Episode 7 - Mallory Langley on the Importance of Tier 1 Essential Behavior Instruction

On the 7th episode of Canyon Springs: From Promising Practices to Model PLC, listen in on the PLC journey with Canyon Springs as we work to be further recognized as a Solution Tree National Model PLC school. This week, meet Mallory Langley, a Canyon Springs 6th Grade Teacher, and a lead member of our Logistics Leadership Team. Ms. Langley explains the importance of direct instruction in the deemed Essential Behaviors, both academic and social. She outlines her role in being the loudest voice of this process for Canyon Springs and what sees as our site's next steps in a tiered instructional approach to behavior and how we can link it to our deeper understanding of the academic tiers.    

References:

PLC 4 Questions Flowchart - W. Richard Smith

Behavior Solutions by Drs. Jessica and John Hannigan

Behavior Academis by Drs. Jessica and John Hannigan

(Sample) Canyon Springs BEARS Behavior Posters

(Sample) Canyon Springs Tier 1 Essential Behaviors School News Network Video

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Good morning. We hope you are having a very, very good start to your learning day. Welcome to the Canyon Springs from Promising Practices to Model PLC podcast. I am your host and the principal of Canyon Springs Community School, Matt Gilpin. Today, I am so excited for today. So today we get to welcome in a teacher we have talked about a couple of times. She's been named on here before by, I think, last episode, Miss Cami Sunday. But Mallory Ruiz Langley is a sixth grade teacher here at Canyon Springs and an aspiring leader based in Santa Clarita, California, right where Canyon Springs is located. She began her teaching career in Ventura County and has spent the past seven years serving the Canyon Springs community. With over a decade in education, she is deeply committed to advocating for both students and staff and creating schools where everyone feels supported, valued, and capable of growth. Mallory was honored as last year's Canyon Springs 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year, and she is known for leading with heart and integrity. She serves as our site's union representative. I said that backwards. She has served as our site's union representative, represents her colleagues on the faculty advisory committee and the site inclusion team, and works to ensure teacher voice remains a part of important decisions. She coordinated the school's math night, if I can interrupt right there, because last year she was our she continues to be our admin designee, and as she was working towards leadership, she took on a lot of great challenges and brought programs to the school. So we're going to talk about those. But she coordinated the school's math night to bring families into the learning process, leads the annual Veterans Day celebration to honor community members who have served and organizes the field day to build connection and joy across the Canyon Springs campus. Mallory believes that strong systems, we're going to talk about these systems today. Mallory believes strong systems matter, but relationships matter even more. She is passionate about growing into leadership so she can expand the impact beyond her four classroom walls. Welcome, Miss Langley, to the podcast of the school you work at.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

We are very excited that you are here. Like I said, you have been talked about a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

That's so exciting.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

And so for those listeners who are keeping up with us, you heard about Miss Langley from her partner teacher, her sixth-grade partner teacher last week with Miss Cami Sunday, who was talking about site leadership. This week, Miss Langley is going to talk a little bit about some of the work she has done, both as a site leader and within her classroom. And we'll get to her topic in a minute. But we start every episode by asking one of our Canyon Springs teachers a little bit about this. What was your experience with professional learning communities or the PLC at work process prior to what we call our perfect storm event, you know, two years ago?

SPEAKER_01 2:47

I didn't have much experience with the PLC process at my first school. So Canyon Springs is my second school. Um my first three years at my first school, it was really, I really felt on my own on my team, even though I was in a team of four. Um it was a very well-established team when I joined. Um, and you know, we have that handy dandy filing cabinet that was organized by seasons and topics, and that's what they used. And it was in my room. And I didn't want, I wanted to get rid of it. They're like, no, it's organized. And I'm but I'm like, I I didn't touch any of this stuff. And so there wasn't really a why. And it it honestly kind of gave me a sad beginning of my career because I wasn't utilizing the skills that I had learned in college in my credential program of like creating lessons and doing things like that together with my team. Um, my last year at that district, I had a teacher join our team, and that was kind of my first part or the first time I had collaborating with someone, and we had all of the wacky ideas and we tried all of the things, but I don't think any of it was really rooted in how we're identifying our essentials and having more of a stronger purpose and then intervening as much as we do now.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

