Breaking Bad Habits

Every now and then I like to take a look at articles which cover potential questions a teacher may encounter during a job interview. It gives me an opportunity to think about where I am at right now and how I might begin to formulate the answers to certain common questions as I move along in my education.
One of the questions that often show up in the articles is variations of the question “What is your behavior management plan?” I’ve mentioned, probably several times, that I often think about, stress, and otherwise try to prepare myself for managing a classroom full of children. I’ve picked up lots of good ideas as I’ve read more and more about this topic but I have also learned that there is no one size fits all approach to managing the classroom and child behavior.
This combined with my impending child and educational psychology classes has had me thinking about how to create a strong classroom community. I have decided that at this point, I am starting to build a foundation for my teaching philosophy which also happens to be the base layer for how I plan on managing my classroom someday. This most basic level is building an accepting, functional, tight knit classroom community. I really want my classroom to be a place where students enjoy coming to. I want it to be a place where each person feels that they contribute something valuable and that they feel respected and valued. I have been a member of a classroom community where I did not feel safe and comfortable before and it has stuck with me for many years. I never want any one of my students to feel out of place or afraid. I don’t have an complete behavior management plan yet, as it is much too early, but I know for sure that the first step in avoiding problems that require behavior intervention is to achieve an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable.
That being said, I have been reading about the psychological effect of our words and how the way in which we phrase something can have a strong impact psychologically. This is something I have learned about before but it is also one of those things that I often don’t think about on a daily basis. At some point we fall into habits which are hard to break.
As part of preparing myself for the responsibility of working with impressionable children, and also as a bit of a New Years resolution for myself, I have decided to really make a habit of thinking about how I phrase things. Some important points I need to remember are:

1. Stating the positive side, rather than the negative of a statement. Instead of saying “I don’t want…” I would state what I do want. Instead of saying what I don’t like, I should say what I do like. My hope is that it will turn into a habit to always state the positive angle of my point. As a teacher I think it will help to make my guidance appear as a new way of doing something or a different approach rather than a critique of what a student has done or a statement of wrong doing.

2. Spend more time complimenting good qualities rather than pointing out undesirable ones. I don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s a lot easier to voice one’s opinion about something that upsets us than to randomly compliment something we like about another person. It’s really not a good way to go through life, but another one of those habits we pick up. I think that as a teacher, this is a good behavior to model so that students will learn the positive effects of boosting another’s self esteem by focusing on their best qualities.

Paper Work is Easy, Kids are...Complex

My next few semesters consist of some child psychology and education philosophy courses. I’m really looking forward to the child psychology, I think I need to spend some time focusing on behavioral cues of children and how to warrant their respect and attention.
I have probably mentioned before that I really don’t get to spend a lot of time around children. This is a large source of anxiety to me considering that every day is going to be spent managing a large group of children, by myself, in less than two years!
The holidays are a time when I get to practice on my all of my cousins’ kids. I observe, try to engage them in conversation about what they are learning and think of creative ways to get involved in their activities. But who am I kidding really- they probably think I am a major dork. They are on vacation and there are presents and cookies involved so the last thing they want to do is talk to some “old woman” about school stuff. I’m afraid I just don’t have one of those “everything comes natural” personalities around kids. Is this something that will develop with experience? I’m kinda hoping so.
Teaching, I realize, involves quick wits and thinking on your feet. I think that it's in large part important to dealing with the unpredictable nature of children as much as it is a part of the profession in general. It’s strange that the top complaints of most teachers are the administration and the loads of paperwork- but that doesn’t scare me (probably because I have spent the last 12 years in the corporate world- politics and paperwork are, unfortunately, part of my daily life.) What scares me is the thought of a bunch of little people discovering my weakness and then walking all over me. Please, someone, validate this as normal pre-teacher anxiety!
Since I am a very cerebral type of person, I hope that studying child psychology will inevitable help me gain some confidence in this area, although I think my senior year of immersion in the field will be my best chance at developing a sense of comfort with this.
Does anyone have any great tips to share on how to earn the respect and attentiveness of a class? Some of the good pieces of advice people have already offered me are:
1. When trying to get a child to follow your lead- offer two options so that the child will feel like he/she has control over a situation, yet still the comfort of structure.
2. Show respect by not embarrassing a child in front of his/her peers
3. Allow children to talk about their emotions and explain their reasons before determining an appropriate punishment.
4. Show humility- admit that you make mistakes and be willing to laugh about them.
I have held these pieces of insight in the back of my mind because I think they make a lot of sense and will be valuable things to use when I am faced with challenging situations in the classroom.
What do you do when you have a child that just refuses to listen? I have a friend whose daughter is like that. She is completely strong willed and I sometimes wonder if she ignores adults because she is testing them or if she just completely tunes us out and is in her own zone. There have been some occasions where I was able to get her attention by casually saying that we wouldn’t be doing something she was looking forward to that day if she didn’t listen now. I really don’t like using this technique because to me it feels like blackmail, but psychologists and other experts say that the system of reward/ punishment is not blackmail and is a completely appropriate technique to use with children. During my observation hours I witnessed the use of this technique a lot and I often hear or read about teachers using this. I have to say, with my friend’s daughter it worked. It seems to me that if you begin to rely too much on something like this, the rewards/ punishments will have more control over the classroom than the teacher does. There has to be a more empowering way than the fear of losing or the hope of gain that works just as well. I hope to find answers to these questions in my class…

