Posts Tagged classroom discipline

Discipline Without Stress Examples

On June 13, 2019 / Blog, Discipline Help

The Discipline Without Stress methodology makes classroom discipline much easier. It empowers students through the use and practice of The Levels of Development.

Think about what you would do in each of the following scenarios that are typical in a school setting. After, we’ll discuss how Discipline Without Stress makes each incident less stressful.

Scenario 1: The school dress code says that students may not wear hats in the building. Your student is refusing to take off his hat. Most teachers say that they have no specific procedure to handle this situation.

Scenario 2: A student refuses to hang up his coat in the coat closet. In this situation, many teachers say they would take the coat and hang … >>>

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Tips for Behavior Management

On May 4, 2017 / Blog, Discipline Help

Many teachers ask me for behavior management tips. They complain about “unpredictable” or “problematic” students and want to know to minimize these challenges.

I’m sure we all have experienced “unpredictable” or “problematic” student behaviors in our classes. The key question is how can we respond to them in positive ways that are helpful to the student exhibiting the behavior, to the rest of our students, and to our own sanity?

In order to foster positive, not punitive classroom management strategies, teachers need to always keep this question in mind: “Will what I am about to do or say bring me closer or will it push me away farther from the person with whom I am communicating?” This is the most … >>>

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Classroom Discipline with a Student

On March 7, 2015 / Discipline

I was asked by a third/fourth grade teacher, “What do you say to a student who thinks his answers are ALWAYS correct even when I prove he is wrong by giving examples of the correct math solutions and by other students demonstrating the correct answers by their methods?”

I responded:
ALWAYS keep in mind that the person who asks the question controls the situation.

The only way this child will change is by having him continually reflect. The skill required to resolve classroom discipline and learning challenges with a student is in asking questions that will have the student reflect.

So what reflective question(s) can you ask?
Here are a few that immediately come to my mind:
– How do … >>>

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The Impact of Counterwill on Classroom Discipline

On December 31, 2014 / Discipline

Counterwill expression Counterwill is the natural human instinct to resist being controlled or coerced, and counterwill is often the cause of many classroom discipline problems.

People don’t like being told what to do, so we react negatively when someone tells us to do something. Yet, we tend to be surprised when encountering counterwill in younger people. Somehow we forget that all people have feelings; even infants cry or smile depending upon the situation, and if they feel controlled or coerced they react negatively.

The instinctive resistance stemming from counterwill takes many forms as demonstrated by the “no” of a toddler, disobedience or defiance of a youngster, and even laziness or lack of motivation of a teenager. Counterwill sometimes manifests itself as doing … >>>

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Discipline versus Obedience

On December 11, 2014 / Discipline, Responsibility

Sometimes teachers contact me explaining that they have one student (or more) who will not respond to the Raise Responsibility System (which is detailed in the Discipline Without Stress book) and who often have repeated discipline challenges They wonder if there is something different they should do to encourage that student to understand the system or if they need to change how they implement the strategies in the Discipline Without Stress methodology.

I believe the answer to this dilemma is very much tied to expectations about what it means to have a child “respond” to the Raise Responsibility System. I notice that sometimes when people say they are having difficulty in getting certain kids “to respond,” what they mean is … >>>

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Classroom Discipline on NPR

On October 22, 2014 / Discipline

On October 17, 2014 National Public Radio (NPR) aired a podcast about Classroom Discipline on their program, This American Life. The program shared stories about parents and schools struggling with what to do about misbehaving kids from three (3) years-of-age to high school students.

This article discusses three of the incidents.

In the first story, four teachers were asked to confront a student who would not take his hat off in class—contrary to the classroom discipline rules of the school.

Each of the four (4) teachers interviewed had no specific procedure to handle the situation. All agreed that they would react in a way that they hoped would be successful. None were.

In a second confrontational discipline case, a student

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Classroom Discipline Success Story

On October 14, 2014 / Discipline

Since so many teachers have problems with classroom discipline, the following is shared to help teachers with discipline problems. (Italics have been added.)

I’m a 9th grade high school teacher in Long Beach, CA. You and I spoke on the phone about a year ago. Most of us grew up with the old ‘rules and consequences’ model, so I naturally followed it when I became a teacher 21 years ago.

Now I don’t know whether our culture changed, or the kids changed, or I changed. But apparently no one ever told my students that bad behavior should be punished.

Its like many of them are totally foreign to the concept. Why? I don’t know. But I was very tired … >>>

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Teachers Sink or Swim

On October 9, 2014 / Discipline, Learning

In the October 7, 2014 issue of Education Week Teacher, Larry Ferlazzo has a series of articles entitled: Letting Student Teachers ‘Sink or Swim’ Is ‘Not Permissible’

Unfortunately the same can be said for first year teachers.

