from TripGear

Teaching, Instructing, Providing Skills

For Your Institution

 

Alternative Learners


 

 

 

 

 

~LETTER TO~

Great Day Alternative Schools Professionals:

It’s an honor to be able to communicate with you and your staff about our children.  As a doctoral student at Liberty University, former Marine, and one who grew up in the inner city, I have a visual blueprint of the intricacies of at-risk learners. These learners often are poor readers and disenfranchised from a rich pedagogy process.  The feeling of being cast aside breeds maladaptive behaviors and toxic attachments to gangs, drugs, guns and sex. Behavior 100 is a language arts platform that exposes learners to a plethora of visual/graphic novels, skits, roleplaying devices, and poetry. The organic education devices are vivid and visually engaging to students.

 

The I-MICE stories and illustrations are culturally relevant and condition the learner’s ability to read, decode and draw deep meaning from literature. It captivates their attention causing students to want to listen and learn. B100’s use of poetry in its stories assists poor readers in sounding out words by rhyming unfamiliar words with those that come before. (i.e. Knowing the previous word was “puddle” may help a student sound out the word “befuddle.”)  B100’s organic curriculum provides a way to reach and teach learners right where they are, whether high achieving, underachieving or anywhere in between.

 

 

High Schools

 

 

~LETTER TO~

High School Principal:

Great day, it’s an honor to be able to communicate with you and your staff about our children.  As a doctoral student at Liberty University, former Marine, and one who grew up in the inner city, I have a visual blueprint of some of the academic, social and behavioral hardships you may encounter among students.  The Behavior 100 (B100) curriculum incorporates rich visual/graphic stories and vivid illustrations that speak to learners in a voice that is culturally relevant and relatable.  This striking fusion of art and literature places learners are on the edge of their seats as they experience stories that reflect issues and condition they themselves face.

Along the way, B100 encompasses issues such as drugs, early pregnancy, the prison system, illegal guns, violence and pointless killing. As learners delve into B100, they exercise and expand their ability to read, decode and draw deep meaning from literature. And just as importantly, learners walk away with answers on how to navigate tricky and/or volatile situations, honor others, teach others, and be an agent for positive transformation.

 

 

Libraries

 

 

 

 ~LETTER TO~

Great Day Librarians:

As a substitute teacher, AVID instructor, mentor, and language arts curriculum designer, I’ve visited over 100 different K-12 libraries across Indiana.  These K-12 libraries are excellent in offering diverse subjects to read.  However, not every demographic is adequately represented as there are certain worlds and experiences that remain missing.  Behavior 100 (B100) graphic novels and narratives bridge that gap to provide students a relatable and sociocultural reading experience that has been largely overlooked.  B100 stories cover both fiction and non-fiction narratives and are often told in poetic form.  B100 stories come filled with vivid illustrations we call I-MICE (Image-Metaphoric-Inspirational-Character-Encouragers). It’s a melding of striking art and language arts which scorches valuable meaning into the minds of learners. This fusion of art and literature reaches both advanced and poor readers, assisting them in strengthening critical thinking, comprehension, and creative writing skills.


My Boo (I-MICE Illustration) from the poetic story “My Boo”

 

When learners are presented with scenarios that are culturally relevant to them, they’re excited to employ critical thinking and comprehension as they dive into these topics. They do so without even knowing. Otherwise disinterested learners are emboldened to dialogue about the subject matter. B100 speaks to a diverse range of learners but of particular note is its ability to reach the musically minded (such as those who write and enjoy rap) due to the poetic nature of much of B100’s written style.  It also encourages the learner’s engagement in creative writing.  Likewise, the artists in that crowd of learners that may have a knack for scribbling on the sides of their desks take pause when laying eyes upon B100’s art.


Funeral Scene (symbolic I-MICE illustration) from “The Chronicles of Jack Gun”


B100 offers posters of each I-MICE illustration from every B100 story.

Readers are on the edge of their seats as they experience stories that reflect issues and condition they themselves face.  B100 narratives do a stupendous job of providing wider perspective on the poisonous actions and pursuits that are increasingly endorsed in popular culture.  Learners are dosed with the realistic consequences. 

B100 offers an entire curriculum which focuses on improving interpersonal and language arts skills. Along the way, B100 encompasses issues such as drugs, early pregnancy, the prison system, illegal guns, violence and pointless killing. Most importantly, learners walk away from these conversations with answers on how to navigate tricky and/or volatile situations, honor others, teach others, and be an agent for positive transformation.

