Homework is an extension of instruction. Homework is related to teaching and learning, not to discipline in the sense of classroom disruptions. PURPOSE Homework provides opportunities to practice and improve skills or gain further knowledge or understanding. Homework also teaches lessons that cannot be measured, such as self-discipline, perseverance, and time management. Homework teaches how to begin a task, complete it, and be responsible for the outcome. CONSIDERATIONS Especially at the elementary grades, homework needs to be tempered with considerations for other demands on young people’s time. Homework has modest influence on achievement in the early grades. When the amount an number of assignments becomes overwhelming, negative attitudes about school and learning result. Assignments should be short, interesting, and able
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It’s not what a hierarchy is; it’s what it does. A hierarchy is a series of stages in which, the higher the rank, the greater the level of development. Examples of hierarchies are: • Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs • Jean Piaget’s Hierarchy of Cognitive Development • Lawrence Kohlberg’s Hierarchy of Moral Development The hierarchy used in the Hierarchy of Social Development not only engenders a desire to behave at the highest level, it also is significant because of what else it does. Four highly significant advantages are listed first. Additional advantages follow. • The hierarchy separates the act from the actor, the deed from the doer, irresponsible behavior from a good person. Separation is critical; otherwise, students are defensive.
READ MORE >>> →That which we call a rose by any other name would not smell as sweet. Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2. 1(with respect to William Shakespeare) Most teachers have a desire to establish good relations with their students. To achieve this objective, young teachers new to the profession often suggest that students call them by their first or given name. This is a natural tendency, especially since American society has taken to addressing others by given names, rather than by surnames. I enjoy knowing the name of the server who helps me when I dine in a restaurant. Not too long ago when I asked the server for her name, she responded by asking me for my name.
READ MORE >>> →The ultimate freedom is the right to choose my attitude in any given situation.—Viktor Frankl Teaching young people about choice-response thinking, that they need not be victims, may be one of the most valuable thinking patterns we can give them. Students become more responsible when they learn that in almost any situation, or with any stimulus, or with any impulse or urge, they still have freedom to choose a response. CHOICE-RESPONSE THINKING Situation We all experience situations that are beyond our control, either momentarily or permanently. We are confronted with weather and other natural forces, with inconveniences, unpleasant assignments, unrewarding family or work relationships, and numerous situations that we cannot change. However, we can choose our responses to these situations.
READ MORE >>> →Originally published in EDUCATION WEEK Volume XVII, Number 37, Pages 32 & 36 We need to rethink our thinking about discipline.We cannot change other peoplebut we can empower them to change themselves. Peter Drucker, the country’s dean of business management, said that people fail because of what they won’t give up. We cling to what has always worked—even after it has clearly stopped working. We are clinging to a way of managing students that no longer works with far too many young people. Society and the nature of youth have changed, but we still think external controls are the way to change people. External Controls After a seminar in Washington, D.C., I received a letter from one of the participants
READ MORE >>> →Read how a simple discipline system is used to tap into internal motivation to promote learning. The following is a letter sent from a teacher to another teacher who inquired about using the Raise Responsibility System. The approach promotes responsible behavior by using INTERNAL motivation. The writer sent a copy of the letter to me and has given me permission to reproduce and share it. The simple-to-implement discipline system that promotes both responsibility and learning can be found at A Quick Start. Marv Marshall Hello! Just last year, I too, found Marvin Marshall’s Discipline without Stress® Punishments or Rewards book. My teaching partner and I had been looking for YEARS for a concrete approach to teaching and discipline based on
READ MORE >>> →I think; therefore, I am. “I think; therefore, I am” is perhaps the most famous statement in the history of philosophy. The statement by Rene Descartes, first written in 1637, still has a significant influence on our thinking in the 21st century. The statement is the foundation of Cartesian dualism that separates the brain from the body. In his book, Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, Antonio Damasio challenges Descartes’ pronouncement. Damasio, a Portugese-born M.D. and Ph.D., former head of the department of neurology at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, adjunct professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and currently at the University of Southern California (USC) is the recipient of
READ MORE >>> →A learning community is a place where students and teachers learn. Most of us entered the teaching profession to work with young people and because we enjoy learning. An excellent way to pursue both is through the use of classroom meetings. But even more importantly, these meetings provide excellent opportunities for students to practice communication and socialization skills mandated in the curriculum. These skills are difficult to develop unless students actually practice them. Classroom meetings provide the perfect forum. CRITICAL COMPONENT OF COMMUNITY How people relate to each other is a critical component to the success of a learning community. Classroom meetings facilitate necessary positive relationships because they provide the opportunity towards building trust and respect—which in turn lead to
