Here are some additional ideas from Kerry of British Columbia. Note: More of Kerry’s and other posts have been categorized by her at Discipline Answers.
As part of your sessions you could do some role playing. Students love drama activities. You could also read and discuss stories, identifying levels the characters play. Here are a few messages from the Discipline Without Stress mailring Archives that might give you some ideas: Messages #82, #559, #586 and #1179.
Although most of the these posts are examples from the primary grades, they might spark an idea for how to use books at other grade levels, too. Members of the Discipline Without Stress mailring who teach middle school have said that even teenagers enjoy the occasional use of carefully selected picture books.
To use the Discipline Without Stress Archives, MEMBERS should first go to the following link and sign in by clicking on the words, “Sign in to Yahoo!” located in the upper right portion of the screen:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DisciplineWithoutStress/
TO BECOME A MEMBER of the mailring and gain access to current and archived messages, first click on the box with the words, “Join This Group” at the above link.
This takes you to a page, with a box which is again located in the upper right-hand portion of the screen. Enter your Yahoo ID and password. Click on the box that says,”Sign in.”
This takes you to a page showing a left-hand sidebar with these options:
Home
Messages
Post
Files
Photos
Links
Database
Click on “Messages” which will take you to a page with the most recent messages posted to the mailring. Near the top, you will find a small box that says Msg # ___. In that little box, type the number of the message you are looking for. Click on “Go.”
This takes you to a page of past messages. The first message listed on the page is the number you have requested in your search of the Archives. Click on that and Voila!—he message you are looking for comes up!
Your classes also provide a perfect opportunity to use the Discipline Without Stress (DWS) System in a very practical way that will help both the students and their classroom teachers. Guidance time could be used to discuss and improve situations identified by the teachers as problematic. No doubt the teachers would appreciate your support with issues such as handing in homework on time, walking down the hall appropriately, or dealing with teasing and bullying.
You could begin by using the hierarchy to help the kids build their own descriptors for the four levels as related to a specific issue and then move to having the students create procedures which they think would help them to improve the situation. You could do this through informal discussion or make it more formal by holding a classroom meeting.
As someone new to the DWS System, you will find that working on small issues with individuals and with a variety of classes will also help you. We all learn best by doing. Not only will you learn how to implement the DWS System yourself, but at the same time you’ll be encouraging other teachers to see the value of what you’re doing with young people.
Kerry in Briitish Columbia