 

 

 

Juvenile Centers

 

 

~LETTER TO~

Great Day Juvenile Centers Superintendent:

It’s an honor to be able to communicate with you and your staff about our children.  As a doctoral student at Liberty University, former Marine, and one who grew up in the inner city, I have a visual blueprint of the intricacies of juvenile learners. I worked towards my undergraduate degree in psychology while at Marion County Juvenile Center (2012-13). Years prior I’d worked as a correctional officer at Westville Corrections (1997) and for three years my company, TripGear, was contracted at Meridian Transition Alternative School in Indianapolis, Indiana teaching character development. Many juvenile students have problems reading, writing and display poor comprehension and critical thinking. The Behavior 100 (B100) curriculum provides a visual and poetic paradigm that assists learners in decoding and extracting meaning, whether it be from text or real situations.  The corrections staff would be geared with visual/graphic novels and narratives and I-MICE creative captions.  These B100 devices also allow juvenile staff the flexibility to enlist volunteers to teach the materials.

B100 is tooled to enrich learners’ cognitive abilities in reading, writing, critical thinking, comprehension, and intra/interpersonal development.  Knowing that many juvenile offenders are not in the facility long-term, B100 is designed to be implemented within limited ranges of time; minutes, days, hours, or months.

Juvenile learners can feel demotivated and disenfranchised when they view themselves as a world apart from the learning process.  B100 combines rich stories and vivid visuals that imparts lessons of educational empowerment and personal development, all in a culturally relatable voice.  Learners become immersed in art and poetic narratives that tell their own stories encouraging them to become people that build the world around them rather than a cancer on their communities.

 

 

TITLE I

 

 

~LETTER TO~

Title I Schools:

Great day. It’s an honor to be able to communicate with you and your staff about our children.  As a doctoral student at Liberty University, former Marine, and one who grew up in the inner city, I have a visual blueprint of the intricacies of Title I learners.  Growing up in Gary, Indiana, I know how poverty, mental pollution, and poor parenting can impact the emotional and behavioral talents of young learners. Behavior 100 (B100) with its organic language arts curriculum provides slow readers and traditional learners compelling visual/graphic novels that are compelling enough to excite their enthusiasm to read.  B100 provides teachers with an assortment of behavioral and intra/interpersonal materials to assist students in academic excellence.  B100 incorporates rich imagery called IMICE combined with poetic stories which works in unison to captivate learners’ attention.  In the IMICE imagery learners see the wisdom of self-development set against a culturally relatable backdrop. This encourages learners to stretch their minds as they practice the skill of decoding and extracting meaning from accompanying text.  These devices sharpen the learner’s ability to communicate and collaborate cohesively with peers, parents, school professionals, and other peoples and authorities.

B100 seeks to have learners be real active participants in their own learning process and to be apt to apply their sharpened skills into other environments – educational or otherwise.  To that end B100 includes a plethora of sociocultural materials to assist both educators and students in developing dialogue, cultural collaboration, cooperative learning, and anger analysis.

 

 

Middle Schools

 

 

~LETTER TO~

Middle School Principal:

Great day, it’s an honor to be able to communicate with you and your staff about our children.  As a doctoral student at Liberty University, former Marine, and one who grew up in the inner city, I have a visual blueprint of some of the academic, social and behavioral hardships you may encounter among students.  The Behavior 100 (B100) curriculum incorporates rich visual/graphic stories and vivid illustrations that speak to learners in a voice that is culturally relevant and relatable. This fusion of art and literature reaches both advanced and struggling learners, assisting them in strengthening critical thinking, comprehension, and creative writing skills. Students will sharpen skills that transfer into other educational environments and become better equipped to navigate other Indiana academic standards.

B100 offers teachers a plethora of devices that are flexible enough to be customized according to the need of the learner, all of which will motivate learner to be an intricate part of their own educational development.  Behavior 100 also places learners in the heart of various scenarios through skits and roleplaying devices to further develop them as cooperative problem-solvers.  With B100 learners walk away with answers on how to navigate tricky and/or volatile situations, honor others, teach others, and be an agent for positive transformation.

 

 

Elementary Schools

 

~LETTER TO~

Elementary School Principal:

Great day, it’s an honor to be able to communicate with you and your staff about our children.  As a doctoral student at Liberty University, former Marine, and one who grew up in the inner city, I have a visual blueprint of some of the academic, social and behavioral hardships you may encounter among students.  The Behavior 100 (B100) language arts curriculum provides a highly visual approach to encouraging learners to read and write.  B100 employs rich stories and vivid imagery that captivates learners, excites their desire to learn, and sharpens their ability to comprehend and decode meaning from text.

The use of visual novels and narratives are integrated in many European countries’ language arts curriculums.  These graphic enhancers are used to assist students in decoding meanings within literature.  B100 engages learners with relatable poetic narratives and transfixes their attention with potent visuals that draw them deeper into the learning experience.  B100 enhances the interpersonal skills of the learner to effectively communicate with other peers, parents, school teachers, staff and other authorities.

 

 

Charter Schools


Superintendent


Principals