READ MORE >>> →Using business as a model for learning is disastrous. Government, business, and even education leaders often make the gross mistake of comparing schooling to business and using a business metaphor for learning. Schools are referred to as workplaces, students as customers, and performance is measured in terms of accountability. Equating young people’s learning processes with what adults do to make money is a false equation. Using a business model for learning is a practice which has been described by the comic strip character Dagwood Bumstead: “You know, that makes a lot of sense if you don’t think about it.” THE PURPOSES OF SCHOOL AND BUSINESS ARE DIFFERENTThe basic purpose of business is to survive. Even in graduate business courses which
READ MORE >>> →When breathing is active, listening and speaking are improved. Listening and learning are most effective when breathing is active—rather than passive. Breathing is ordinarily a passive and a nonconscious act. However, breathing can be made a conscious activity and thereby energize the body for more effective learning and listening alertness. Once active breathing is learned and practiced, we find ourselves in possession of an extraordinarily powerful technique, which includes: lowering blood pressure, calming the emotions, pumping the spinal fluid, helping the body realign itself, calming and controlling the thought process, managing stress, and enriching the sound of the voice CONSCIOUS BREATHING To begin teaching your body conscious breathing, imagine that someone hands you an extraordinary gift; you GASP in surprise
READ MORE >>> →My dentist is better than your dentist, and I can prove it! In a seminar in Cheyenne, Wyoming, I made the statement that educational leaders have given up their leadership—that they have taken the politicians and business leaders’ approaches of accountability and competition as the models for learning. I should not have been shocked at the resounding applause I received from the 95 educators in the audience. As I point out in the Epilogue of my book, both accountability as it is now used in high stakes testing—and competition—are counterproductive for learning. I quote the comic book character, Dagwood Bumstead, who said, “You know that makes a lot of sense if you don’t think about it.” There is no doubt that
READ MORE >>> →THE CLEARING HOUSE – Volume 79 Number 1 (Pages 51 – 54) In an attempt to provide ideas and ways to make middle and secondary schools physically and psychologically safe, we asked a number of experts to write articles for this special symposium edition of The Clearing House. Rather than prescribing specific writing topics, we asked the authors to share their beliefs on what contributes to classroom management and to making middle and secondary schools safe. —M. Lee Manning, Professor and Eminent Scholar and Katherine T Bucher, Professor—both with the Department of Educational Curriculum and Instruction, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia – Guest Editors, page 5 Discipline without Stress®Punishments or Rewards by Marvin Marshall This article may be reproduced in whole or in part as
READ MORE >>> →These three simple practices can make school a place where teachers and students want to be. By Marvin Marshall Originally published in Leadership Magazine by the Association of California School Administrators – Vol. 34, No.5, pp. 28-30 Theme: How to Champion A Positive Learning Climate No student comes to school with the deliberate intention of failing or getting into trouble. Similarly, no adult enters the teaching profession with the intention of not being successful or not enjoying it. Yet, the profession loses fifty percent of its new teachers within five years and a rapidly growing number of students are demonstrating irresponsible behavior. This article describes three simple practices that foster positive school climates—where both teachers and students
READ MORE >>> →These three simple practices can make school a place where teachers and students want to be. By Marvin Marshall Originally published in Leadership Magazine by the Association of California School Administrators – Vol. 34, No.5, pp. 28-30 Theme:How to Champion A Positive Learning Climate No student comes to school with the deliberate intention of failing or getting into trouble. Similarly, no adult enters the teaching profession with the intention of not being successful or not enjoying it. Yet, the profession loses fifty percent of its new teachers within five years and a rapidly growing number of students are demonstrating irresponsible behavior. This article describes three simple practices that foster positive school climates—where both teachers and students want to be. Let’s begin with
READ MORE >>> →A learning community is a place where teachers and students want to be and where teachers and students have positive feelings about what they are doing. At the conclusion of a recent school staff development program, a teacher wrote the following comments on the evaluation form: What I liked most: This program makes us look at ourselves as well as the children whom we touch each day. What I liked least: I didn’t like what I saw in me. This teacher (1) acknowledged the use of negative interactions with students, and (2) the teacher reflected and self-evaluated. She had discovered two of the three overriding practices in creating and maintaining a community of learners. The three practices are the continual use of positivity,
READ MORE >>> →Irresponsible behavior is a major problem for, teachers, parents and society.Rewards, punishments, and telling don’t work with far too many young people. Myths: Rewards motivate young people to be responsible. They don’t. The bribe becomes the focus, not responsibility. In addition, we are not honest with young people when we give them rewards for expected standards of behavior. Society does not give such rewards. Punishments are necessary to change young people’s behavior. Punishments satisfy the punisher but have little lasting effect on the punished. If punishment such as detention worked, why do the same students appear again and again? Once the punishment is over, the person has served the time and relinquished responsibility. Punishments engender enmity, not responsibility. Young people need to be constantly told
READ MORE >>> →Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 12 Number 1
#4 Disciplining a horse without coercion
#6 Parenting a 14-year-old
#7 Discipline and a class meeting
Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 11 Number 12
#4 Perils of praise and relationships
#5 Motivation and learning
#7 The Hierarchy of Social Development and Discipline Without Stress