Yeah, But What About This Kid?

23 Jun 2021    

Grace Dearborn & Scott Sturgeon

We’ve all heard the stories of a student with extreme, volatile, or dangerous behaviors with whom nothing has worked. The practical answers, the actual solutions to help kids like this are not always easy or available and it occurred to Grace Dearborn that the answers are missing in current educational literature, training, and practice. So, with the help of Scott Sturgeon, associate professor of practice at UNL, they shared answers in their book, “Yeah, But What About This Kid?”

The book gives teachers, mentors, and administrators the strategies and structures they need to succeed with their most challenging and vulnerable students. It provides the missing pieces for both creating effective classroom and school wide disciple systems, as well as improving interventions and support for Tier 3 students and the educators who work with them.

“Success in education is found all over the country, in every kind of school, with all types of challenges,” Sturgeon said. “Such successes share some common threads. This book is our attempt to make these threads visible and replicable.”

The most important takeaway is that adults change first. Sturgeon said if we want a different outcome from students we are serving, we can only control ourselves and all of our focus should be making changes to ourselves and the environment to provide an opportunity for change with the student.

Dr. Sturgeon joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2020 as an associate professor of practice. He earned a BA, MA in Education with a Specialization in Comprehensive Arts Education, a Graduate Certificate in Urban Schools, and EdD from UNO. He also earned his MA in Educational Leadership from Doane University. Since 2017, he served as an Executive Director and Principal Supervisor, providing coaching and supervision to more than 20 principals in various settings and levels across the Omaha Public Schools. He has co-led the OPS New Principal Institute and served as the district contact for the Wallace Foundation Principal Pipeline Professional Learning Community. Follow him on Twitter @SturgeonDr.