1. RTP In the Third & Fourth Grade by Susan Alexie

This is a short success story. I had three frequent fliers who were often in the
Responsible Thinking Classroom. Now they are able to get through the morning in class, whereas they used to be in the RTC sometime every morning. Now it is at least 2 p.m. before they go to RTC. I feel that is progress. Perhaps the day will come when they can make two or three full days in class without a trip to RTC.
 

2. RTP by a kindergarten teacher

My main success story with RTP is that, as a teacher, I am much happier and less stressed out than in previous years of working in "bush Alaska". In every K-12th grade school I have ever worked in rural Alaska, except for this year, the hallways in the mornings and after school and during the school day are not pleasant places. Older students are almost always hanging out and making rude comments or doing things they shouldn't be doing, or running in the halls. Younger students have not been well behaved and are often rude to teachers, since they can run in and out and there is no follow-up or consequence with teachers other than their own teacher. In the past, I used to go home with a headache every day from the environment within the school. This is the first year of my bush teaching that I leave the school at the end of the day feeling good, physically. I believe the nice pleasant environment that RTP has created in our school is the main reason I feel so good at the end of each day. To me, that is a wonderful success story because it means that my attitude is better each day than it ever has, and I have the opportunity to impart life to my students because I am not worn out, myself.
 

3. RTP in the RTC Room by John Chase

A parent came into the Responsible Thinking Classroom during parent/ teacher conferences. As I was explaining the Responsible Thinking procedures, she said something like "Oh, this is RTC." I was curious as to why she would say that and so I asked her for more information.

The parent then explained that her 5th grade daughter, her daughter's friend, who is another 5th grader, and a kindergarten age kid, were playing RTC at home. The children were playing in the bedroom. One of the 5th graders say on a chair and played "teacher" and the others who played "students" sat on the floor. The role-playing was complete with a blank sheet sign-in sheet with their name, the reason why they were in RTC, and a signature. Students who were "sent" to RTC would go to the couch in the living room. The parent said, "I thought it as kind of funny."
 

4. RTP in the District Information Systems Department by Jon Clouse

My success story does not involve students, a classroom, or an administrative experience. My success story involves my ideas about discipline, communication, and raising my child. The Responsible Thinking Process (RTP) is based on the Perceptual Control Theory (PCT), which has been around for quite some time. However, the ideas behind PCT and RTP are quite new to me. Reading the Discipline for Home and School Book One has exposed me to a different interpretation of discipline, an interpretation that has given me a chance to try methods that make a lot of sense.

I entered the RTP class, taught by Jack Foster, as a skeptic and remained a skeptic until I heard about the changes in student behavior that were occurring in Togiak School. As I read farther into the book, the general ideas behind the method were making more sense and I began to want to learn more about RTP. I especially liked the idea that teachers were in the schools to teach and not spend their precious time disciplining students. I began to evaluate my ideas of classroom discipline and what I was taught about discipline in the classroom from the college I attended. I found it amazing that the university system continues to teach a system of discipline that tries to control students and not build responsible thinkers. RTP suddenly made a lot of sense to me.

The basic ideas of using questions to teach kids to think about their actions and the consequences appealed to me as a parent. I brought home the ideas that I was reading about and began discussing them with my wife. I tried to understand her perceptions in regards to family goals and I began to ask clarifying questions. Our communication skills were good to begin with but they improved even more once I became aware of her perceptions.

RTP has made me rethink my ideas about raising children. I really like the use of questions to start a dialogue with your child about an action that wasn't appropriate. I especially like the premise of using a non-threatening voice so you aren't intimidating or creating fear in your child. I like that fact that my child will have the chance become aware of her perceptions and how to achieve those perceptions without disturbing others. I don't believe that RTP is a fix all for everything, but I do believe that RTP in combination with quality time, loving parents, role models, and many other important factors will give my child the confidence and self-esteem to pursue the path to happiness and success in life.
 

5. RTP In The Elementary Grades by Vicky Dawson

Success Story #1

After riding the school bus home after tutoring, I was surprised to see so many of my own students not following the school bus rules and playing a hurtful game. The next day at school I held a classroom meeting to discuss what I had seen and talk about school bus safety. While the students remembered many of the school bus rules, they did admit they do not always follow those rules.

