Classroom Discipline 1

In terms of getting better at the our comprehensible input instruction, I see four areas that need support and therefore should be the primary focus of this blog:
1. Emotional support (perhaps the most important, because of the incredible system pushback we all experience).
2. Support in classroom technique (how to do PQA, stories, etc. – the details).
3. Support in approaches to assessment (it is becoming increasingly clear that without proper assessment our overall product will suffer).
4. Support in classroom discipline (as per the dictum from Susan Gross that “discipline precedes instruction”).
Recently, I received an email from a colleague in Russia that is the most honest re: point #4 above. I have never seen anything so honest as to why she chose to quit teaching. It was becaue of classroom discipline. I received it last spring and it’s been in the queue all this while. I hope I can get to this email from this person so we all can read it. It is most poignant. Let’s get the video thing rolling more so that feels like a normal part of the blog, then I can get to this project. So much going on!

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6 thoughts on “Classroom Discipline 1”

  1. I love your suggestions for topics of focus. I wonder if there might be sub-categories for the ones you suggest. For example, I think peer coaching and strategies for effective peer coaching could be linked to “support in classroom techniques”
    Also, I would like to reflect on discipline for a second. I too think of Susie’s teaching. Her explanation of the love bank that I heard three years ago has really made a huge difference in how students relate to me and my classes. Her admonition to make 12 (I am working off memory here – I may not be exactly correct) deposits into the love bank of each and every student before making one withdrawal (addressing their behavior) is so brilliant and effective because it demonstrates such profound understanding of human nature.
    I was recently admonished by an adult and I took it pretty hard. The reason is because that person had made no attempt at all to establish the fact that I was important to him and that he cared about me. He had also never made any positive comments on my role or effectiveness as a teacher.
    I have found that if I can establish that each student is important to me and that I value the contribution of each to our community – then students react much differently when I have to correct them or hold them accountable for something.
    Bryce, Ben and many others have been helpful in giving me ideas on how to make contributions to the love bank. Meeting and greeting each and every student at the door every day has been powerful. Ben’s idea of naming students organically as things come up has been powerful. Complementing students to other teachers has worked too because those teachers almost always forward that on… I write notes thanking students for things and for complementing them on things I see them doing right. (This MUST be genuine of course, but if it is it is effective.)
    I think Ben also suggested making a big deal of when the class clown/jokester
    “shines” in class. I have seen this help those students take ownership and pride in the class.
    Classroom discipline is so complicated. I think, though, that it is key to remember that a student’s bad behavior has little to do with us and that once we have established 1. that I really care about the kid 2. that I will not take the student’s behavior personally and that 3. I will address the behavior without it harming the relationship, I have found classroom discipline to be sort of a non-issue.
    I also believe that there are degrees of bad behavior and that there are certain groups with certain chemistry that challenge even the most effective strategies.

    1. …I wonder if there might be sub-categories for the ones you suggest….
      Absolutely, Skip. Any subtopics are game here. The discussion about why CI works is the only topic I want to avoid because that is already the agreed upon foundation upon which rests all our other discussions. The emotional support, especially of new teachers, is huge as well. I can’t image doing this for the first time without that piece. The peer coaching piece is always key, and my dream is to use this blog to get it done via videolinks, since the time at conferences is never enough to get any real peer coaching sessions going.

  2. …making a big deal of when the class clown/jokester “shines” in class….
    When we do this we are effectively destroying the opposition in our class. It is the habit of kings, who bring the knights, counts, vicounts, dukes, all of them to their court just to keep an eye on them. That is a huge point in discipline, Skip.

  3. The jokester wants one thing – attention and approval. He has learned that the only way to get it is via acting out, trying to vie with the teacher for the attention of the class. This must not happen. When the kid all of a sudden is getting approval for doing what he is supposed to be doing – following the rules and supplying cute answers to your questions – you turn on the kid and praise the shit out of him. Slowly, the kid realized that more attention will come his way if he acts within the clear boundaries you have set for him. Why? Because he gets what he wants that way – love and attention.

  4. Can someone expand on the love bank? I vaguely remember Susie talking about it. I think I understand the concept, but what would a “withdrawal” constitute?

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