Discipline without stress, punishment, but maybe rewards??

Our school uses the discipline without stress punishment or rewards system and so these principles are brought into the classroom. If a child is not behaving properly, they are asked to “check their level” to ensure that they are constantly thinking about what level of behavior they are acting on. If the inappropriate behavior continues, the students are asked to fill out a reflection which requires them to think about what they have done and how they will prevent themselves from acting out in the future. In my classroom, about half a dozen students have been asked to fill out reflections, many of them multiple times. My cooperating teacher does not hesitate to hand out reflection forms; however, the students almost always get a warning, sometimes two depending on the situation.

All of our teachers are currently following the behavior contracts that the students and their parents signed for the field trip and I don’t know about you’re classrooms, but in mine, these kids are terrified that they will not be able to go on the trip!! We have two students that already have two reflections and its only January! They have another 3 months to go and at this rate, they won’t be coming with us  My teacher seems to have pretty good control over the classroom and the students know what is expected of them – whether that’s from the school wide discipline program or if it’s my teachers doing or possibly a combination of the two but they really seem to get it! Rarely is my class every behaving so poorly that the lessons are unsuccessful which I think is great! However, I kinda feel that these five strikes and you’re not going on the trip thing is somewhat of a reward? They are rewarding the students with good behavior at the end of the semester – they get to go on the field trip if they don’t get five reflections… I don’t know, it just kind of seems like somewhat of a reward and kind of against the whole discipline without stress punishment or rewards – what do you guys think??

I feel that all three of us have such different classroom environments that each of our teachers has to approach discipline in different ways – maybe we could rotate between the classrooms because I really would like to see each of your rooms!! I’ve never dealt with lower grades much less a combination class and I have never seen a classroom with ANY EC students in it (weird yeah??) Anyways… just a thought!

Classroom Management

While I was reading this article - I was trying to think of a child that I have encountered that could be classified as an “EC” student and I couldn’t think of one until I thought back to when I was in elementary school and in kindergarten. I know… remembering someone from kindergarten?? I can remember ONE of my good friends from kindergarten that I did everything with… and this one kid Jason. He had some behavioral issues – I just remember him being loud and he wouldn’t like to work with other students at the centers (like the sand and macaroni table). Because it was so long ago – I can’t really remember whether or not Jason would have been considered “EC” or not. Other then Jason, I don’t think I was ever in classes either as a student or a teacher that would have been an inclusive classroom. Inclusion is really important not only to the development of the individual student but also to the development of the student’s classmates. I really liked the section about promoting membership in the classroom. I think that’s really important to ALL students – every child wants to feel like they belong in their classroom and in society in general. A lot of students tend to shut down when they do not feel like they have been accepted into their classroom by their classmates and their teachers. My cooperating teacher talks about her student’s safety as being her number one priority which creates a very safe environment for the students both physically and emotionally. Students with disabilities feel different already, when they are in a classroom with students that they see as “normal,” then they REALLY feel different and if the teachers and the students in the classroom don’t work hard to create a classroom that promotes membership (like the one talked about in the article) the students won’t feel as though they belong and feel even more different then they already feel and they are liable to shut down even more and fall even further behind.

Parachutes take 2

The second time that we did the parachutes was great. I’m not sure if it was because the students were older or if it was because we had done the experiment once before and we understood it better and knew what to look for or a combination of both but I not only thought the experiment went much smoother but I also enjoyed teaching it a lot more. The kids were priceless! They had some really great answers to our questions and were very creative in trying to come up with reasons for why parachutes worked and what changing the weight would do and so on. One thing that I really noticed was that they loved it when I wrote names on the clothes pins that were going to represent people using the parachutes. At one point on little girl asked me to write her name on hers and for us both to use the parachute (her clothes pin and mine) and see what happened then. This only reinforces the importance of making personal connections for the students and their lives.

One thing that one group did the first time around that we did not do because we were not sure if we would have internet access was to show a video clip of a parachute deploying and have the students talk about what they saw when it went up. What happened to the persons movement when the parachute opened? What would happen if it had not opened? Having the students watch video clips allows them to see what should actually happen in the experiment occasionally and the videos might trigger some prior knowledge that they have and can contribute to the conversation throughout the lesson.

