[ma2nojo]

Has anyone used Love and Logic in the middle school.

Just a little background...I teach 7th grade IEP classes at an inner city school where most of the students are challenged in many ways- poverty, parenting, gangs, drugs, fighting!, and extremely low test scores (in all areas). Last year (andy apparently many previous years) kids would think nothing of walking down the hall during classes, running into rooms and telling everyone to "f" off then running off again. I think our school averages at least 15 fights a week- with perhaps 2 fights where the students are handcuffed and taken away. The administration is drowning in office referrals, disciplinary issues, parents or relatives who come to school and try to fight. Personally, I think the teachers need to take over the school (take it back from the students).

Anyway, has anyone used Love and Logic in a middle school with success? I was thinking about trying it this year.

I work with 5th and 6th graders in Special Ed. My area is students with emotional and behavioral difficulties. I think that Love and Logic can be very useful for older students. Even using the "lingo" of love and logic: "what a bummer, how sad" etc. would be a great tool for teachers to have. The love and logic institute sells a CD specifically about Love and Logic in the classroom an it is an excellent resource. When I have particularly challenging students, I listen to it in my car on the way to work to help refresh how to deal with these kiddos. I would also recommend looking into a more global behavior approach for your school. Look into "Vision Management" by Diana Day. We are beginning to use this in our schools and are currently getting trained in this and I think it might be useful to you too. Some of it reminds me of Love and Logic but it also adds goal setting and many other positive things as well. HOpe that helps.

[GigglesnGrins]

The first school that I worked at was a middle school (5-8) and the whole school used the Love and Logic approach, especially the principal. It was amazing to me how well it did work with these students. I was not teaching in the building when they first started using it and I heard from some of the other staff that it took a little while to get the students used to this approach, but while I was there it really cut down on discipline problems. It also made dealing with the problems that did occur much simpler. I actually like Love and Logic more at this level than I do at the elementary level.