But again, having that beginning of um an experience where you start to collaborate, just the conversation about what can be improved and better for all, I think is great. I love the anecdote that you inherited a filing cabinet on a personalist side, having moved schools a couple of times and moved classrooms, um, the inherited teacher filing cabinet or inherited teaching drawer of papers that somebody might like someday. I don't have a lot of pet peeves. That is one of them. So I'm putting that out into public that if you are leaving your classroom, not everybody wants the stuff you leave behind.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

I was so grateful that when I started here, the previous principal made sure that every single thing was out of the classroom. Like I got a nice clean slate.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

And it's it is, it's that clean slate. It's not necessarily that you want a blank slate, but it's hey, what is a school offer? And then what can I contribute as opposed to trying to marry of this is what we've always done. And I think we've talked a lot about that. And so let's get into the PLC. Just a reminder for everybody if you're looking at that Richard Smith flow chart, again, we have it up in our training room. It is linked in the podcast information there available for you. There are the four PLC questions in blue on there. What do we want all students to learn? How will we know they have learned it? That is question two. Question three, how will we respond when learning has not occurred? And question four, how will we respond when learning has already occurred? Uh, Miss Langley, what do you want to talk about today?

SPEAKER_01 5:15

I'm gonna bounce between question one and question three. So, what do we want all students to learn and how will we respond when learning has not occurred?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

And I'm gonna ask you for more specifics because I know you're gonna take us into a content topic different than some of the ones that we have. So, within like what do we want all students to learn, that question one, what specifically, like what topic are you gonna be talking to us about in regards to that instruction?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

So we're gonna be looking at, so we'll look at behavior um as like a main topic, but within or underneath those primary PLC questions, uh, looking at determining the learning target and what we want students to learn.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Absolutely, that yellow one. And I love that you said it. So just for everyone who knows, today we are talking about behaviors and essential learning and what do we want all students to learn when it comes to behavior. And so that brings us to we try to start all of them, the preponderance of research as we've learned more and more and more. Um, there is a quote. Um, it is in, if you're following along, it is in Behavior Solutions, um, written by Dr. Jessica Hannigan and and Dr. John Hannigan, along with Austin Buffam and Mike Maddow. But on page three, there's a quote in there that I want to start us with and kind of get your reactions to it. It says, All students must learn about academic and social behaviors as a matter of course. They are the only way to best access in education. So that line sums up the fact that all students must be explicitly taught. What is your reaction to that quote there on page three?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

I think that when I taught primary, I was much more explicit in teaching those academic and social behaviors because students were new to school, they were new to the learning environment. Uh, being in sixth grade now, I have to say that I've looked at these questions, I reflected upon them uh in our leadership meetings, and I I don't teach them as explicitly because they're in sixth grade, you know, I expect they've been in school seven years and they should have them. And I do see myself sometimes falling into more of that corrective, excuse me, that corrective side of it. But it's it's the same as if you look at reading, right? Students have to be taught to read before they can read. Students have to be taught to have these behaviors, these appropriate academic and social behaviors before they display them.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

It's it is, it's one of the questions that we've asked ourselves as we've read through this book and um worked through it. So just for context, uh, Mallory Langley is a member of our what we call our logistics leadership team. To give it some backstory, and I'll try to do it as short-winded as I can. Those that listen know that won't happen. But when identified in need of comprehensive support and improvement, two of our indicators needed to be addressed in regards to more climate and culture of the school. One of them being our attendance rate, our chronic absenteeism, and the other one being our suspension rate. And so one of the things that we did was we put together a leadership team that we called the logistics leadership team, whose mission was to kind of break down the barriers that get in the way of students accessing learning. And that being whether we show up to school on time, attendance, and that being behavior. And it was you, Mallory Langley, who I remember turning to Paula Maker, who was working with us at the time, and actually asking her, hey, I know how to find research on content. I know how to find research on I knew I want to teach math lessons, like I know how to pull that. What is a resource that we can have when it comes to learning behavior and teaching behavior? It was you that asked that question. And at the time, she led us right into behavior solutions. Um, and so you have done a great job kind of spearheading that the idea that behavior has to be taught. Um, and so I want to take you to another quote right here in Behavior Academies, kind of the uh an offshoot book to behavior solutions, also by Dr. Jessica Hannigan and Dr. John Hannigan. And on page nine, there, there's a line there that says, We find that the leading indicator of behavior intervention implementation across, that is the implementation of behavior academies, this book specifically behavior academies, correlates highly with the belief mindset of the adults providing the additional time and targeted behavior support to students. I want to ask you from this quote, what do you think your experience has been in working with adult mindsets to support the fact that behavior needs to be taught?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Um I think it's been challenging. I think that as a school, we definitely are reflecting on all students and that inclusivity. So that that's pretty recently and heavy like on my thoughts. But I do think that we sometimes come into um situations or classrooms of students that you inherit, and they're labeled as those kids who have those behaviors. And I feel really fortunate. My first year here, um, I had some challenging behaviors in my classroom, but I didn't have that um that predisposition to those students. Like they were brand new to me, and I was able to like you love them where they're at, and you you want to just help them grow. And I think that's something that um I've been able to share. I enjoy having like the students that other teachers, you know, might not want to have in their class because of past choices that they've made. Um, I enjoy having that, I enjoy making those relationships with students, but connecting back to the mindset, right? Students pick up on that. And if students think that adult doesn't want me in this classroom or they don't believe that I can learn, like they're carrying that with them.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

