Dear Kid Whisperer,

I am not considered an official educator, but I do have time with my kids every day before school. I am a bus driver, and I believe I have a big impact on my kids. As they say, "I am the first face they see in the morning." I have, at most, one hour of time each morning with my kids. They are special needs students, and each has a different challenge. I wonder what you have to offer that can be used with my students in less than one hour. I have elementary and middle school kids. Thanks for anything you can offer.

Answer: I’m not sure what an “official educator” is, but I can tell you right now that you are an educator. Not only are you an educator, you could potentially be the most important educator that your students come across on any given day, and I am honored to be able to answer your excellent question.

As you reference, being the first person in your school district to interact with a kid every day is a huge responsibility. For these kids getting on your bus, you ARE the school district. This may be even more true with some of your special needs kids.

When I train bus drivers, I emphasize that they have three primary objectives:

To keep the kids safe.

To make the kids feel loved.

To create a bus environment where kids’ positive behaviors get them more attention and control and attention than their negative behaviors.

Keep Kids Safe

You’re on your own here. I can’t help you on this. I can barely drive a regular car, let alone a bus. And a bus with kids on it? Forget it. I’m in awe of anyone who can drive a school bus.

Make Kids Feel Loved

You are in such a powerful position to make kids feel loved right away. Every time you pick up a student, you need to stand up, move toward the student, even if it’s just a couple of steps down the bus stairs, and give them an ESPN Greeting: This includes Eye Contact, a Smile, Physical Contact, and the saying of their Name. Use whatever physical contact you are comfortable with that is approved by your district, with the obvious caveat that if kids don’t want to have physical contact, we don’t have physical contact with them.

Take the time to get to know students as you are ESPNing them. Before they sit down, get to know how they are doing, ask about their lives, be friendly, be kind, and shower them with attention and love. You will get back the few extra minutes that you spend with kids because you will have to spend less time reacting to negative behaviors.

Acting this way with students can’t stop once you are done ESPN Greeting them. It needs to continue throughout the bus ride. Whenever it can be done safely, keep talking to kids, including sharing about your life so they can see you as a person, and not just the person who takes them from one place to another. And as you’ve probably guessed, each kid’s ride also needs to end with an ESPN Goodbye.

Create an Environment Where Positive Behaviors Get More Attention than Negative Behaviors

On most buses, #2 won’t change behaviors very significantly without #3.

Right now, write out the three most important behaviors you want to see on the bus from your students. Plan to notice kids when they use these behaviors (see below).

Then, think of the three most common negative behaviors that students use and write those down. Plan to ask questions about those behaviors (see below).

Here’s how I would create this environment as I was driving the bus.

Kid Whisperer: I noticed Kid #2 is seated. I noticed Kid #38 has a safe voice level. Kid #25, how should you be seated? What should your voice level be, Kid #9? I noticed Kid #10 has his hands safely to himself.

Of course, keep your eyes safely on the road, and only use these strategies as much as they can be done while safely driving your bus.

Whether or not you can be successful with these three elements is often whether you will have the best or worst job in your district!

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