Next I asked them about the game they were playing and how it felt when they were the one that got hurt. Several students said they did not like it when they got hurt. One student responded with the RTP questions. He spoke up loudly with the first question, "What are you doing?" and said that they should use the questions from the Responsible Thinking Process when they felt like they were in a situation that was out of control.
 

I was quite surprised to see this transfer of knowledge and hope that my students will actually remember to use it outside of the classroom.

 

Success Story #2

I have one student that continually disrupts during health class. She does not like this class and she would rather receive a failing grade and sit in the RTC room during this time. On this day she disrupted two times and was sent to the RTC room. The lesson plan for health that day included going into the computer lab and doing research on the Internet. When this student came back to the classroom and realized she missed computer time, she was very upset and said it was unfair of me to take the students into the computer lab when she was gone.

The next time we had health class this same student told me she wasn't going to go back to the RTC room again, because she doesn't want to miss any "fun stuff." Looking back at her data, after this incident, her RTC referrals have gone down considerably. She used to go to the RTC at least 3 times a week. Now she has had 3 weeks without going to the RTC room at all, and one week where she only went one time. I think she's making some better choices.

6. RTP In Special Education Pre K- 5th Grade by Carl Dirkers

Even with the very young Special Education students, the concepts of the Responsible Thinking Process are understood. While observing students, they assert their right to a peaceful classroom. This occurrence countered the expectation that these concepts were beyond the grasp of early elementary Special Education students.

In the one instance, Kindergarten students criticized a student having a temper tantrum saying they could not hear the teacher and she was disrupting.

In another instance a mildly delayed student was very fully aware of what would happen if his disruption continued. I conclude that these students do comprehend the program.

7. RTP In the Fifth Grade by Deb Endicott

When we started the year, three of my students were frequent flyers in the RTC. About six weeks into the program, they got the picture. The first quarter grades were done and two of the three boys were passing all of the subjects. When I went to calculate for Honor Roll, both boys were very close to earning Honor Roll. I had to check my computation twice. I couldn't believe it. My pre-set mind did not include them as a possibility for Honor Roll. But they proved me wrong. Way to go.
 

8. RTP from the Perspective of Maintenance by Kim Endicott

I work as a consultant with the building construction, and I don't interact on a regular basis with any of the students. I have noticed a significant difference in the amount of garbage, graffiti, and cigarettes left outside the building, as well as incidents of broken windows and other building damage. Since the school started the Responsible Thinking Program, such problems have greatly decreased.

The other night our son, Kevin was coming back from the store at 10:00. He helps out with maintenance there sometimes. He told my wife, Kim, and I that the kids in the village were playing tag football in the street lights by the store. There must of been 30 kids there sitting on the 4-wheelers and snow-gos. Kids were laughing, and enjoying playing the game on the "warm" winter night. Kevin said that would not of happened last year. All the kids playing together and having fun. Kevin said "See Mom, that RTP is doing good." He's right, when it is brought to my attention - their social skills are better. Hat's off to RTP.

9. RTP in the Lunchroom by Corey Evans

I was working in the lunch room near the beginning of the year, and met a student at the entrance to the gym. The student was calling another student a nasty name when I arrived, so I began to ask the five questions. The student was unresponsive to the questions, and I was stumped. I was getting ready to take him to the office, which is what would have happened under the old system. I was disappointed because the student was going to miss his whole lunch recess and end up talking to the principal over something that could be handled right away. I was not even sure that he understood why I was talking to him or if he understood the questions, since the program was still new.

Right about the time I was going to say "let's go to the office" I had an idea. I said, "By not answering, you're telling me you do not want to work on this right now. Is that what you want?" I then told him if he did not want to work on this now I could take him to the RTC. He could think about it there, and we could work on this later. Well my concern about his understanding was soon gone because the student responded and said that he would work on this right now and he did not want to go to the RTC. I then talked with the student about using bad language. After an apology, he returned to his lunch recess with his first reminder but had no further problems.
 

10. RTP In The Classroom by Marlis Evans (Clark's Point is another school in the Southwest Region School District)


It is hard as I don't have much discipline in my classroom but I've realized I am going to use RTP in my classroom because I have one or two students with whom I take time out and they aren't being responsible.

It is a success story when I read the chapter on the coach where the coach found out that students buy in or take it as there own it is their team and it should be theirs.
 