It's an interesting concept, and you said a couple things there. I love the fact you use the word choice, you know, choices we've made, not a definition of a human being, but a choice. Um, and I love the fact that you said it, and we got to say it in the bio about you, but it is something that I've observed about you is that the relationships with the students drive so many things. But I want to take it back to, and you've been one of the thought leaders in a question that percolates around our campus, is we're very comfortable, and we've talked about in other episodes, we're very, very comfortable with intervention style teaching. Students come into our room, you can't read, you're struggling with multiplication, whether it's fifth grade, sixth grade, we got you, right? We're gonna work tirelessly and we know some of the strategies. But the idea that you come into my classroom and you don't know how to keep your hands to yourself, or you were never taught to wait your turn to speak, or some other negative behaviors that get in the way of learning, we immediately can feel frustration. And you've been one of the thought leaders about wait, wait, wait, like what can we teach them? How can we explicitly teach them? So again, I want to go back to it. What are some of the learning that you've taken from behavior solutions in regards to behavior learning that you started to bring into your classroom or towards other colleagues?

SPEAKER_01 11:59

I feel like I feel like there's been a blend of behavior solutions and um capturing kids' hearts for me, for sure. But it's looking at identifying the need, right? And I think that connects to me. Uh, when when I started teaching, my best friend was going through a school psych program. And so we worked together a lot in identifying the function of the behaviors. And that that is something that I feel is a missing piece. Um, I feel like we've kind of wanted to look at that more and determine, like, okay, but why is this behavior happening? Um a strong student of mine has been making those connections with students who might have additional needs and and understanding what it is, um what it is that's being shown and why, trying to get to the why. Um, looking at behavior solutions, and I'm really excited to to go and hear from them next week and get this in person. But we what we did or part of the mindset, I guess, that we had on the logistics leadership team was looking at a structure that we can that we can have to identify like what isn't happening, and we combine that, we put it together with capturing kids' hearts as to look at they have four questions as to why these behaviors are going on, and then really having that um that self-reflection and that ownership of students. And I think it kind of connects to um our what we're doing with our essential standards to just give it a scenario is helping the students like understand why. Like when we break down our our standards in ELA, we're looking at um I can't think of one right now, but if you can do A, B, and C, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Main idea and key details. That's been a big one for you guys in sixth grade.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

If they can identify the main idea and if they can find the supporting details, um, or but we're able to target, like, hey, you did a great job finding that main idea, but we need some help with the supporting details. So just it's kind of like connecting that to behaviors is hey, like you have the ability to make a lot of friends, but you're not staying in that same friend group. And why? Like, oh, because you can't keep your hands to yourself or you can't use nice words with your friends, and you know, they don't they don't have to play with you or anything like that. Just I mean, I'm in the bigger end of the campus, so they're um it's not that different with primary though.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

You have a friend group and people don't like to have mean things said about them. So explicitly teaching that there's a better reaction. Your feelings were hurt, what can you do?

SPEAKER_01 14:27

What can you do next time or what you should have done? Yes, and why did you do that?

