If you want students to take an interest in what you’re teaching, begin each lesson by giving students a problem to solve. Grappling with a problem creates interest and curiosity, both of which are great motivators. Students can then share how they solved or attempted to solve the problem. After this discussion, use direct instruction followed by guided practice. This approach follows the Japanese model of teaching. It’s in direct contrast to our usual approach to teaching, which is to give direct instruction followed by guided practice. The western approach does not consider motivation; it assumes students are motivated by a responsibility to learn what is taught. Of course, what is lacking here is the teacher’s responsibility to create an
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Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 15 Number 3
#1 First Nation Education
#2 Giving up the desire to control
#3 Learning from a dog’s experience
All teachers and parents have had children interrupt them while they are talking or doing something important. How you handle the interruption will prompt either positive or negative feelings in the child. If someone interrupts you while you are working on something and have that mental momentum where you are in a state of flow, take just a moment to write down some key words that later will bring you back to your thought. If the interruption is at a lower priority than what you are engaged in, here is how to diplomatically deflect the interruption without hurting the other person’s feelings. It is a four-step process. Start with “I WANT TO . . . .” (1st part)“I want to
READ MORE >>> →Admired people are adept at making others (even youth) feel important. When you interact with someone—whether for 30 seconds or for 30 minutes—the test is, “When the person walks away, does that person feel better or worse?” If you see the person walking away feeling down or depressed, walk after the person and ask, “How about trying that again so that you feel better than when we started the conversation?” The conclusion is inescapable. When we work with others who prompt positive feelings, our spirits are raised, and so is our motivation.
READ MORE >>> →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 you
READ MORE >>> →Over the years I’ve done much research into discipline, classroom management, and the education field in general. As such, I know of no other discipline program that is proactive, creates a DESIRE for change, and places total responsibility on the other person—rather than on the teacher or parent. There are a few underlying, fundamental truths to my approach. • A person can be controlled, but only temporarily, and no one can control how another person thinks or WANTS to behave. • Although you can influence people, you cannot change them. People change themselves.The least effective approach to influence a person is by using coercion. • Obedience does not create desire. • Two requirements are necessary for long-term change: (a) acknowledgment
READ MORE >>> →The opening paragraph of my book, Discipline Without Stress, deals with mindsets. It sets the stage for the entire book because my purpose is to influence young people to have mindsets where they WANT to be responsible and WANT to learn. The following exercise (shared with me by Jack Canfield– coauthor with Mark Victor Hansen of The Aladdin Factor and the Chicken Soup series) gives students an experience of the power of imagery for both behavior and learning. Students will need as much room as they would have in an aerobics class. Divide the class in two groups, A and B. Say the following to group A:I want you to close your eyes and imagine in your mind a seagull
READ MORE >>> →In my books, speeches, and professional work, I always stress the importance of positivity. But sometimes you simply have to tell people “No,” even though it’s not a positive word. So how can you say “No” without actually saying “No”? Here’s a simple four-step process: 1. Acknowledge the importance of the request. “I understand why that’s important to you.” 2. Inform the person that you have a problem with it.“But I have a problem with it.” 3. Describe the problem as you see it.“Your doing that would mean it would put a burden on everyone else.” 4. Elicit from the person something else.“Let’s think of something that would be fair to everyone.” By doing this, you’re saying “No” without actually
READ MORE >>> →Manufacturing—building tangibles—led and fed the economies in the 19th and 20th centuries. There were a few originators, but most people were followers. Obedience, implementation of rules, and top-down management were the orders of the day. What drives our 21st century? The creation and distribution of information. Rather than compliance, initiative is required. People rarely will work for one company all their lives. Increasingly, many people are now working as independent contractors instead of working for others. The number of individual entrepreneurs is continually growing. People in their twenties are planning their retirements forty years in advance because they no longer believe that traditional retirements will suffice in their older years. The society of the 21st century requires initiative—not merely following