Thoughts on Attention and Perception

“The important thing to remember with humans, in such cases, is that we are never dealing with concrete realities. What we are dealing with is perceptions.”
-www.educational-psychologist.co.uk/attention.htm

I once read a book called Time, Space and Knowledge by Tarthang Tlku. It explored the concept of perception and reality in depth and made me wonder, is there even such a thing as reality, or is all of life strictly perception based on what we have been told our entire life and what we “perceive” to be true?
The quote above was taken from an educational psychology website. The article was about children who seek attention through bad behavior. I suppose there are many reasons why children might act out, but I wonder if most of it, in a school setting, does come down to attention.
Up until school, a child (in ideal circumstances) is the center of their universe in many ways. Their needs are taken care of in every possible way which leaves them little to concern themselves with other than their own exploration of the world around them. This is undoubtedly perceptual- the child perceives the world as a place where there is no concerns regarding survival. School is one of first experiences of children where they are removed from that perception and become responsible for themselves. I tend to believe that survival instinct kicks in a bit with this perceptual threat to the life they have grown familiar with. It is also one of the first experiences where they are compared, evaluated and sharing space with many others experiencing similar changes in the pattern of their perceptions. Then throw in the heightened sensory awareness of children. What a confusing experience this all must be perceptually!
I have often thought that if a child was acting out in class, and I felt that it might be for attention, that a positive way to give them attention and get them involved would be to give them a special part in the lesson, such as acting out a process, holding a visual aid, writing things on the board for me, ect. I still think that in some cases, this might work, but I really didn’t consider the importance of individualized attention. Maybe some children act out because they are not only seeking attention, but are having difficulty adjusting to a social setting. I don’t mean this in reference to Asperger’s as much as I do to just the perception of transitioning to an environment where there are many people.
Children can be so shy at times around new people, and I think that this has a lot to do with the experience of socializing still being unfamiliar. Some kids might have more experience with this, but others are developing their social perception at a much slower pace. If all children require a certain level of attention, and each requires it in a different way, how- as a teacher- do you address and become sensitive to the perceptual needs of each student without throwing the entire classroom dynamic off balance?
The article on this website suggest a technique. It requires setting aside “special time” and giving several verbal cues before, during and after special time. This is supposed to register with the child, perceptually, that that their need for attention is being filled. This also has to occur on a regimented schedule in order for it to be effective- it's great if your the parent or even a nanny or sitter, and you can give methodical and regimented, undivided attention to one child. However, for teachers who have several students, curriculum standards and very constrained time, something like this isn't all that feasible- yet poor behavior for attention persists and something must be done to get it under control.
I brainstormed how this same idea of individual attention might be adapted into the classroom more easily. Maybe during a daily activity, or a transition activity, I could seek out the students who require this special attention to ask them for help with a special task. Maybe educational times can be turned into individualized time, like when doing reading assessments, I can provide something special to make the time seem personal and unique, like a princess crown or special "reading ninja" headband for a child who needs special attention, so that they feel there is something unique about their time with the teacher. I suppose there are many small creative ways that individual attention can be percieved by the child, without requiring me to have a designated block of time.
I think it’s a topic that warrants some more research…