11. RTP In Special Education 5th - 8th Grade by Sam Gosuk

Here is my success story. After just a few months, I now conclude that the students have the Responsible Thinking questions down in their minds. I asked one student the first question last week. She responded just like the book said another student did. She stated, "I know," and spoke all the answers and said that she was going to back to work. Our students now know the consequences of their actions. As a result, in class we don't have to take as much time to ask students questions. We can ask just two questions: "What are you doing?" and "What is going to happen next?" The student knows what is going to happen next so he or she can start making good choices. Even though they do go to RTC, I think we have made progress this way. Students know the process and purpose of questions now.

The same student compared to last year is calmer now. She argues less, and she is not getting away with certain behaviors that usually she would "get away with." The student is working more in class now and spending less time disrupting other students. This has been possible as a result of our dedication to the Responsible Thinking Process.

12. RTP In High School Science by Martin Hutchison

I have a female student who seems to enjoy being very rude. Perhaps the perception that she is trying to control is that she is "above" correction and so uses rudeness and sarcasm to try to drive away authority.

This student reacted to the RTP process by finding the finest line to hover on to avoid being called to think about her rudeness. After she had two RTC referrals in a row, where she escalated after the referrals prior to leaving the classroom for the RTC, we put her on an earn-back process where she had to show, 10 minutes per day, that she could behave in my class.

The earn-all process made it harder to enjoy her "victory" over me (by taking my time and ruining my lessons) because she was then unable to attend classes for long enough to bask in her glory. The first few days she tried to, but then she began to realize that she would rather be in the classroom rather than RTC. She tried to complain her way back in, but she only had control of her behavior, not of my class. She had to make the decision to
control herself and live by the class rules in order to be a part of the class. She did eventually make that decision by the second week.
 

13. RTP in Middle School Science by Jim Hutson

At the beginning of the school year, I was having behavioral problems with a sixth grade girl. I sent her to RTC several times with little improvement. She would not stay focused. She came to class without her textbook. We started planting seeds in science class. I had only a limited amount of potting soil. She planted a small bean seed. It grew and she got very excited about it!

The next Saturday, I just happened to be at her grandfather's local store and asked for potting soil. When I told him what we were doing he gave me a huge bag free. I took it to school and she planted many different plants. She took the plants home and later brought back 4" bean pods and ate them in class.

She told me that she had a regular garden in her house with all kinds of plants. The next time I talked to the grandfather he said that he had a house full of plants from his granddaughter. He was very pleased! She has upgraded her attitude in science class and is proud of finding her book. She has become my best student. Just today, she brought me large bean seeds she had raised. She was ready to plant them. I told her that she may have a "green thumb."

 

14. RTP In Middle School Language Arts by Kathy Hutson

Wow, today was the first day that every student, (6th 7th and 8th),in Language Arts classes stayed on task. Everyone was quietly working. No disruptions, not even a single RTP question was asked. I told them how proud I was of them! Now I know why we have worked so hard on this program. Finally I have time to teach everything on the Lesson Plans. I am sure, we will have our rough days but this is so nice.

I also have a 6th grade boy, who was very disruptive at the beginning of this school year. He was very rude to his classmates and teachers. He had a very defiant nature. As time passed and we went through many negotiations on his plans, we started building a relationship. I learned he had a very rough home life. He saw I really cared about him and his future. His hard outer shell started to melt away. He came to our house and helped my husband repair his boat. He worked for over an hour. What a change in his behavior. These are the days I love being a teacher!

15. RTP in 1st and 2nd Grade by Mary Ann Isaacson

I am amazed of how much one student has progressed since the beginning of the year. It took three trips to the Responsible Thinking Classroom for this student to make up his mind to comply with the rules in school. The student had had problems all year in the previous grade and he continued these behaviors the first three days of this year.
Now he's confident, happy and does his very best. He was student of the month for the month of November. When I ask the Responsible Thinking questions, he answers, "I know, I know..." and gets back on task.

16. RTP in 1st and 2nd Grade by Pete Isaacson

Most of the plans students have returned from the RTC with have been vague and general.
"I will listen to the teacher."
"I will be quiet."
"I will not do ______."

