The Behavior Change Mindset: The Positive Behavior Change Bootcamp Episode 1

Welcome to the Positive Behavior Change Boot Camp. I am Sasha Long from The Autism Helper. I am a board-certified behavior analyst and a former special education teacher. I am passionate about helping teachers and parents that work with children with autism succeed in their job, because when you succeed, your students succeed. Now, that's easier said than done. This can be a really hard job. It is hard to differentiate for so many levels. It is hard to train staff. It's hard to keep on top of all of that paperwork. This all can be even more difficult when extreme or challenging behaviors are in the mix. This puts in an added layer of stress on a situation in a way that only a special ed teacher or parent can truly understand. You want to do good. You want to help your students. You are working so hard towards this goal. Maybe you feel like you're trying all the things, but it is not working. Negative behaviors continue, and this wears on you. It wears on you emotionally and physically. I remember back to a period in my teaching career when I was seemingly stuck in reactionary mode. All of my day was reacting, fixing problems, putting out fires. I felt like I never had the chance to get ahead. I struggled with my mindset because I was stuck in reactionary mode. My struggles seemed unfixable because I never had the time to sit down and really think about how to solve them. How am I supposed to stay on top of IEP data? How am I supposed to set up centers? How am I supposed to teach communication skills? So in the Positive Behavior Change Boot Camp, I want to set the stage for behavior change and give you some tools that you can utilize right away to make those changes happen. Now, every child is different, every behavior is different. The only constant is you. You need to work on you before you can work on anything else. So that's why this first video in our series is focused on you, the teacher, not not the students. First thing we need to do is check your mindset. What do your thoughts look like before, during, and after challenging behaviors occur? We need to address this because when extreme behaviors happen, our attitude, perspective, and thoughts can dictate our actions. So if our brain is filled with negative thoughts, These behaviors will never improve. My strategies will never work. This is too hard for me to handle. Then those negative thoughts can lead to negative outcomes. They lead to feeling burnt out, feeling overwhelmed, or feeling inadequate. These are the thoughts that are coming from a fixed mindset. Our mind is telling us we are stuck. This is where we are now, and this is where we will always be. It is not hard to get stuck in a mental rut and find yourself thinking these thoughts. Actually, I think it's easy. It is easy to live in the 'this sucks, everything sucks' world. Now, instead of living in that world, we need to work towards a growth mindset. When you have a growth mindset, you know things will not be this way forever. You know your actions will result in change. Notice the tiny difference between the thought, "This situation stinks," and "This situation stinks right now." The difference seems tiny, but the change in meaning is drastic. One seems like it's forever and assumes that you are powerless over the outcome. The other is temporary and you have the power to change future outcomes. So catch yourself when you are thinking in terms of a fixed mindset. One little trick I like to use for myself is when I catch myself having those fixed mindset thoughts, I simply add "yet" or "right now" to the end of that thought, and it turns a negative statement into a thought with options. So if you're stressing that that behavior plan isn't working, instead think, "That behavior plan isn't working yet." Okay. So before I completely lose you on all this self-help stuff, hold on. Real behavior change comes from great behavior plans. Great behavior plans come from a problem-solving attitude. If your mindset isn't in the right place, we will never get to that problem-solving stuff. So when I use my trick of saying yet or right now, I'm not lying to myself. I know this won't be this way forever. Because I'm looking for progress over perfection. I want to be a better educator than I was yesterday or an hour ago. My goal is getting better, not becoming perfect, because we all know perfection is not attainable. Behavior change starts with you. Not an intervention, not a visual, not a token board. Before all that good stuff, you need to take a good hard look at your role in the situation. Now, I hate to tell you, but you may be part of the problem. You are part of your student's environment, and environment shapes behavior. Now believe me, I've been there. I know I was, and probably still am at times, a problem behavior causer. But don't be discouraged, because this is where it gets exciting. You can change how you act. The only behavior you have complete control of is your own. When you change how you respond how you react, how you set expectations, how you give feedback, there in turn can be positive behavior change with your learners. Now, a word of caution: this isn't easy right away. You know you're trying, and you may feel like you're trying all the things, and identifying how your behaviors may actually be unintentionally making things worse may feel like you failed. But you haven't failed. While inventing the light bulb, Thomas Edison said, "I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that do not work." Now, we all work with others. Whether you are a teacher and you have a group of paraprofessionals and clinicians you work with, or you are a parent with a spouse and family members who help in the household, it's imperative that we get them all on board with this whole mindset thing. Complaining and negative attitudes are contagious, and you are working so hard on avoiding that. When I was a new teacher, I quickly learned that I needed to avoid the teacher's lounge. In my school, it tended to be filled with a little too much toxicity than I needed. Once I started avoiding the teacher's lounge, I almost immediately felt lighter. Again, the only behaviors you have complete control of are your own, so you can't force other people into this mindset. But there are some steps you can take. Get rid of complaining to complain. If you catch yourself going into a long vent session, just stop. Give praise to those you work with. If you think you are giving too much praise to your team, give them more. We need to collectively work on changing the narrative with our team about our students and about how they interact with our school community. I am so happy to have you here for this Positive Behavior Change Boot Camp. The fact that you are here, the fact that you are showing up, tells me so much about what type of educator or parent you are. You are here to level up, you are here to build your toolbox, you are here to do the best you can for your students. I'd love you to drop a comment below on what you thought of the video, what you want to do next, or what you're most excited about in this series. So let's talk about the rest of the series. Video 2 is on the Starve It, Replace It framework. You guys, this is the big one. This is the one that's like the meat and potatoes of your behavior plan. Video 3 is on data. It has one of my favorite downloads of all time, a fully editable data sheet that's super user-friendly. You're gonna absolutely love it. And then Video 4 is on the Positive Behavior Change Transformation. This is where we put it all together. So I have a little bit of homework for you. That's the teacher in me before you take off. Number 1, I want you to plan when you're going to watch these things. As I said, this is a limited opportunity for the Positive Behavior Change Series. I think the series is so valuable. Put this in your calendar. Don't be like, "Oh, I'll fit it in when I have the time," because we all know what happens, right? We're busy. Put it in your calendar. Plan time to watch these. All these videos are less than 10 minutes, so it's not going to be a big chunk of your day. Pick, you know, after school, a prep period, an evening after your kids go to bed, and just schedule it out. Homework number 2, I want you to recommend this to a colleague or to a friend. This series is absolutely free. And I think it's so much better to go through a training series, or a PD or something like that with a colleague, because then you can be like, hey, what did you think about that? What about this for this kid? When I'm doing a live training, I actually love like hearing side conversations while I'm presenting. I know that sounds weird, but I love when people are like, oh my god, what about this for Johnny, I'm like, yeah, right, apply it. So recommend this to a colleague or friend. So again, thank you so much for being here. I'm gonna go ahead and see you in video 2.