Podcast: Play in new window | Download
A Quick Note to Listeners:
—- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks.
Principals, when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —-
Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker answer a listener question with a five minute response.
The question is: How do you support and develop your teachers who struggle with classroom management?
Listen in to hear their response and thank you for doing what matters!
Meet Bethany Bilodeau:
Dr. Bethany Bilodeau, an expert in human behavior with a Doctorate of Arts in Leadership, has a remarkable career that began teaching high school biology in Guam. She has designed innovative programs to help students achieve academic success and holds numerous certifications in behavioral therapies. She has been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2024 Business of the Year in education and Business Excellence award for Social Equity. Her upcoming guidebook, Ease the Pain in the Classroom: A Guide for Safety and Regulation, is set to launch in 2025.
Bethany says that something listeners might be surprised to learn about is that she did not have a great educational experience for her first eight years of school. Eventually, a personal family tragedy made Bethany realize she wanted to turn her life around and opened her eyes to helping kids who are struggling. Her personal philosophy is that all kids deserve the chance to be successful.
Who She serves:
Most of the students Bethany works with are ones who have the most challenging behaviors. Her company, the Behavior Bootcamp, provides support to school districts for students who have significant behavior problems. Dr. B states that her organization works with students who are classified as tier 3 and beyond. They primarily work with this population and reintegrate them back into the classroom within 3 months, with a 92% success rate.
Areas Taught:
Dr. B’s organization teaches educators how to make students feel physically and emotionally safe. They emphasize areas such as establishing trust, mirroring/labeling, and illusions of control. Bethany discusses how the ability to present empathy and confidence through her body features plays a significant role in helping build trust with kids very quickly. She often teaches educators about the “stance of safety”, which was developed by working with some of the best body experts to learn to read body language and determine how to interact with a student. Some of the body language emphasized for the “stance of safety” includes: thumbs pointed up to convey confidence, head tilted left to convey empathy, and the posture of your knees and feet to convey that you are listening. Dr. Bilodeau also talks about how she always finds something that she genuinely loves about the student she is working with and focuses on that gift. Once the student feels that love, their behavior will start to change.
Mindfulness:
Practicing mindfulness plays a significant role in both Dr. B’s personal life and the way she works with learners. She and her children meditate every single day. In the classroom, Bethany says that it is important for students to first feel safe and regulated before they begin to work on meditation. At first, students may find meditation a little silly, but with practice it becomes something that students look forward to each day. Dr. B recommends that if any listeners would like to try to practice meditation, they should start with a minute at a time and work up from there.
Words of Advice:
When asked “what advice would you give if you were talking to someone who is stepping into a season of challenge or change?”, Dr. Bilodeau gives two pieces of advice. The first is that you have to feel safe and regulated in order to take risks. The second is that in order to change and grow, you have to embrace challenges and risks.
For her final piece of advice to listeners, Bethany says that if you want to break the cycle of problematic behavior in a child you have to receive them back to school with empathy and care.
You can stay connected with Dr. Bilodeau through her website: https://www.thebehaviorbootcamp.com/
