Kasey Sliva

Guidance

“If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.”     ~A.P. Gouthey

            I feel choices are a crucial piece of a classroom.  Giving children choices helps them learn independence and responsibility, while keeping them with in a safe boundary of the options I have given them.  Choices are a characteristic I will use regularly when implementing a backbone discipline style in my classroom.

            The backbone discipline style that will be used in my classroom will be one of fairness.  I believe that each child in the classroom should be given the respect they deserve.  If a child acts out of line they should be disciplined.  The discipline needs to be handled in a mature way.  The discipline that is given needs to be reasonable.  In some situations, having a talk with the child will be an appropriate disciplinary action.  I believe much of the time it is most appropriate for a student and their teacher to work together to decide what an appropriate disciplinary action will be for the situation.  If the child helps decide what is an appropriate discipline the child will learn that they should not do the action again, but learn why the action was wrong.             

            Hands-on learning activities are another disciplinary method I will be using my classroom.  I feel that if a child is engaged in what they are doing, will keep the amount and severity of the behavioral problems down.  I have learned from my experiences with children that the more they are kept engaged in the activities they are working on and the more they are focused the less out-bursts there are. 

            I feel the basis of the disciplinary in my classroom will be a fair and appropriate consequence for the action that is done.  Notice, I did not say a fair and appropriate punishment.  I feel that punishment gets a child no where.  Punishments will make the children angry and revengeful and make them, eventually, rebel.  I feel that the word consequence shows much more cooperation and communication between the teacher and the students.  The word consequence also, to me, shows that the teacher and the students had worked together to form what they think the consequence should be.  Consequences are solid.  The rules should be laid out that the child knows if certain actions are done certain consequences will be a result.         

            In conclusion I believe Newton’s Third Law and my high school theology teacher said it best:  “For every action there is an equal or opposite reaction.”  This quotation meaning that children should know when they do something wrong there will be consequences.  They should also know from this quotation that the consequences will be equal to their action and appropriate for the situation.

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Last Updated:  12.09.06

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