Classroom Solutions

My plan for my first year of teaching is to laminate the list of interventions in this chapter. :) This is a great tool for teachers because it's so easy to get frustated and deal with misbehaviors in the wrong way. A great quote from this chapter is "No technique can be effective if it is not delivered with genuine passion." I believe that if the student can feel your passion, they will stick with you and change their behavior. I particularly like the order the strategies were in, working their way to more serious interventions. I've noticed that enforceable statements have worked the best for me. I would've liked to have tried the "giving an appointment" strategy in student teaching. I think that would make the student really take ownership to the behavior. Overall, I thought this was a great book and I would definitely recommend reading it before student teaching.

Chapter Fifteen

My favorite part of this whole book is that there are so many examples. And this chapter was an example in itself showing how a school implemented the love and logic belief system. One piece of advice that stood out to me was "Use thinking words instead of fighting words." If you can make this an automatic reaction, I think it would make a huge difference. Some kids come to school just waiting to argue and fight with the teacher or other students. If those students don't get the same "fighting back" response, they will most likely change their behavior. And you're not just ignoring the problem, you're giving them the power to change their behavior instead of being forced.

The "time-out room" surprised me. My first thought was who was going to be in the room supervising all day every day? I understand that students need a cool down period, but if a student is angry they probably won't be heading straight for the time-out room. I'm sure they'll be slowly making pit stops along the way. Also, I don't think they specified how long the students were supposed to stay in the time-out room. In the previous chapter, the authors discussed the negative sides of detention and I don't see this as very different from detention.

Chapter Fourteen

I really enjoyed this chapter because even though I knew that the systems approach was less effective, I thought they did a great job of explaining why. This chapter also went back and touched on the key concepts of the love and logic method. "The Tale of Two Teachers" gave a great example of love and logic. When the studnets in my class forgot their homework, they had to stay in at recess to finish it. This meant that the teacher had to make another copy and I think the students took it as more time to procrastinate. If they were playing and having fun at home, they knew they could always do it the next day at school. It was so frustrating because I would have at least 5 students forget or just not do their homework each week. I wish I would have used this method instead of going through the trouble of always making more copies. I think it would make the students more responsible if they knew they would just get a zero. But it is so important to use empathy during this stage because I could see a couple of my students not turning in homework just because they got a zero last time and they think the teacher dislikes them.

Chapter Thirteen

Going into my first job, I am going to be very nervous about what my legal liabilities are. Hopefully, I will be informed of these prior to getting my own classroom, but after reading this chapter, it sounds like most teachers aren't. Even during student teaching I was shocked when I thought I was doing what was best for the student only to find the parent storming into the school for an argument over what happened. My cooperating teacher made sure to tell me to document every problem situation with this student, but I realized that in the craziness of the day, it can be hard to remember to do that sometimes.

I really liked his analogy with the huge amount of detentions being related to a doctor continuing to give a pill because it's the one he knows the most about and it had worked for some patients in the past. As a teacher, it is important to know when a new method is needed.

This chapter was very informative. A lot of these things may seem like common sense, but it is amazing how many situations can catch you off guard!

Chapter Twelve

I have to say I agree with his three styles of teaching. Unfortunately, I must admit that I am working my way out of the helicopter stage and hopefully into a consultant teaching style. :) Looking back, it was not because I didn't know about the ways of being a "consultant" teacher. I've always wanted to have those traits, but student teaching came as such a shock, this is ultimately how I dealt with it. I definitely wish I could start over again, but now I can just work hard to start my first job using all of these traits.

The story about the cognitively impaired student who spilled her food showed a very strong point. It is so frustrating when students mess up, but the only way they will learn is to experience dealing with it. This chapter also gave me several ideas for how to give students choices. I'm always looking for ways to do this, but I need to be particularly careful with what choices I give because I have a class full of students looking for the easiest and fastest way out of every assignment!

Chapter Eleven

A part that stood out to me in this chapter was when he discussed how we process questions. During our meeting with the state department, he told us that the biggest mistake most teachers make is not giving enough time for students to really process a question. Maybe this is why teachers tend to ask easier questions. They want quick answers so they can keep on moving, but it would be more beneficial to the students to have time to think through a complex question.

