Teachers...Good to Great! 

Electronic Media and Fraternization:

Maintaining Professional Relationships with Students

©2010 Barbara F. Adams

On March 22, 2010, I presented at two Genesee County, New York school districts. Customizing the programs to fit the specific needs and requests of each superintendent, I presented in the morning at Byron-Bergen Schools and in the afternoon at Pavilion Schools.

Here is a sampling of the responses from each district~

 

"Barb is a highly effective speaker who fully engaged the audience and skillfully designed the presentation that met our specific needs."

Mr. Kenneth Ellison, Superintendent Pavilion Schools

Pavilion, New York

 

From Mr. Ellison's educators:

• "What a wonderful presentation and so very pertinent!!...Barb Adams was an engaging, informative and entertaining speaker."
• "I would like to say that this was one of the most interesting topics I have attended. Thank you to all who had the forthcoming to schedule Barb."
• "I found the the presentation thought-provoking."
• The presentation was well organized; the case law examples that were highlighted spoke volumes."
• "I thought Barb did did a great job.  She kept everyone interested and involved. She was upbeat but go the message across"
• " I think that the presentation was very informative.  Barb was interesting and did a great job."
  
• "I thought the presentation was very informative. It certainly pointed out the issues of using e-mail/cellphones/web pages to communicate with students.  One definitely needs to be careful and utilize common sense in using electronic means of communicating."
  
• "Informative and worthwhile for all teachers."
• "I though it was an excellent presentation and it made me really look at the web in a very different way."
  **************

 "Barb Adams has provided extensive training to our staff regarding appropriate adult-student boundaries.  Ms. Adams was highly prepared and communicated effectively before, during and after each of her professional development sessions.  Our staff reported that Barb's presentations have been highly engaging, informative and effective. We hope to have Ms. Adams come back again and utilize her custom-made professional development sessions to help our professional learning community grow even more."

Dr. Scott G. Martzloff, Superintendent of Schools

Byron-Bergen Central School District

Bergen, New York

 

From a member of Dr. Martzloff's Leadership Team:

"Barb has worked both with our new teachers and has presented to our entire faculty on "Maintaining Professional Relationships with Students." She is professional and thorough.  The information Barb presents is well researched and complete while at the same time thought-provoking and is meant to produce dialogue. I liked that she let teachers ask questions regarding specific situation including appropriate behaviors, inappropriate behaviors and social networking. Barb also included pertinent legal decisions and information."

Ms. Jeanne Fradella, Director of Learning, Teaching and Technology

Byron-Bergen Central Schools

Bergen, NY

21^st Century Academy 

4201 Cherryton Drive

Chattanooga, TN 37411

Dr. Mary Lewis, Principal

 

January 2008         

"To whom it may concern,

I would like to take this opportunity to state just how fortunate my faculty is to have participated in the workshop presented by Barbara F. Adams on January 3, 2008.  I asked Barbara to work with our faculty in the area of discipline, specifically, helping us to establish a consistent plan for dealing with difficult, defiant, and unmotivated students.  Barbara contacted me personally so that she could best fit our needs.  She questioned me about what I wanted the outcome to be.   She stayed in contact with me to make sure that her presentation was specifically tailored to our teachers’ and students’ needs.

 

Mrs. Adams used her extensive knowledge of classroom teaching and administration to relate to our teachers in a personal way.  Throughout the workshop, she assessed the needs of the teachers and adapted her question/answer times to differentiate her presentation.  The workshop was well-prepared, and Mrs. Adams surely modeled what she taught by chunking her presentation to allow for participation, movement, role-playing, and enjoyment in our learning.

 

Presentation materials were delivered to me so that I could have a nice notebook of usable classroom tools for our teachers continued use.  Included in the notebook were specific tools for teachers to post or start using immediately. 

 

Following this amazing day of learning, our faculty was surveyed regarding their feelings about the workshop.  Among the comments were teachers’ expressions of thanks and compliments for our presenter and her presentation style.  Overwhelmingly positive remarks were given to the survey questions.  I was thrilled by our faculty’s responses; teachers can be a tough crowd!  We all came away from the day renewed and recharged to work with our students.

 

I would highly recommend Barbara F. Adams as a presenter/consultant to any school or school system!  She is a true professional with practical knowledge of classrooms as well as a sincere way of relating to teachers.  As a result of our work with her, we have grown as a faculty and refer to Barbara’s materials and quote her often."

 

Sincerely,

CarolAnne Coppinger

Magnet Facilitator

21^st Century Academy

At the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, I once again presented a workshop to new teachers in Genesee County entitled, Maintaining Professional Relationships with Students. From the interactive workshop, came the following examples of their feedback at the conclusion of the session.

Teacher #1:

• I liked sharing personal stories
• I learned to be more careful than I thought I needed to be.
• I wonder about hugging students.

Teacher #2:

• I liked discussing and hearing other teachers' perspectives of (what they consider to be) appropriate/inappropriate conduct.  Due to the introduction of new electronic communication devices, there seems to be some gray areas as to what is/isn't appropriate.  I think that the most important thing to think about as a professional educatior is,"What do I feel is safe, professional behavior?" As was mentioned, "What are the boundaries?"  As a professional, you should lean toward the cautious side, but also know what you believe is best. Thank you for the wonderful discussion!

Teacher #3:

As a result of the workshop...

• I had an "ah-ha" moment when Barb helped me realize that I had to either choose to continue to empower myself or succumb to what people were saying.
• I liked the activities that we worked on today.  I thought they fostered an inquisitive environment that created a good discussion about traits of appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
• I learned about my colleague's perspectives regarding appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.
• I wonder what's next.

Teacher #4:

• I learned to be very careful in what I convey to students.  Actions may be misunderstood.   
• I liked some of the partner/group sharing. Barb did a nice job enforcing time restrictions. The role-playing was good.

Teacher #5:

• I learned to be more carful with boundaries.
• I liked how the workshop was set up.  It was engaging and made me think about myself and my interactions with my students.

Teacher #6:

• I enjoyed this workshop very much. It gave me some good insights on many of the problems that one may encounter as an educator.  Along with addressing the problems, we were able to determine several possible outcomes and approaches towards solving these problems.  It was also very helpful to hear how my own colleagues would approach the same problem in different ways.
• I liked being able to have what was learned reviewed in both oral and written foms.
• Barb was very friendly and knowledgeable.

 

 

 **********

After I conducted the workshop, "Maintaining Professional Relationships with Students," at a school district in Genesee County, NY, in the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year,  I received the following feedback from the new teachers:

TEACHER #1

I Liked:

• the format of your presentation; not all lecture. We got very involved. I'm a "learn-by-doing" type of person

TEACHER #2

I Liked:

• the personal reflective writing
• the group sharing
• the laid-back interchange
• the chance to do something during PD!

I Learned:

• about different perspectives

I Wonder:

• if we could continue this conversation after being in the classroom for awhile

TEACHER #3

I Liked:

• the way this course was presented
• the interaction and ability to voice issues
• the content that did not feed us politically correct answers, but allowed us to consider the best outcomes of our future actions

TEACHER #4

I Liked:

• working in small groups
• the positive atmosphere you created
• the overall group interaction