Dr. Deborah J. Goodwin, Consulting

I am pleased to be serving on the executive board of this agency. We are serving kids!!

At a Children’s Advocacy Center, the team comes to the child — not the other way around. We coordinate care between:
👮 Law Enforcement
🛡️ Child Protective Services
⚖️ Prosecutors
👩‍⚕️ Medical Professionals
🧠 Therapists
👩‍👧 Family Advocates
🎙️ Forensic Interviewers
This model is proven to reduce trauma and increase justice.

Brenda
Breckinridge
Contact me please

Good Friday Everyone!! I will be at Colton's Steakhouse in Batesville from 11-8 today showing and selling my ParkLane Jewelry. Everything is 50-75% off. Come see me . I'll be in one of the party or event rooms. (Thanks so much to Colton's for helping a small local business.) Come see Me!! I'd love to see you!

Hey everyone!
The current link for shopping my park lane jewelry is

Shop with me

Love this.

This is an article I wrote a while back. I am praying for teachers trying to meet the individual needs of students in today's world.

A Paradigm Shift Long Over Due

I found a wonderful new resource for informing educators on just what is effective instruction. A body of 47 educators cooperated in the production of this resource. They gathered information from over 150 publications and experts in the field of education.

Please allow me to share some of my favorite points from the book.
On page 8 under Principles of Learning and Teaching, the writers say that common practice in many class rooms is not in sync with what we know about human development and learning. Next, they say that learning comes from experience, and that the ideal learning situations include integrated curriculum, varied teaching strategies, and are “intensified” through meaningful situations.
The authors further state that the purpose of education is to equip students to be well-rounded individuals who are able to participate in a democratic society, and more, that they should experience a democratic society in their classrooms.

The writers indicate that the programs in Arkansas Schools are often too rigid to permit desirable development in students, such as personal control and responsibility. They recommend some interesting activities for each day. First, they say, there should be an opening event of some type – an anticipatory set, an anchoring activity, etc., that should be the bright spot of the day, “alive with variety and interest.” Next, the day should proceed with an “activity period” where students “make plans, evaluate their progress and engage in a wide variety of activities.” And, they say, every day students should have music, art, and club meetings.

My response when I read this was, WOW! Somebody is interested in developing the Whole Child.

The most interesting part of the resource is the date. These thoughts are from Bulletin VI of the Instructional Guidance and Suggested Materials for Small Schools, printed by the Arkansas Co-operative Program to Improve Instruction. It was distributed by the State Department of Arkansas in 1937. This little book caught my eye at a yard sale; there were hundreds of books, but this one called my name…it was the only one I bought; reading it was humbling. It is a paradigm shift long over-due, this switch from adult-centered to student-centered schooling.

A colleague shared with me the other day a quote she had heard at a meeting. Someone said, “Wouldn’t it be scary if we already knew what to do?” I say WOW, again. What if we really do know what to do? If we do, if we know what works in schools and we know what the characteristics of effective schools are, then what is the problem, or is there a problem? It is a little scary to think that we might already know what we should be doing in school, and if there is a disconnect between what we know and what we do, could we be guilty of educational mal-practice? Scary.

An Education Week article published in December 2010 reported the results of a new Study released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The researchers found that failing schools across the nation “rarely get better-or shut down.”

Over the past several years, the Arkansas Department of Education, the Arkansas Education Cooperatives, The Arkansas Leadership Academy, and the Arkansas chapter of ASCD, as well as universities, private companies and individuals, have provided some of the best staff development opportunities available anywhere. There are resources galore: Programs, Initiatives, and, more.

As a teacher, a principal, and an assistant superintendent I spent many hours in staff development events, and have presented in many; and, as I looked at the various resources and relics from these activities, I noticed some common, recurring themes. Some of the things we know work in school are systems management, organizational change models, Professional Learning Communities, intrsructional coaching, improving school culture, instructional leadership, personal and group empowerment and accountability, effective teaching strategies and effective teacher training. All of these concepts permeate the staff development available in Arkansas, but as a practitioner it can be very daunting to try and figure out where to begin, where to go and how to sustain growth.

As I have traveled the state of Arkansas, I have become convinced that we have some of the very best intended educators in the world. I have visited some schools and classrooms where all of the things recommended in 1937 and in 2011 as correlates with effective schooling are being implemented. But, I have also visited many schools and school rooms where there is a definite disconnect between known effective practices and reality in the classroom.

What is the problem? When presented with the things that work, do educators just say, “Well, that might work somewhere else, with someone else’s students.” Maybe. But more often, I think teachers are presented with ideas that they know would work, but are not given the support through the initiation, implementation and certainly the institutionalization phase of changing instructional strategies.

The main problem I see with implementing change, which is essentially what we are talking about here, is that we implement programs and initiatives without doing the difficult work of building relationships within our organizations that will sustain the change efforts through to the institutionalization phase.

It is long past time for the paradigm shift to educating the whole child that was proposed in 1937. However, the missing piece is what some people often call “The Soft Stuff.” The “Soft Stuff” often gets left out of our change initiatives because; the Soft Stuff is the Hard Stuff, or it is not seen as necessary, or it takes up time. It’s not easy to build the kinds or relationships that can withstand the turmoil of the change process. As Roger Enrico, Vice President of Pepsi Co, said “The soft stuff is always harder than the hard stuff.”

I really belief the soft stuff, taking time to create the capacity in any organization, is the missing link to success for schools and students. Let’s get it done, but let’s not forget to prepare to get it done correctly and be able to sustain the efforts we spend so much time and money on in Arkansas.

Thinking along these lines merges my Master’s Degree in Communication and my doctorate in Educational Leadership. I have some ideas---more to follow! It’s an exciting time to be an educator in Arkansas.

Dr. Debbie Goodwin, Fullan, Michael. All systems go: the change imperative for whole school improvement. 2010. Corwin Press; Thousand Oaks California

Goodwin, Debbie. Creating capacity brochure. Printed by…And Learning for All. 2011

Phepps. W.E. (ed). Instructional guidance and suggested materials for small schools. 1937. Bulletin no. VI. Arkansas State Department of Education.

For all the teachers getting ready for school.

"
There's no word in the language I revere more
than 'teacher.' My heart sings when a kid refers
to me as his teacher, and it always has. I've
honored myself and the entire family of man by
becoming a
teacher."
--
Pat Conroy, Prince of Tides

I still miss it.

It really is OK to do this. 🥰

Others can encourage you, but you have to do the work yourself. If a butterfly doesn't work its way though the cocoon, it will never fly right.