Driving Change on the Bus
Hi there! I am Perla Caldera, a school bus driver for the Beaverton School District, in Beaverton, Oregon.
I'm 3 years into my bus driving career, and hope to enable positive change among my students, fellow drivers, and community!
Join me in my moving classroom as I help students learn social skills, practice safety, and engage with kindness.
Out of the bus, I can be found managing a coffee/hot drinks bar in the driver's lounge, organizing potlucks/outings/activities with fellow drivers, and doing my best to bolster resilience and joy among my peers.
I'm 3 years into my bus driving career, and hope to enable positive change among my students, fellow drivers, and community!
Join me in my moving classroom as I help students learn social skills, practice safety, and engage with kindness.
Out of the bus, I can be found managing a coffee/hot drinks bar in the driver's lounge, organizing potlucks/outings/activities with fellow drivers, and doing my best to bolster resilience and joy among my peers.
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Beaverton School District currently (get it?) has five electric buses running routes throughout the district. Despite the video's focus on how 2022 bond money is being used to improve students' transportation to and from school, the driver featured in this video, Vu Tran, is a prime example of good student management in a post-quarantine environment:
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Informatics and data courtesy of: https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/
Why Serve from within BSD?
The skills needed to safely and effectively manage students on the bus drastically changed due to the COVID-19 quarantine between 2019-2021. Prior to 2019, a driver could be considered proficient in student management if they were polite yet assertive, kept a zero-tolerance policy on insubordination, and maintained a strict and orderly bus. While these are not bad traits, they only served to hinder emotional and socialization recovery of students and staff post-quarantine.
The following needs were observed in
Community needs:
The following needs were observed in
Community needs:
- Students lost social skills during quarantine
- Students need to re-learn social skills:
- Teamwork
- Sharing space
- Giving consideration to others
- Learning to respect non-parent authority
- Adults were now interacting with “regular education” students that were exhibiting behavioral "special needs" that prior training did not accurately prepare them for
- Meet drivers "where they are" in regards to cultural- and trauma-informed care practices, and work with the training team to revitalize student management "best practices" with these foci in mind. (Equity)
- Help drivers build resilience in the workplace through team-building activities: potlucks, affinity groups, crafting sessions, etc., so that they can better regulate themselves in high-energy and challenging situations
Event Highlights!
Reflection
The greatest challenge that I faced in serving my fellow drivers' needs was coordinating time where all, or at least most drivers were available to meet together for activities. Drivers having differing schedules make for part of the isolating nature of the job. Despite this and other challenges, I was ultimately able to coordinate on average, two events per month where drivers could more formally share space, share a meal, or even just chat over a cup of coffee.
The coffee/hot drinks service that I manage, has allowed for veteran drivers to connect with newer drivers (and vice versa), vent negative emotions in a safe space, and collaborate with other drivers, supervisors, routing staff, etc., in a much less formal or intimidating space. Ultimately, I have seen an overall improvement of morale amongst drivers and support staff together.
Finally, I was able to work with the Training Department to create a "Defensive Student Management" lesson plan to which drivers can learn to apply "defensive driving" methodologies towards student management, in order to preempt the escalation of bad behavior on the bus. See below for a copy of the training memo sent to drivers via email:
The coffee/hot drinks service that I manage, has allowed for veteran drivers to connect with newer drivers (and vice versa), vent negative emotions in a safe space, and collaborate with other drivers, supervisors, routing staff, etc., in a much less formal or intimidating space. Ultimately, I have seen an overall improvement of morale amongst drivers and support staff together.
Finally, I was able to work with the Training Department to create a "Defensive Student Management" lesson plan to which drivers can learn to apply "defensive driving" methodologies towards student management, in order to preempt the escalation of bad behavior on the bus. See below for a copy of the training memo sent to drivers via email: