“Life is a conversation. Interestingly, the most influential person we talk with all day is ourself, and what we tell ourself has a direct bearing on our behavior, our performance, and our influence on others. In fact, a good case can be made that our self-talk creates our reality. “After I wrote this as the opening of my book, I became more acutely aware of my own-self talk and that my decisions are based on how I talk to myself. Of course, my self-talk is determined by what I think. Chances are that when I think that I will trip down the stairs, without even realizing it, I have programmed my brain. In contrast, when I think in positive terms,
READ MORE >>> →Without Stress Blog
Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 7 Number 8
#3 Substituting numbers for vocabulary
#5 Boredom, teaching, and learning
#6 ABCD posters of trash
Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 7 Number 7
#2 Teen-age brain development
#5 The value of positive images
#6 Rewards/compensation/competition
Through our use of the Discipline without Stress approach, my teaching partner and I have come to understand that positive changes in behavior are more likely to occur when we prompt students to think about how they choose to operate in their lives. More and more often, we now practice the Discipline without Stress Principle of Reflection–not only in behavior and discipline situations, but in academics too. Dr. Marshall’s Hierarchy of Social Development is a wonderful tool for encouraging students to look honestly at choices in all areas of their lives. With an understanding of choice-response thinking, young people become aware that a conscious choice to operate at the higher levels is always an option—an option that results in powerful
READ MORE >>> →QUESTION: At our school, we have a program intended to create peace in our community. I am being told that I must teach the pledge that goes with this program. Although I do like the idea of encouraging kids to be peaceful, I wonder how a pledge would fit into a Discipline without Stress approach. Any thoughts would be appreciated. The pledge is: I am a Peacebuilder. I pledge to give up put-downs, seek wise people, notice and speak up about hurts I have caused, and to right wrongs. I pledge to build peace at home, at school, and in my community each day. RESPONSE: Perhaps you feel uncomfortable, not about the pledge itself, but rather about telling students that
READ MORE >>> →QUESTION: Most of my students have serious behavior problems and disorders. Many days I have had desks thrown at me and have had students try to hit me. To be totally honest, I don’t see how I could use a loving internal discipline system that asks students to just THINK about what they are doing. I am, however, open to suggestions. Any thoughts on how to get an internal system such as Discipline without Stress to work in a very harsh environment? RESPONSE: Sometimes people who are new to Discipline without Stress form the mistaken impression that Dr. Marshall is suggesting that young people should have the choice to decide that they can behave in any way they want. This
READ MORE >>> →QUESTION: I’ve been using Discipline without Stress for a few months now and my students seem to understand about the four levels of behavior. Generally their behavior is acceptable, but they aren’t operating on Level D all the time yet. What can I do about this? RESPONSE: Surprising as it might seem, having all students operate on Level D is not the goal for the teacher in this discipline system. Although the world would certainly be a better place if everyone chose to operate at Level D, it’s probably not realistic to expect that students will be able to reach that high level of conduct on a consistent basis. Rather, the teacher’s goal is to have all students operating at
READ MORE >>> →QUESTION: I have some parents who don’t like that “D” behavior is better behavior than “A” when it comes to talking about discipline. My students get letter grades for conduct and a few parents have a difficult time with D being good in the classroom but not on the report card. Can you help me with this? DR. MARSHALL’S RESPONSE: This is a common question and a natural assumption, yet the assumption that students get confused is very often not an accurate one. The proof would be to ask the students. Much of our language–and much of what we do in life–depends on context. Here are some examples: • When do we use “to” or “too” or “two”? It depends
READ MORE >>> →QUESTION: Can you give me an overview of how The Raise Responsibility System is implemented in a classroom? I understand that it is part of the Discipline without Stress Teaching Model and that a teacher uses it to guide themselves through a discipline situation. RESPONSE: As you mentioned, The Raise Responsibility System is the third part of the Teaching Model in this discipline approach. The first two parts of the Model which are critical to the success of the program are Classroom Management and the using the Three Principles (Positivity, Choice and Reflection.) The Raise Responsibility System has three phases: 1. Teaching the Hierarchy, 2. Checking for Understanding, and; 3. Guided Choices. Phase 1 – TEACHING THE HIERARCHY Dr. Marshall