I especially liked the last little paragraph in this chapter telling us to share with our students that we are learning to teach through questions. It says to encourage students to help develop a plan for learning. I always think that the more the students get involved the more they will learn and get excited about learning!

Chapter Ten

I was a little scared to continue reading chapter ten when it stated that pain must come before change can occur. But I learned that this really is the best way to learn from a situation. I learned this from a speeding ticket as well. After receiving the ticket, I felt sick to my stomach and full of regrets. Needless to say, I have been cautious about my speed ever since.

I like how they broke it up into four components (There is a problem, identify the problem, show empathy, and offer a positive relationship message). This makes sense to me. It seems simple and effective. Also, it really clicked when they stated the difference between a consequence and a punishment. I like the idea of getting the student involved in the consequence, but often it seems like they would suggest a punishment instead of a related consequence because that's what they're used to. That just seems to be easier to think of.

Chapter Nine

It completely hit home when I read the first paragraph of chapter nine. I am realizing now that during all my studies at Finlandia, I never really learned how to be teacher. We jump into this unknown world without any knowledge of grading, discipline, or other issues teachers deal with on a daily basis. Maybe it's because there is no right answer, but I don't understand why there is so little education on classroom management. Without it, it's impossible to teach and this is what burns out teachers.

A quote that really grabbed my attention was " Control is like love. The more you give away, the more you get in return." In the beginning of teaching, you feel like you need control over your students, but in actuality, you realy just want their cooperation. And I think the students can sense the difference.

I really like the idea of giving choices. I know it has many benefits, but I am still struggling with how I can fit them in every day. I can see this working really well with my class who is used to constantly hearing what they must do. Clearly their behaviors and work value show that this is having a strong negative effect on them. But so many lessons just seem cut and dry.

Chapter Eight

This was a very interesting chapter for me. It is very true that children are rapidly losing a self-concept, but if the reason is because of a lack of support from extended family and the community, it seems like a hopeless case. I definitely see parents trying to shelter their children from frustration and consequences.

I have a student who is always avoiding work and then gets angry when he has to take work home or miss fun activities because he has to finish work. My cooperating teacher has sent home several notes and made calls to the parent who simply says he's the same way at home and nothing comes back finished. It's extremely frustrating when you don't have the parent's support.

It's sad to see kids give up so easily. They are always groaning about assignments and spend more time thinking up ways to get out of work than actually doing it, therefore making more work for themselves. Or they end up doing it so fast and getting a bunch wrong and end up having to redo it anyway! I wish they would take more pride in their work.

Chapter Seven

What stood out the most to me in this chapter was the one rule approach. It is simple and it makes sense to both the teacher and the students. Teachers shouldn't be listing all kinds of rules and consequences around the room. It should be expected that the children know how to behave. It's one less thing for the teacher to do plus that space can be used for more useful things.

Also, it was interesting to compare the principles approach to the systems approach. To me it seems like common sense to use the principles approach, but I can see how some people feel that concrete rules are needed. But then you end up with so many exceptions and have to create an unreasonable amount of rules that are impossible for all studnets to memorize.

I especially liked the ending quote, "Shift your thinking from 'What do I say?' to 'What do I ask?'" I think it makes a big differene when the student has to do the thinking in a discipline situation instead of just sitting back and pondering ways to argue.

Chapter Six

My favorite part of these chapters are the teacher/student scenerios because they really give me a concrete idea of how to approach a problem student in my class. The first scenerio showed the teacher only focusing on that particular student's behavior. This way the student cannot bring up another student's behavior as an excuse. Another scenerio showed the teacher asking the student for advice on how to make the class better. This shows that the teacher values the student's opinion.

In this chapter I also learned that when giving students choices, they must be made aware of the consequences of each choice. Unfortunately, I have a lot of students who don't seem to care about the consequences. Often losing recess is a consequence, but the same students are missing recess everyday so it is obviously not having an effect on them.

Chapter Five

It is so important to update your discipline techniques. Times are dramatically changing and so are our schools. But how can we do this in a fair and productive way? I could really understand and relate to several aspects of this chapter, but I am still searching for a behavior plan that will work for the huge variety of students in my class. I think the first step is trying to understand the students which is what this chapter mostly discusses. There are so many different things that cause students to misbehave. I have students that come from unstable homes, students who are always passing the blame on someone or something else, and students who just have a low self-esteem and don't believe that doing well in school is attainable. For these students punishment may just make their situation worse.