These are common sentences they write. This week a student had a specific plan which he followed. He is a student prone to talking a lot and he sits by two girls who also talk. His plan was to move away from them if they tried to talk to him. I told him he could move without asking me. It worked. During independent reading he picked up his books, walked over to a corner, sat down on the floor, and read his books. I think this points out the importance of students have a strategy to use to help them follow their plan.

17. RTP In a Small School by Kip Layton, Jr. (Clark's Point is another school in the Southwest Region School District)

I am happy to be in the RTP class and find the process very interesting. Our school only has fourteen students. Six of them make up my class. I haven't had much need to set up a classroom or deeply ingrain RTP in our school, but I have found success in using the questioning techniques.

When I first began asking them, "What are you doing?" they gave me a dumbfounded look as to say, "What do you think I am doing?" It was a way for them to stall and search for an answer. Now they simply state what they were doing and immediately begin to analyze whether it is what they are supposed to be doing and the consequences of their actions. Sometimes they just rattle off the answers to the next questions.

I notice them thinking more of their actions before they act and I am using the questions less often. To me, that is success.
 

18. RTP In Art Class by Norel Miller

About two months after implementing the RTP at our school, I had a student who had become a frequent flyer in most of her classes. She had started off the year well, a big improvement from the previous year, but she had fallen back into her old habits pretty fast. One day in class, she caused a disruption, and we went through the questioning process.

After asking the questions, she went back to her work with enthusiasm. A while later, she disrupted again. As soon as I looked her way, her face fell. I began the questioning process a second time, and she began nodding her head. She knew right away what she had done. She had become familiar with the process and had accepted that it was her actions that caused the disruptions.

Dealing with this student in the past, she had never accepted fault, and always shifted blame. This was a sign to me that the process was working. For a student to take responsibility for her actions, even if the negative actions continue, is a huge step in the right direction.

19. RTP Success Story as a Mentor by Fanny Parker

As a statewide mentor this year, I have seen many students here andthere and everywhere. The success story I want to share was during one of my observations in one of the Togiak School classrooms. It was student work time and everyone was on task, working quietly.

I saw a student, who normally likes to act out, being asked respectfully by a teacher the RTP questions. That student complied with the teacher, instead of acting out, looked and listened instead to the teacher; made a good choice and ended up doing well the rest of the class period.

I was leery at first when I saw the eyes zooming around and when the student chose to obey and make a good choice, I was so proud. That is my success story.

20. RTP Success Story in Maintenance by John Parker

As a maintenance man, I do not have a lot of direct contact with students, my success story is with the structure of the program. Kids are more concentrated on doing classroom work and doing what they'resuppose to do in school. The kids that are not doing their schoolworkare usually helped in the RTP room. These students are not wandering the halls unsupervised which results in less chance of vandalism, and wear and tear on the building.

The RTP Program keeps everyone in the school working together and the students realize this and come to school to learn. The kids also have more respect for their surroundings.

21. RTC Success Story by Teo Pauk

One day a frequent flyer said this RTC is a joke. "We're not learning anything".
I asked him, "What are you doing right now?" "I'm writing a plan so I can go back to   class," he said. I said "No," and asked him the question again. "What are you really doing right now?"  He said, "Are you blind? I'm writing this stupid plan so I can go back to class!"
I gave him a second to chill. Then I asked him in a calm,  soft voice, "Do you really want to know why you're here?"  "Yes!  Tell me why I'm here," he said in a loud voice.
 

I told him he is in the RTC to learn from the mistakes he's made in class. The student is no longer a frequent flyer. I ran into him in the hall one day and asked him, "How come you don't come and visit us in the RTC?"  He smiled and said, "I already learned from my mistakes in the RTC."

22. RTP In The District Office by David Piazza

While I have not had the opportunity to be part of the Togiak team who are implementing the RTP model on a daily basis, I have been able to begin to utilize a few of these techniques around the office and with my family. While my wife Kim and I have always joked about our family trips as 3,000 miles of "wonderful" family bonding, we know that the time spent viewing the miles of corn fields across the Midwest as we traveled most recently from Seattle to Washington DC has helped to develop positive relationships with our children.
 

During the work year, it been easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, never ending details of work and not appreciate the few evening hours or weekend time when the family is at home together. During this class, I have especially made a conscious effort to think about making each and every interaction with my children a quality time. I have had the opportunity to spend extra time ice skating this Fall with my children. While in some respect this single activity does not seem to be all that important, it reminds me that every little effort to provide and create quality time with my family, co-workers, and my community will pay dividends in the future.