READ MORE >>> →When it comes to discipline, many teachers (and parents) believe that if they spell out consequences before the child misbehaves, then there will be no need for discipline later. For example, a teacher may say, “If you don’t finish your work, then you can’t go out for recess” or “If you talk during the lesson, then you’ll have extra homework questions.” These “if/then” consequence statements do little to curb behavior problems. A better approach is to walk over to the misbehaving student and say, “Don’t worry what will happen later. We’ll talk about it after class.” When it comes to changing behavior, not knowing what will happen is far more effective than knowing what will happen. Young people (really, most
READ MORE >>> →You don’t necessarily like someone because who the person is; you like the person because of the person’s effect on you. What kind of effect are you having on the children in your life? Following are three questions that any parent can ask their children on a regular basis (or any teacher can ask students in a class meeting). 1. What did you learn this week that’s valuable enough for a lifetime? (Remember: we find what we look for.) 2. Do you have an issue, problem, or a concern you would like to discuss? 3. What do you feel good about or proud of that you’ve done this week? (Note: If you are a parent or teacher asking a BOY,
READ MORE >>> →Teachers often ask me, “How do you discipline ‘hard students’?” They are usually referring to the tough, street-wise kids who seem to have a chip on their shoulder. While people often think these youngsters are only found in the inner city, the fact is that such students are in small towns too. When working with “hard kids,” it’s important to resist using any coercion with them. Imposed discipline, threats, and/or rewards are completely useless with these students (even more so than typical kids). Instead, speak to them in positive and empowering ways. Let them know that you cannot and will not even try to make them learn—that learning or not learning is their choice. Most important, continually prompt self-reflective questions,
READ MORE >>> →Teachers often tell me, “My students have no motivation!” When I hear this, I suggest to the teacher that every student attending school is motivated; after all, without motivation, one would not get out of bed. Whether the motivation is prompted by a situation, a stimulus, an impulse, or an urge, the person arising from bed is motivated. If we assume that simply by being in school there is some degree of motivation in the student, the question then has to do with the type of motivation we are using. W. Edwards Deming—who showed the manufacturing world how to improve quality while simultaneously lowering costs through collaboration and empowerment—stated that problems are more with the system than with the individual.
READ MORE >>> →Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 15 Number 2
#2 Rewarding and learning
#5 Homework hierarchy
#8 Discipline Without Stress in Ferguson, Missouri
A school principal contacted me for advice. He was trying to put together a way for the teachers at his school to reflect on their year and to self-evaluate. He wanted it to be something that was do-able, that wouldn’t feel overwhelming in its scope or the time it would take for them to complete, and that would feel meaningful and help guide their work for next year. My suggestion was this: Pose the following question to your teachers. “If I were a student, would I want me as a teacher? If yes, list the reasons. If no, list the reasons. Of course, this question isn’t just for teachers. You can reframe it for any situation or relationship, as in:
READ MORE >>> →How many times have you said to a misbehaving student or child, “Why did you do that?” You may have even put the child in a time-out so they could think about their answer. While knowing the cause of a behavior may be interesting, in reality it has little to do with changing behavior to become more responsible. All people—even children—know when they act inappropriately, but KNOWING the motivation does not stop behavior, nor does it lead to a change in future behavior. This realization is in direct opposition to many discipline approaches aimed at determining the cause of a behavior—with the assumption that knowing the cause is necessary to change the behavior. Therefore, relying on discipline techniques that force
READ MORE >>> →I was brought up on the principle my mother instilled in me, “If you can’t say anything nice about a person, then don’t say anything at all.” This counsel grew into the first principle of my life’s practices: positivity, which is described in my book as the first principle to reduce stress. In building relationships, negativism is the biggest enemy. You don’t want it in your mind. You don’t want it in your classroom. You don’t want it in your house. You don’t want it in your environment. You don’t want it in your discipline approach. You don’t want negativism for those who may work for you, your friends, your associates, and especially your students. You don’t want anything to
READ MORE >>> →No matter how long you’ve been teaching, you simply cannot judge a student’s motivation with complete accuracy. Within a classroom, where all the children look as if they are doing the same thing, perhaps cooperating with the teacher and quietly doing their assignments, some will be operating on Level C and some will be operating on Level D (for details of the four Levels of Social Development, click here). While you may have few discipline challenges in such a classroom, you’ll never know for sure whether these children are internally or externally motivated. A person’s motivation can only be accurately determined by that person himself/herself. That is why it’s important for teachers to ask questions that promote self-reflection in their
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