Today was a pretty good day in the multi-needs room. It left me a little time to reflect on what important things I am learning by being there (besides triage!) I feel like I should really be absorbing the lessons I am learning about behavior management and engaging students.
Behavioral management is something that I have had much anxiety over and it is something that is of great focus in job interviews (as I am told) and that it is one of the reasons that many teachers quit the profession in their first couple years. All this makes the obvious point that behavior management is a large factor in successful teaching so with that in mind, I think this experience could hold great value.
I would have to say that the behavior management that is being used at my clinical site is working, but is not efficient or consistent enough. During group work, treats are used to lead involvement and deter distractions. Bad language or inappropriate actions are not directly addressed (we are supposed to ignore first) unless it escalates to the point where is becomes dangerous for other students and then behavior specialists are called to take over the situation. I don’t really know what that consists of too much since the child is removed from the room, but what I have seen is that the child is separated from other students until he/she is able to calm down and address their feelings appropriately. If hitting doesn’t stop, the behavior specialist holds the child in a way that mimics a straight jacket so that they can not hit or throw objects. They BS works with a partner, one restraines while the other talks to the child. I imagine that they have some particular techniques they use to calm the child but I have not been able to see. This is obviously only in extreme cases, something I may not ever encounter or if I do, it will likely be rare.
In class, things like “no thank you,” “use your nice words” and the old stand by of taking away something fun, like recess, or choice time is used. Most of the time, with the ED kids, these things escalate the child, but with the others, it works just fine.
I have been trying to decide if a classroom full of children who are all developmentally delayed and behave badly several times a day as a manifestation of their disability, or a classroom full of non-disabled students with maybe one or two children who misbehave, but have the capacity to plot and scheme their actions, is worse. It’s a tough call, but I think that it’s been difficult trying to discipline kids who are motivated by a factor (their disability) beyond their control. Discipline is a huge part of keeping the multi-needs room safe and under control. Today we managed to do that pretty well. I think that today was successful due in part to a couple of factors (and also maybe some beyond our control too). Today we used a healthy balance of compassion and dominance. Rather than smile or show vulnerability to something incredibly adorable, yet slightly mischievous the child may do, we used ignoring, and the disapproving glare. That might be something that if I was a parent, or had spent more time around kids, I would have known to do right away. However, I have learned over the last four days that just because I think it’s adorable, doesn’t mean I want it to keep repeating over and over and over again, so its best to keep it to myself. After 17 times in a day, that same adorable behavior becomes particularly irritating and wastes a lot of time that learning could be taking place.
“Winging it” with behavioral management just does not work. This is something else I’ve learned. The most important thing I can do as a new teacher is have a strong and clear plan, and to also have a strong and clear plan B, and plan C because I can’t expect that plan A will always work with a particular group, and what if plan B doesn’t work. I have to have several options in place and ready to be enforced. I also need to have emergency plans for special situations, and those must be consistent as well. Also, these plans can not be based necessarily on my own personal philosophies, since I don’t have enough experience to rely on my philosophies. These plans must be based solely on what works.
This weekend, I will be doing some thinking about how I am going to approach the class next week. Now might be a great opportunity to test my own mettle when it comes to behavior management.
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