23. RTP in High School Language Arts by Larry Dale Richesin

My classes include students from different grade levels. Some times they get on each other's nerves. In the past, different students would exchange words to the point that their argument would finally become verbal, perhaps even violent.
 

During this past two weeks, two separate students asked for a "Chill Pass." Rather than exhibit antipathy toward another student during class, they realized that there was another option. They decided to separate themselves from a potentially unsetting environment. As a result, the class was not disrupted. After the unsettling moment had passed, they returned to class and gave focused attention to their assignment.

24. Intelligent and Talented by Jill Thweatt

In chapter 27, it talks about a student who is intelligent and talented. One of my students is intelligent and talented. He was frequently going to the RTC up until this week. I talked to him one time when he came back to negotiate. I asked him what he wanted out of this class? Before, when I asked him during our negotiation, he didn't seem to care. He said a couple of times he wanted to get a good grade. He said he didn't want to be in the class because the class was too hard. I asked him if other things in his life were hard to learn?
"When you had to learn to read and write, was it hard?"

 
He said. "Yes." Then he said that he would like to pass the class. I told him if he wanted help that I would help him after school. I asked him if he wanted my help?
He looked at me and said, "Yes."

The next day he asked me when the class was going to be fun? I told him we were doing the fun things while he was working in the RTC. Today we did an experiential exercise in Social Studies. I told the class that I was going to choose someone who I thought needed to be more responsible. I chose him. In the exercise, he was to be the leader, or Emperor of China. The student was head of four sets of students for the exercise. He monitored and kept those groups on task and didn't get obnoxious or loud.

25. RTP at a School Dance by Theo Weber

On Saturday November 19, 2005, I was chaperoning a dance at the school. There were students from early elementary to alumni at this dance. About half way through the evening three third or fourth grade boys pushed a fourth boy into the girls bathroom. I went up to the boys and asked them to come with me and sit at a table in the corner. I knew that they were a little afraid that I would make them leave. Instead, I started with the "What are you doing?"

They knew exactly what they had done and that it was not part of the rules for the dance or the school. When I asked them what they should do? They had a little conference and decided that they needed to apologize to the fourth boy and invite him to play with them. Much later, when I checked, the four of them were still together and had not gotten any other warnings. I felt that they learned something about the feelings of others.

26. A successful look at RTP - Patricia Wick -Middle School 5-8

As many teachers are aware, learning math is very sequential. After a quarter of many, many disruptions via the RTP process, we had not covered as much material as we should have. Also, I believe that some of the disruptions at the end of the quarter were being caused because the students were frustrated with the fact they did not understand anything that was being presented. Even though time was spent with various students after school to help them catch up, these students were really missing the time spent in the classroom listening and participating in the lessons. Also, they were not doing the homework…basically because they could not. Even though I already use alternative assignments for individual students, they were still just falling way behind and keeping the others back. Therefore, I decided to separate my class into two groups after a final quarter test at the end of the week. One group sat in front, the other in back.

Many of the students in the slower group were very intelligent, but were frequent flyers, while a few were just poor students. As a start to the new quarter, we began with a discussion as to why these students were getting those low grades and what we could do about it. Many students listed frequent trips to the RTC as a problem. Then we discussed their goals for the new quarter and how they could help each other meet their goals. This was very worthwhile, and showed that the students had been thinking about it and realized the effect of their choices on their school lives. Through community discussions we came up with a strategy for increasing their grades in math class. I say community because while the back people were discussing the problem, the front people were listening very intently. Also, after class was over, I heard the interaction between both groups of students.

In a couple of weeks we will reach the end of the second quarter. In that time, the number of frequent flyers has gone from five students to two students in this particular class. In fact, I got to send one ex-frequent flyer to the RTC to share with the RTC teachers their specific goal and discuss their success reaching their goal. The RTC teacher was happy to be able to talk to a student who was succeeding. During the second quarter I have seen that both groups have benefited by this split and our discussions about how their behavior is affecting their learning. I can proudly say that all, but the two continuing frequent flyers, have passed their math class covering three times the material. These student's have a better buy-in to their learning and now even ask questions during lecture or labs. They have learned how to be students!