SPEAKER_00 14:32

I see initiatives in front of you. What are some of the, and again, I want to give Miss Langley all the public credit. Um, she hears an idea, and before my head's on the pillow that night, it's into action. There's some artifact that says, Hey, I think we can present this. And so one of the things that I want you to talk about is a little bit of um, we started at the beginning of this year. Uh, we are the bears, we're the Canyon Springs Bears. So some of the Bears initiatives that again go along with some of that explicit tier one behavior instruction across the campus.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Um, so I have to say these grew from like trainings at one of the other campuses.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

We'll give a shout-out. Golden Oak. Okay. They're the owls.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

They soar, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:15

They do something in the air.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

I'm not sure. I think I don't know what owls do. Fly, SOAR, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Something like that. And they had the acronym and it had the expectations for students. And honestly, I I love a good visual. I love a good poster. I was like, Matt, we need these. And so he's like, okay, come up with one. And trying to use the different um components of capturing kids' hearts and they connect to behavior solutions. We came up with bears, and so we have be kind, engaged, accepting, respectful, and safe. It spells out bears. And that was a message, a consistent message that we wanted to have displayed throughout the entire campus. So I I tell you, one of the favorite parts of my day, um, I hear our yard duty supervisors, they begin every recess asking our students, we're gonna be an' kind, be engaged, be accepting, be respectful, be safe. And then they send them off, tell them what games they can play, and they're going. But the consistency is a piece that we were missing. We didn't have a consistent message across the campus. And so I took these and we did uh distinguish like what those behaviors or what those expectations look like in different areas. We have what it looks like in the classroom, what it looks like in general areas of the campus, what it looks like in the cafeteria, and really just setting out those clear expectations that are in common spaces. So we have that message across the board. So what happens in the cafeteria when you're at the five, six lunch is what should also be happening when you're at the two, three, four lunch.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

It really is that calibration. And I know that you and the logistics leadership kind of led the adult instruction of this to when we got when we brought back to school. Like, you know, that initial staff meeting when, hey, we got these new ideas as we're doing. Um, Miss Langley and the logistic leadership team kind of then said, hey, these are the things we're going to explicitly teach. You know, in the beginning of the year, when everyone's doing the tour of the campus for primary or resetting their their rules in the in the or their social contract for capturing kids' hearts, or this is how our classroom functions, we now have common vocabulary to go along with it. If you want to see what they look like, they are linked, samples of them are linked into the podcast um bio. If you want to see more of a generic example, if you go to page 64 on behavior solutions, there is one for SOAR and how you SOAR. It's kind of an example one. So maybe why we think owls sort. And so I want to then take that because that's to fit our acronym. To fit our acronym. If we're not bears, we use bears a lot for things.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Uh we also growled, but I don't think that would have worked.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

No, no, we don't. We don't. Bears are bears, and bears are kind, engaged, accepting, respectful, and safe. So when you meet a bear in the wild, just expect them to act that way.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

But then also Unless they come in the back of the newscast like happened this week.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Yeah. Yeah. We also have a CSN. Listen, there's the thing. Um, okay, but along with that, one of the things you've also been the voice of is as we learn more, because a constant quest for job-embedded professional development to learn more and get to get better at our craft. We then, I want to say like December, January, really took some steps into essential behaviors, using the phrasing of essential behaviors as essential academic standards became commonplace across within classrooms and referencing them and learning ladders and what that looks like. Um, we then said, hey, next steps we want to, and we use the behavior solutions model so we don't have to come up with the wording with it. Um talk us through a little bit about then some of the steps you took with the leadership team and within your own classroom in regards to essential academic behavior and essential social behavior.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

So we looked at the list of the academic behaviors, the essential academic behaviors, uh, metacognition, self-concept, self-monitoring, motivation, strategy, and volition. And as a, I don't remember if we did it first as an LLT or as a full staff, but as a full staff, we decided that self-concept, a student's belief in his or her abilities was our most essential to focus on for this year. And it's true. I mean, if that student has the belief in themselves, um then they can do it, right? If you believe it, you can achieve it. All of those things we're told from when we're as from when we're young. But I think the thing that's important to kind of connect to this is to realize that not all kids are told that, right? And so we're giving them that belief and we're their champion here. And if they can believe in themselves, then they're gonna put more put more effort into it. And I think if kids know that you believe in them, you know, they'll hopefully not, but like run through a wall for you, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