READ MORE >>> →Dr. Marshall suggests practicing THREE PRINCIPLES when teaching and when dealing with situations that require the use of discipline: POSITIVITY, CHOICE and REFLECTION. These THREE PRINCIPLES are the second step of the Discipline without Stress Teaching Model. 1. POSITIVITY Dr. Marshall encourages adults to verbalize all they say in a positive way, even when the situation itself might be perceived as negative. For example, when noticing students running in the hall, teachers might typically say, “No running!” Instead, the same message could be stated in a positive way: “We walk in the halls.” Student cooperation is encouraged when the tone of the classroom/school is one of positivity. 2. CHOICE With this discipline approach, students are proactively taught about “choice-response thinking”
READ MORE >>> →QUESTION: I’ve heard you describe the Discipline without Stress approach as “simple-to-implement.” I personally find that it takes continuous effort when I’m teaching to deal with classroom management and at the same remember to be positive, offer choices, and ask reflective questions. I wonder if others find the implementation of this discipline approach to be simple? DR. MARSHALL’S RESPONSE: SIMPLE does not mean EASY – at first. Learning how to drive an automobile is SIMPLE, but it only becomes EASY after you have driven for awhile. This discipline approach is simple in that there are ONLY four parts to the Teaching Model–not a dozen or so. The third part, The Raise Responsibility System which is used to deal with classroom
READ MORE >>> →QUESTION: Can this discipline system really be used with young children in Kindergarten and First Grade? It seems as if it would be above their heads. RESPONSE: I’ve met a number of people, both in person and on the Internet, who express concern that the concepts of Discipline without Stress are too sophisticated to be of value to young children. Today, on the second day of a new school year, I had an interesting discussion with a six-year-old that proves to me once again that even young children can benefit greatly from exposure to the thinking of this discipline approach. The basic understandings are accessible to students of all ages. Most years, by the second day of school we’re up
READ MORE >>> →Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 7 Number 6
#2 A school that doesn’t use rewards
#3 Compartmentalize negative experiences
#5 Moving from “Why?” to “Will this be on the test?”
QUESTION: What are the most important things I need to understand before I teach the Levels of Development? RESPONSE: Keeping the four-part Discipline without Stress Teaching Model in mind, here are some critical understandings with regard to the Levels of Development: • Levels A and B are always unacceptable. Choosing to act (either consciously or non-consciously) at these levels will result in the use of authority by the teacher. • Don’t quibble with a student over determining whether a certain unacceptable action was at Level B or Level A. It doesn’t matter–both levels are unacceptable. • Don’t get derailed trying to figure out WHY a student chose to do something that was unacceptable. Harsh as this may sound, this too doesn’t
READ MORE >>> →QUESTION: I will start teaching next year and would like to get some ideas on behavior management and the use of rewards. I’m looking at a variety of discipline approaches, including Discipline without Stress. I have a question: If a teacher does choose to provide extrinsic rewards, what should he or she do to make sure that students know that the intrinsic is always most important? RESPONSE: Would you agree that actions speak louder than words? If a teacher chooses to reward a student extrinsically––but at the same time tells the student that the intrinsic reward is always more important––what message does the student actually receive? If this is done routinely, sometimes both at home and school, what ideas/habits/attitudes does
READ MORE >>> →Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 7 Number 5
#1 Handouts for presentations
#3 Learned helplessness
#6 Promoting internal motivation
Recently I was glancing through a book from the public library: THE BOOK OF NURTURING–Nine Natural Laws for Enriching Your Family Life by Linda and Richard Eyre. In the chapter on discipline, a little story caught my eye because it contained a very PROACTIVE and POSITIVE suggestion that could be used by anyone who wanted to make changes in their life or wanted to develop new habits. I find that many people are first attracted to the DWS Teaching Model because they like the idea of acting positively in discipline situations with young people, yet initially they find that the habit of positivity doesn’t come to them either naturally or automatically. Most people find that it’s something they must consciously
READ MORE >>> →Recently, I attended a community workshop. Over the lunch hour I happened to sit with a very interesting lady. After a few minutes, our conversation turned to what we did for a living and I explained that I was a teacher. She told me that she worked for the Ministry of Social Services, a government agency. Her job was to take some of the most severely disturbed teens of our community into her home for approximately six weeks at a time, with the goal of readying them for foster care. She expressed with some regret that the Ministry wouldn’t consider allowing her to take on the role of a regular foster parent, instead of what she does now. She explained
READ MORE >>> →