Introducing WhyTry’s “Surrendering the One-up” Workshop

Here at WhyTry, we believe that the key to creating positive change with youth doesn’t lie in interventions alone, but in the relationship you establish with youth. That’s why we’re excited to announce the new “Surrendering the One-up Relationship” Workshop, which provides staff members with several strategies for building positive relationships, and improving even the most dreary or frustrating classroom environments. The half-day workshop includes:

Tools to foster positive paradigm shifts
A strength-based approach to relationship building
Strategies to acknowledge accomplishments and build value and worth
A set of “lifetime rules” to establish in your classroom
Ways to create an environment of safety
Overcoming the fear of failure
Coaching on “giving second chances”
Discussion of WhyTry’s 3 R’s: Relationship, Relevance, and Resiliency

If you schedule a “Surrendering the One-up” before the end of June, you qualify for $1000 off.

Click here for the workshop flyer, or contact us to learn more.

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Enhancing WhyTry with a professional learning community

“We really think with each other as far as using WhyTry… We’re trying to determine what works best.” -Cindy Weber, Comprehensive Student Support Provider

Cindy Weber returned from her Level 1 WhyTry Training just over a year ago excited to begin implementing the program with the middle school students she works with on a daily basis. The training gave her the foundation for getting started, but she attributes the program’s growing success to a group of six other women – comprehensive support providers from other middle schools – who formed a professional learning community following the training.

“We meet every other week, sometimes every week, on Wednesday morning for about three hours, depending on our agenda,” she said. “We really think with each other as far as using WhyTry, sharing activities, what’s working and isn’t working… We’re trying to determine what works best.”

Recently the women were asked to take on one elementary school each on top of their middle school caseload, and having the group already in place has been a big help.

“We started doing what we could with WhyTry as an elementary program, and it’s gone really well. Banding together has helped us know how we’re each covering the posters, how much time we spend on each one. We break it down. And depending on the group of kids, we’re finding we can cover one poster in three sessions for one group while the next one might take six.”

Cindy is a Comprehensive Student Support Provider for the highest risk elementary and middle school students at Fontana Middle School and Primrose Elementary in Fontana, California. Students are pulled from an elective or PE class once a week with 6-8 other students to learn the principles of WhyTry under Cindy’s direction. Currently, Cindy’s caseload totals 104 students.

Thanks to many of the ideas exchanged in her PLC, Cindy has watched WhyTry transform the lives of several of her students. “Kids have turned it around from straight Fs to Cs,” she said. “Some of them had huge truancy issues, and have gone from 40 days last year to 10. That’s huge. Some kids last year had major suspension issues and this year maybe had one. We look for any steps that are in the right direction.” Cindy said that her students love the learning activities that are a key component of the program, and she’s getting better every day at keeping her students focused and involved. “As we continue with it we become better,” she said. “It’s only going to get better with using.”

Cindy said starting a PLC in your school or district is simply a matter of forming a team and making it happen. District buy-in is also key, she said, but that increases as people at the district level start to see results. “We produce an agenda and keep minutes every time we meet, and we’ve told our district bosses that they’re welcome to come in any of our meetings. We’re just being translucent. We’re a team.” Further evidence of the PLC’s success has been the pre and post tests they’ve created together to assess the program’s effectiveness with their students. “Some people like doing their own thing, but if I don’t have to reinvent the wheel I don’t want to. Plus I like sharing it with others.”

If you’re finding it difficult to form your own professional learning community in your school or district, take advantage of the WhyTry PLC available in a WhyTry Online Curriculum subscription.

If you have similar stories about how WhyTry has benefited your school or organization, contact us or leave a comment below or on our Facebook page.

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Meet the WhyTry Training Team

They love what they do. They’re passionate about youth success. And they’re wholly converted to the WhyTry Program. Here’s what this talented group has to say about what they see in WhyTry:

Chris Brown:

“I truly feel that the WhyTry Program is the umbrella and/or starting point of a comprehensive education. Aristotle said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education… WhyTry is about the HEART and Relationships. It’s about life skills and how math, english and the sciences must be relative to understanding and appreciating each of our worlds. It is about courage and getting up every time we get knocked down. Rocky said it best in this clip: http://youtu.be/_Z5OookwOoY”

Gina Purcell:

“WhyTry is a program designed to motivate children and youth (as well as adults) using videos, music, visual analogies, and activities. It is unusual in the sense that the methods implemented are very effective yet rarely used. I used the program with youth for 9 years and it was very effective in motivating youth, helping build relationships with them, and teaching them basic life skills. One of my favorite things about this program is that it’s not just giving kids skills to get kids through school, it’s giving them skills to get through life.”

Steve Robinette:

“WhyTry is much more than social/emotional curriculum for youth who are at risk. WhyTry helps kids and adults at all levels in life to take a look in the mirror and build a game plan for their future starting day one. Many educators have told me that their experience with WhyTry has not only helped how they work with their kids but has been a life changing experience for them as well!”

Bruce Bushnell:

“This program teaches social and emotional life skills in a multi-sensory approach, catering to all the learning styles. We’re helping students look at their challenges differently and helping them turn their challenges into positive motivation. Essentially, we’re helping them answer the question, “Why put effort into life?”

Mark Fuller:

“The key in helping our youth is to make today relevant. That’s what most teachers are trying to do for their students day in and day out. And the WhyTry Program helps them meet that goal.”

To learn more about the varied and inspiring backgrounds of the WhyTry trainers, click here.