And so within your classroom, what are how what have you done to kind of explicitly teach that idea or at least have a conversation about that? Bring that idea that that self-concept is essential to them.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

I think conversations with them in sixth grade, it's really nice to be able to have conversations, to have those one-on-one conversations when we're setting goals together, uh, be it for the school year, be it for the next trimester. I just had my students reflect on uh their trimester two um academics and our lifelong learning skills, and then set goals for the next trimester. So that was really nice to be able to have those one-on-one conversations. Um, at the beginning of the year, I had I had a student who the student is so bright, but definitely lacks that self-confidence. And we finished a math test, and the student was like, I'm cooked. And I was like, No way, and I graded them, the student got 100%. I'm like, you're not cooked, like you cooked, like you cooked, and we ended up making chefs. Yeah, I remember them walking around chef's hats. And you know, that's something you see in primary, but you you saw sixth graders happy as a clam walking around after school with their chef hats, and just trying to make those personal connections and you know, using their language right there. That I think really helps with them. But even just checking back in, um if they're not making the best choices, you know, checking back checking that back in and and hyping them up, um, I think that's really at the the age with uh that I work with has been most beneficial. I've I've I have a student who you know didn't make the best choices last year, started off the year with me, like amazing, making great choices. Everyone's like, what that's the same student. I'm like, yeah, you know, because I'm having those conversations, like, hey, that might have been how we behaved in fifth grade, but we don't do that now.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

And I think keep going.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Well, no, but just like saying, Okay, like we're gonna make these choices, like you, you are here academically, like you've got it all. Like now we just need to connect that to our socials.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

And I think, but again, to go about so much of what you're saying though is also just fostering student investment. Like it it it really is that web of uh of like I believe I can do it and so I see the results of it and it starts that that that cycle that cycle of success and and motivation builds and we've talked about that a little bit as Canyon Springs as a whole is we're we're right now I do my my subjective opinion is that we have some nice motive some nice momentum for our students and as we try new initiatives because the ball's rolling in the right way then more people are like well I'll try that I'll try that I'll try that and I think you get that way amongst yourself with self-concept with a belief in yourself and so kind of espousing that out um I got to just film a short behavior thing with your student actually um I just did it last week and it it displayed um I will not put that publicly because we protect the identity of our students but um we were pretending to play Mario on our on our news network with fake remotes and I asked him hey how is school like a video game we had not rehearsed it and he just turned and said I said do you think they are and he just turned and said kinda and it really surprised me because we hadn't rehearsed I said how and he said well because once you just believe that you can beat the level we all enter a video game believing we can beat the next Mario level or we believe we can win the Mario Kart race. Otherwise why are we playing right? It might take us 20 tries we might lose all our lives and have to reset and go again but that's the same thing with school he's like and once you take a test you just ask your teacher can I try again like I believe I can do better. It was such a great way for a student to voice self-concept.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

And I want to go back to it because that that concept of repetitive tier one essential instruction through the news was actually I think your idea or came out in an LLT meeting. About why do you think that approach has struck a little different than the age old like hey I did a behavior assembly at the start of the year which I still do but why do you is it are you finding that it's striking different I do I do.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

I think it's the consistency in having it the same message that there's a consistent language being held across but also how you how we've started to have students on there. Right. I think that's what's impactful because and that's something that like in the classroom in the beginning of the year or whenever you have to reinforce those behaviors you know we all incorporate students who you know maybe they are the ones who run in the classroom say hey can you show me how we don't behave in the classroom or how we don't move our body in the classroom and then show me the correct way. Right. And just giving that ownership and seeing those specific students take that um those steps and that initiative like it helps it's just it's modeling. It's like why representation matters right because if you can see a student doing it then you can do it too.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Absolutely and it goes into the instructional strategy I think I think it's Marzano talks about the impact of teaching somebody what not to do and when you can obviously see what not to do then it does steer you towards hey this is what we do do.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

