Posts Tagged internal motivation

Would a school pledge fit into the Discipline without Stress approach?

On July 7, 2007 / Choice, Discipline Answers

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 … >>>

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How can I get all my students to Level D?

On July 7, 2007 / Discipline Answers, General Questions, Understanding The Hierarchy

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 … >>>

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What can be done so students know that the intrinsic is always most important?

On May 20, 2007 / Discipline Answers, Rewarding

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 … >>>

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Using a positive challenge!

On April 6, 2007 / Discipline Answers, Positivity, Procedures in the Classroom, RRSystem in Action

My teaching partner and I have always provided a home reading program for our grade one students. We give each one a ziplock bag in which to store their home reading books and every morning they make an exchange, taking two new books home.

Well, that’s the theory of it anyway! In reality, we have never had a high rate of consistent and continued participation in this program. Although in the first few weeks of any particular school year, most families manage to send the home reading bag back and forth on a regular basis, as time goes on, fewer and fewer students actually participate to full advantage. They don’t maintain the routine of returning the bag on a daily … >>>

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