The teaching profession has long used a sink or swim philosophy and will continue to do so because of the very nature of education courses. Teachers of classroom management (more accurately referred to as “discipline”) at colleges and universities are between a rock and a hard spot.

One purpose of education is to expose prospective practioners to different philosophies and approaches of working with behavior concerns (discipline problems), so future teachers are exposed to various approaches.

But if you ask new teachers, “Do … >>>

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Get Students Interested in Learning

On October 2, 2014 / Discipline, Learning

One major source of classroom discipline is dealing with students who have no interest in learning. In their frustration, many teachers resort to implementing rewards (bribes) to gain students’ attention, or they use imposed punishments (detention, extra homework, etc.) in the hopes that the youth will take learning seriously.

Here’s a better approach and one that doesn’t involve any stressful classroom discipline techniques.

First, let students know that if they decide not to learn, it is their decision. You will not even attempt to force learning; it can’t be done. But you will not allow a student to disrupt another person’s learning. In this mini-lecture, let your students know that no one suffers from their lack of learning but themselves—that … >>>

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Classroom Discipline Mistakes

On September 28, 2014 / Discipline

Why continue to use approaches that are brain-antagonistic?

Learning requires inspirational motivation, and most current discipline practices violate approaches recommended by authorities such as Stephen Covey, W. Edwards Deming, William Glasser, Eric Jensen, and Harry Wong.

Here are 12 commonly used practices that are not effective enough with today’s youth. Some are so counterproductive that they actually exacerbate the dropout rate of students—especially in low economic areas.

1. BEING REACTIVE

Teachers become stressed when a reactive approach is used to confront inappropriate behavior. It is far more effective to employ a proactive approach to inspire students to want to behave responsibly and then use a non-adversarial response when they don’t.

2. RELYING ON RULES

Rules are meant to control—not inspire… >>>

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Labeling and Discipline

On September 18, 2014 / Discipline

Many teachers and parents lament that disciplining children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is difficult. Remember, though, that designations such as ADD and ADHD are just that—designations. People who display certain characteristics are labeled. For example if you display inattention, distractibility and/or impulsiveness, you could be labeled ADD. If hyperactivity were included, you could be labeled ADHD.

It is important to note that no biological proof of these designations exists as they do with physiological designations such as influenza, pneumonia, or tuberculosis. In fact, diagnosis occurs via a checklist. Both the child’s parents and teacher(s) check off characteristics they have seen the child display. Each characteristic is given a point value. The checklists are … >>>

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Switching from Imposing Discipline to Promoting Responsibility

On September 4, 2014 / Discipline, Responsibility

No one has an inherent desire to obey—to be told what to do—not even children. However, when responsibility is promoted, obedience follows as a natural by-product.

Of course, learning how to promote responsibility in others takes practice and patience. Going from the mindset of imposing discipline to one of promoting positivity, asking reflective questions, and offering guides choices takes time. No matter how long you’ve been teaching, making the switch to the new methodology will be fraught with ups and downs. The key is to be persistent, no matter how many setbacks you encounter.

To illustrate how unrealistic it is to expect yourself to make an overnight transformation in your approach, consider this story:

A rich woman walked up to … >>>

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Discipline and Learning in a Multi-Cultural Classroom

On September 2, 2014 / Discipline, Learning

Today’s global society gives our youth a perspective and insights into other cultures that were simply not possible a few generations ago. With so many families moving around the world for employment opportunities, it’s not uncommon to see classrooms with multi-cultural members. Students born and raised in the United States are sharing the classroom with children born in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. And if the children aren’t in the same classroom, they still observe and interact with each other thanks to video conferencing technology.

Of course, this brings up an interesting dilemma for teachers: Since these children come from homes that have different social attitudes toward studying, classroom behavior, bullying, teasing, etc., how can a teacher speak in … >>>

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How to Stop Classroom Disruptions

On August 28, 2014 / Discipline, Effectiveness

A teacher who practices the Discipline Without Stress methodology recently told me about an interaction in her classroom and wondered how she could improve. Here’s what happened.

She explained that she has a few children in her class who persist in behaving at Level B, even after she has “checked for understanding” and has proceeded with “guided choices.” On the day we spoke, she said that she had told one of her students who hit another child, “I want you to stay in our classroom, but if you act on Level B again, you are telling me that you want to keep on making your own rules for the class.” The child’s behavior did not improve, so she was struggling … >>>

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