It's time to change my mindset, again. This time it has changed because Angie (co-teacher) and I decided at the beginning of the year to not have a discipline plan. We had just started putting our classroom together and started discussing procedures. We talked about different plans for discipline; colored cards, discipline slips, Class Dojo, rewards, parties, and other ideas. We decided to not have anything. We just decided to talk with students and share with them our expectations and explain the reasoning behind the rules and procedures.
It has turned out to be quite a year for us. We have not needed to send anyone to the office for any problems. We do have talking and students not wanting to complete assignments. We just don't discipline the students by pulling cards. What I have found is that with or without the reward, students will do what is asked of them because they want to. So I do what I can to give them motivation to complete their work. Not all students buy in in the beginning, but building a relationship with each student helps them see that what we are doing is helping them succeed. Most of the time it works.
The biggest lesson I have learned is that students will do what is needed without a discipline plan. These are a few things we have done to help motivate our class;
- Build a relationship with each student
- Show respect for students ideas, thoughts, and actions
- Teach acceptable behaviors
- Set high expectations and review them often
- Give reasons for assignments and activities
- Explain with real-world examples
- Share all data with students and set goals from that data
- Less lecture, more student engagement
- student to student
- teacher to student
- Use Big-8 strategies
This has been a change in mindset for me. I hope it can be a change for many others.
No comments:
Post a Comment