My favorite part of this chapter was when the author talked about his wife going above and beyond for their foster children. I remember wanting to do this for a particular elementary school teacher because he was genuinely excited when we did well and genuinely disappointed when we didn't. This was my only motivation, but it really worked. I strongly want my students to have that motivation not only so they do well, but so they are proud of their work and have more self confidence.

Chapter Four

I can definitely see how disciplining is exhausting and can make a teacher cranky at the end of the day. Dealing with discipline on your own terms and using short interactions seems like it would take off a lot of stress. Plus, the kids can sense when you're stressed and it usually has a negative effect on them as well.

I also found the idea of asking a problem student to do work or behave for me to be helpful. I have a student who came from living with an abusive father and is now living in a shelter home. His reading level is 2 grade levels below average and his self-confidence is really low. He even wrote that when he grew up he wanted to be a high school dropout. I'm hoping that this method will at least get him to try instead of just giving up right away because he thinks it will be too hard for him. I am going to try this along with the one sentence intervention, but if he continues on this path, I can't see how he will make it to the next grade level. But, at the same time, holding him back would have such a negative effect on his self-confidence. What do you do in this situation?

Chapter Three

I think the most important part of this chapter is about giving students a choice. This is something that I've heard and used in the past, but can be easily forgotten. A good method to try might be to look through your daily schedule each morning and decide what areas the students will have choices in. Having 28 kids in my class and several out with the flu this past week, getting assignments turned in is a daunting task. It would be interesting to try the "Grade tonight" and "Grade this summer" basket idea. I might change it to a "Grade Friday" basket because there are several assignments that take more than the allowed time in the lesson. We thought of trying to give due dates for each assignment, but I don't even think I could keep track of that let alone the students.

Another method that makes a huge difference is consequences with empathy. I have seen how negative doing the opposite can be. This method also shows the student that you still like them even though you didn't like their behavior.

Chapter Two

I was a little bit alarmed by chapter two because my cooperating teacher did not have a behavior plan with the class and when things started to get out of control, I immediately came up with one that involved informing the students of the consequence. Although I made sure to involve the students in the rule-making process, I also made sure they were rules about what to do rather than what not to do. I have a pretty simple system in which the consequence is always the same for any offense. Of course, if the student is being harmful to themselves or others more serious measures need to be taken. So now I am reconsidering how to approach this. I like the idea of having students let you know if they think the consequence is unfair.

My current system uses somewhat of a delayed discipline. When the student is misbehaving, they move the popsicle stick with their name on it to the 5 minute cup, which means they will be staying in for five minutes at recess. I also have a 10 and 15 minute cup. During this time, they must sit quietly and before they leave we discuss what they did, why it was wrong, and how we could change the behavior. One problem I've come across is that on homework days, the students who didn't get their homework done stay in during recess. Usually it's the same kids who have to move a popsicle stick so they're already staying in at recess. Any suggestions on how I could change my consequence?

Chapter One

I definitely agree that a master makes it look easy. It can sometimes be intimidating to watch because you wonder why you're not like that until you realize they've been teaching for 20 years. I thought the principal story was really interesting, but i have to wonder if it always takes that long. It was nearly an hour before the student came to his decision. But maybe the point is that you should only have to do it once and the student will realize he/she needs to take responsibility for his/her actions. But I definitely see the advantage of waiting until the child has cooled down before discussing their punishment. This is good advice even when you're not dealing with children. :)

Teaching With Love & Logic

Greetings class of 2009! :) I'm so excited that we're finally doing our student teaching. We've been working towards this for so long and I know we're all going to be great teachers. But I think most of you can agree that it's not exactly what we were expecting. Each day is filled with challenges and there are so many little things that can only be learned through experience. I think this book is a great way to help us meet those challenges and realize that we are not the only ones struggling! I think the best message in this book is to keep experimenting. Don't get frustrated and give up on a student. Get motivated to go back the next day and try a new technique! I hope each day brings laughter, wonder, and confidence. :)