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. :)