I think that's in like a language that I have oh no we don't do that here. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Yes I no I appreciate okay but I want to get to this because I think you've danced around it but I really want you to hone in because it is Miss Langley it is your voice that has done this is we are a campus that uses we consider ourselves a Capture and Kids Arts campus. We have a lot of teachers trained in capture and kids arts we do we we give out student awards based on the monthly traits. We talk about the monthly traits all the time there's a voice for it there's four questions that go along with it. Then we also have a a district adopted second step SEL curriculum and that that has explicit teaching about it. And then as we've learned more and more about the behavior solutions process and the essential behaviors and the reason that that goes so in line with our academic PLC at work journey with the tiered approach to um to behavior it has been your voice that says hold on there can't be three different things why and again you describe someone who likes a structure and likes consistency and likes a system how have you worked to do that give some specific examples if you had them and again why is that so important well we we can't do it all we have to do some things we have to do a few things well right less better.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

But all of the programs that we have are essentially promoting or showing the same thing. So something that we did or I did looking at our bears and our choices with being kind engaged accepted and respectful and safe is we connected that to the capturing kids'hearts the four questions the reflections we have a reflection sheet that we're trying to really um reinforce is being utilized across campus if we have you know repetitive or consistent um choices being made that don't align with what we're teaching and we're allowing students to we're allowing students to reflect on their behaviors and try to really isolate the why right we want to know the function and the behavior but I also think it's important that we're communicating that to students and helping them understand like oh you really just wanted attention or if you needed to get out of the classroom like don't ask to go to the restroom just say hey Miss Langley can I take a lap and we've been doing a lot of testing lately and I had a student say like hey can I just go run the track really fast I'm like yeah I'll stand at the door and watch you. Yes. Right. But having one thing that we can do consistently is what's gonna help us. When I was going through my um educational leadership program and I needed to look at data we you know we only had suspension data. We didn't have something looking at each other I was so embarrassed and nothing to offer you. Yeah and so I mean it was really just a perfect time to go through that program because we were doing so much of the work here already.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

One of the things that we just started again another shout out I think it was tickled no was it Valley View Valley View and their tracking of those behavior reflection sheets uh something that I I loved and I felt like it really just gave um validation to what we're already doing is we we aligned or we looked at the social behaviors from behavior solutions and we looked at our bears expectations and our reflections and we were able to align them right so just for one of them if students not using responsible verbal interaction with peers um with that's not being kind and that's not being respectful right and if they're doing that with their peers or um adults right they might not be kind they're not being respectful and perhaps they're not even being safe right depending how that's happening.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

And keep going because I have thoughts but I want you to keep going.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

So um just connecting that so looking at appropriate language right if we're connecting that to our bears they're not being kind they're not being accepting they're not being respectful. If they are not being engaged in class if they're not in independently staying on a required task is a social behavior from behavior solutions that's not being engaged right from our bears behavior program. So we were able to look at the um to look at what we already have and connect them right and kind of like classify them into there. So we're not trying to reinvent the wheel and do something new but we're able to like mesh what it is that we already do. You know one of the the next steps that I would like to do is to look at our second step and align those to what it is that we're teaching or emphasizing that month with capturing kids' hearts because if we have that alignment then we're not having to go here and there and look through it right it's like when we do a math or a learning ladder for math and ELA like it's the same thing. But it's just we need to give that the same emphasis as we do.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

I'm kind of blown away because I haven't heard you say that that's the next step. We've all heard it it's recorded now publicly and I will record now. I will record now and say tell me what you need let's make that happen because yeah how impactful would that be to say hey here is a guaranteed viable curriculum of essential behaviors that we want to teach. It is aligned with these programs, these high resource tools that we have and here are here is access to what we think in what order. And yeah it takes a lot of pressure off a teacher to um define what their next steps are it's hey how can we support you okay I do want to go right back to what you're talking about with the data tracking. So just for some some some real quick context um yes I I I sheepish again this this podcast has some of those moments where you did come to me during your program and say hey I need to track some behavior data I could do this project. And I said I all I got is suspension data and we didn't suspend anybody last year. So here's our blank data. And it was this like what major and minor conversations like we weren't tracking any minors so that we could actually explicitly teach instruction. And so what I've loved is you took that moment that kind of like oh my gosh we don't have that and then as we've evolved into a year later give or take into this data tracking to try to figure out where what is the the the cause of this behavior you're then connecting it to the tier one behavior instruction that's taking place because we're not expecting students to just magically know it. We're connecting it back to saying hey we we taught this and we and we demonstrate we will let's talk about what mastery of being kind looks like and how subjective is that is to how to master being kind. But we have that connection to say here's the language you've heard before let's work our way through it.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