Flint chapter 12

“Working with struggling readers and writers” defines what I’m doing with my case study student so I was already interested in what this chapter was talking about. The first few sections are about the teacher’s beliefs and attitudes and motivation and engagement. I think that how a teacher feels about learning and a student can REALLY shape how the student feels towards learning and how motivated they are. I remember when I was in elementary school, I swear my third grade teacher hated me and I will swear to it until the day I die. She had one favorite student in the class and the rest of us were constantly compared to him and well… I didn’t compare really well to him and she was out to get me – no lie. She would constantly call me out for not being “on task” even though I was (of course there were a few of those that were warranted but that’s beside the point) and I dreaded going to school! What made it even worse was that I was pulled out for AIG in math and I’m pretty sure that they both hated me as well… sad  Other information was great for just creating a good classroom environment that the teacher and the students both benefit from and I really like that and it will be very useful in my classroom!

Flint Chapter 8

One thing that I really liked about this chapter were the independent and productive reading and writing tables on pages 220-221. They give examples of the standards that the students would be practicing and how teachers can help them master these standards in addition to things that teachers can use in their classrooms to promote those learning experiences. Word study is a big part of the fifth grade curriculum and they have extensive worksheets that have students looking up various word parts and this and that… stuff that these students don’t care much about and it means nothing to them. I would love to have really great word study program because I think that it’s really important for them to have that knowledge but I think they need to obtain it in a way that is relatable to them and is something they can actually complete because a lot of the students end up not even finishing the worksheets for each word and turning them in incomplete. The roots and branches activity is really great for the very visual learners and would be a fun break for them from what they’re used to. Homographs are another great thing for my case study to work on and other students in the class. The most common ones that I see when writing back to the students in their reading journals are the to/too/two and the there/their/they’re and it drives me up the wall!! There are so many incorrectly spelled words that are incorrect simply because they chose the wrong word spelling! The right word… just the wrong right word… weird right? Anyways… even creating a word wall with these on there so that the students can see them every day and refer to them when writing would be great! However, if there is limited classroom space then I can see how the dictionary would be the more practical way to go but I think the students (and the teacher’s sanity) would benefit from these!

Flint Chapter 11

Developing an inquiry based lesson was going to be a struggle for me when developing our literacy units. I completely understood how to build a science and a math inquiry based unit but how in the world was I going to do that in language arts? When I was in school, it was simple you do these readings from these books and answer the questions from the book and now we’re going to go over them, now read for 30 minutes on your own at home, and maybe we’ll read a book as a class right after recess for a bit before we start our lesson and then writing was just writing various stories. In my classroom now, the students do guided reading and independent reading and then they write on their own with writing conferences thrown in there. There were no integrations of technology when I was in school and there are not really in the classroom I’m in right now when it comes to literacy. There are various ways for students to illustrate their work, explore different aspects of work, and present work that should be used.

I know I’ve already talked about these but books on tape are AMAZING for students that are struggling readers and even those leap frog games. I’m in upper grades so I’m really hoping that is why I do not see these technologies being used and that they are actually being used in the rest of the school because I think they are just great for students! Younger students would LOVE playing with these things and they would be learning at the same time. I used to see the commercials saying that students would actually be learning while playing the game and I would laugh because it’s a game. Games are something you have fun doing like playing Mario brothers or something like that, there’s no learning going on right? Wrong, they’re great and kids love them and will love them!! Ok now I’m finished selling products…

Collins chapter 6/7

First of all… those pictures in the book by the students – adorable. Ok, these chapters were really great for me to read while working with my case study student. She is in fifth grade; however, she can be considered an emergent reader and writer. Her IEP indicates a speech problem which has caused a delay in her phonemic awareness and development. She particularly struggles with vowel sounds, which are pretty tricky if I do say so myself. However, this chapter gave great insight into how she is thinking and different ways that I can help her. One thing that was mentioned in the book was a technology aspect that made me think about books on tape for her. She struggles with reading because she gets caught up on words that she does not immediately recognize, can not pronounce correctly to give her something that sounds like a word she has heard before, and then she looses the impact of the story. Books on tape would be a great way for her to not only work on comprehending the story, but she can also see how words that she struggles with are actually pronounced.

I also LOVED the invitation for the classroom parts from these chapters. The one about flipbooks are really great for my case study student. During her reading intervention time, she is working on different word families and creating words from them. With these flip books, she could practice them and then having something fun to show for it. The sequencing questions and how do you know invitation for the classroom sections are great as well to work on her comprehension of stories. However, her main area of focus is comprehension while she is reading something so the activities would need to be individual and not whole group or they would need to be modified for that reason.