent a sympathetic
ear to many a teenager with a problem
to share and quietly helped athletes
with food, shoes, and clothes.
So while the Clanahans had enjoyed the
quiet after their youngest moved out, they
still had time, energy and love to share.
A pivotal moment came one
Sunday morning before church.
They were watching NBC4-TV
Washington’s weekly program,
“Wednesday’s Child,” which
profiles area children in need of
families. They saw a segment
about a girl who said, “I want a
place to call home.”
Kelly called, and though
nothing came of that inquiry,
the Clanahans began checking the
program’s web site each week and
praying about parenting another
child. When they saw Nick’s bio, in
late 2013, it felt right, and they called.
Lutheran Family Services called back
within 30 minutes, “and the ball
started rolling,” Mary said.
“You take that leap of faith,” Mary
said. “To do that, you take in the
whole scope, you accept what God has
blessed you with.”
There were signs this was going to
work. Mary’s eldest son and Nick look
like, well, brothers; after meeting the
Clanahans, Nick asked his caseworker
when he could see them again; his first
full weekend with the Clanahans was
on Mother’s Day weekend; he moved
in with them on Father’s Day.
But there was more here than just
the stars aligning.
“The Clanahans are very patient,
very understanding,” said Lauren
Knox, treatment foster care manager in
LFSVA’s Winchester office. “They work
well with Nick in particular: They are
able to have discussions with him, versus
getting into a power struggle. They are a
great family to work with.”
Nick shares his parents’ philosophy
about celebrating the good and
accepting the bad. That approach fits
perfectly with his favorite sports (he
is serious about basketball and long-
distance running—and yes, his parents
are his coaches at Stonewall Jackson
High in Quicksburg), but it proved
especially valuable during his years
without a permanent family.
Nick’s advice for teenagers in foster care:
“Just don’t quit. Whatever happens,
don’t ever quit. You don’t know how your
story’s going to go, so you have to make
the best of it at every turn. You have to
keep on trucking, but also step back
every once in a while and take in what
you’re doing.”
—Dan Montgomery
•Are you thinking about foster care or adoption? Or do you know someone who might be considering these life-affirming options? Call 1.800.359.3834 for more information or visit our web site at lfsva.org. We walk with you every step of the way.
“Just don’t quit. Whatever happens, don’t ever quit.”
—Nick Clanahan
The Clanahan family Photo by Dan Montgomery
After the adoption. When adoptive families run into
difficulties, they need knowledgeable professionals who can
help. Lutheran Family Services is offering outpatient mental
health services in Southwestern Virginia and Tidewater to help
adoptive families cope with the trauma and loss that can be
part of adoption. This service is available through a grant from
the Virginia Department of Social Services and the Center for
Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.). LFSVA also offers
W.I.S.E. UP, developed by C.A.S.E. to help children, teens and
their parents cope with questions about adoption. For more
information, call Leslie Wright, a licensed, adoption-competent
counselor, at 804.288.0122, ext. 6604, or email [email protected].
Making your planned gift is easy. Your annual gifts are very
important to the nearly 730 individuals and children touched by
LFSVA each day, and they are very much appreciated! Estate gifts
have an even greater impact because they help ensure the future
of these services at LFSVA. Making a planned gift can be as easy
as adding a few simple sentences to your will or designating a
beneficiary to your life insurance or annuities. If you would like
more information on making an estate gift, please contact Ellen
Bushman; [email protected] or call 757.722.4707, ext. 1302.
ymission moments
promise, restored
Sample A SampleABC Medical Care Inc1234 Any StreetAny Town, US 12345IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
2609 McVitty Road, Roanoke, VA 24018
Wish listWe are humbled and grateful for your gifts, many of which have come by way of Amazon. There are two great ways to support LFSVA through Amazon:
�Go to AmazonSmile and designate us as your favorite charitable organization. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to LFSVA at no cost to you.
� Take a look at our wish list on Amazon where you will find books, PE equipment and other items to buy for the individuals we serve.
For more information, please contact Leah Hatcher at [email protected] or call 1.800.359.3834. Get your smile on!
Our MissionWorks is published by LFSVA. Editor: Carole Todd, [email protected]. Staff writer & photographer: Dan Montgomery, [email protected]. Learn more at lfsva.org!