And I love that even like just modeling those situations right okay like you you took your friend's crayon you know how can we do this next time what should you do and yeah using those situations are the words you took your friend's crayon and then they pushed you to the ground because I don't like it.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Like we can avoid all these things. Okay this has been amazing um for context um Mallory Langley along with two other members of our logistics leadership team are headed with us to go to the Hannigans Behavior Solutions workshop next week we are incredibly excited about it. We're also hoping that after that after that workshop they've agreed to it I'm saying it out now the Hannigans will come on this podcast and talk about some of their work and where the ideas came from and kind of better um go from there.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

I'd definitely love to hear more about the behavior academies too because I think that's also a next step for us is being able to utilize that for our tier one instruction.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

I think that and again I'm gonna I'm gonna say it I have read through most books and I really do as much as I have a really clear understanding on academically tier one, tier two, tier three, I am still doing a lot of learning on like what behavior and structure fits into what tier and what student receives it and I'm really excited to learn about it. Okay, but I do have to ask you this question that's not behavior related and then I'm hoping that I can pull something off that I did pull off for um Cami Sunday's episode.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Okay why do you have a cardboard cutout of Justin Bieber in your classroom?

SPEAKER_01 32:31

I'm just saying out there I don't know if he just lives in my classroom so my daughter had two Justin Bieber parties growing up I think one was five for sure and one might have been I know it wasn't three maybe like four and six I don't know but he survived she's 18 now and he lived in my grandma's backyard for probably weather resistant I mean it was a covered patio and so I just brought him to class and I used to have him up against the windows and our windows are kind of tinted and um it would scare students sometimes and and I thought that was hilarious. And he did he made an actual appearance we had a dance a couple years ago and the baby came on and Justin ran over. But he's just there and he has the the phrase like I'll tell you one time and that's my daughter back when she was young she said mom you're like Justin Bieber you only want to tell us one time and I do like I and my kids my students they'll even say like she already told us like and and they'll self-correct.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

And that's self-corrected but again using Justin Bieber to set the expectation like here is my behavioral expectation. I'm gonna tell you one time I expect you to give it a shot not be perfect but give it an appropriate shot. Okay so you may not know this because we record in funny times to when episodes come out um we have a new AI um music DJ his name's Matt Swope that's a real person but he does music through AI and I told him that you had a Justin Bieber um cutout and I said can you make us the can you so there was a new theme song presented on Cami Sundays and I said can you make it now as if Justin Bieber sang it and then he said I think it actually accidentally got Aria Grande so here's AI singing a theme song about our podcast what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 35:29

I mean it was super cute. It's a little long yeah it was a little long it was super cute I I personally I think next time you should try to do like a 90s hip hop version and that would be totally up my alley. Okay. And I think it you know and it would be a little bit faster.

SPEAKER_00 35:44

Yeah the joke in there from our AI DJ is that the name of our podcast is way too long and then so he makes theme songs that are way too long for theme songs and just makes fun of that. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

But we will try a 90s hip hop one next time I feel like you should also ask Miss Phillips to sing one because she would rock that.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

She would do really well. So Miss Phillips will be coming on shortly Miss Phillips is one of our learning support teachers specifically towards reading foundational skills and she is we call them the law firm of Zook and Phillips and um they are doing fantastic work. Miss Langley I'm so glad that you came on to talk about um behavior is there any last thing that you feel like from the books and papers that are sitting in front of you that you feel like we didn't get a chance to come out there but no this is not your only time on here um I don't think so I think we really covered everything. I'm also thinking about my next conference she does have parent conferences where we that's the nice thing about this we are on campus at Canyon Springs. There are parent conferences going on we're gonna let Miss Langley get back to it. So again thank you so much not just for your time talking about it but also in your leadership for what it means to take on behavior initiatives and to really spearhead the concept that and to live it not just talk about it but to live it in that behavior is explicitly taught to our Canyon Springs bears thus allowing them to access the instruction being the academic instruction being presented their way and I I think it's been school changing and climate changing for our campus.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

For sure.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Now turn to your PLTs for your next steps in your PLC at work journey and we'll see you out there you can find more information about this week's episode in the podcast description the intro and outro music provided courtesy of the Signors of Marseille and podcast cover art provided care of Jolby