Responding to Challenges
Good discipline is a matter of good timing and an understanding of the emotional state of students who are challenging your authority. Early intervention is critical. I teach a powerful strategy that relies on the contingent withdrawal of attention from a student exhibiting emergent (low level) misbehavior. It is a POWERFUL response to shutting down problem behavior before it becomes more serious.
It’s also an effective refinement of antiseptic bouncing, a century-old strategy, which makes a powerful, dramatic, and positive impact on the contemporary classroom. The bounce is used to give the student a break from pressure, not a chance for interaction. Used only with great caution, antiseptic bouncing is at times the perfect way to help a kid “let off some steam.” It is unique in that in addition to the contingent withdrawal of attention, the basic principles of academic remediation are at play, where the teacher stops the student, re-teaches, checks for understanding, and sends the student back to work independently.
Students are given a prompt, allowed to self-correct, and then asked to problem-solve interfering behavior – all while never leaving an academic environment.
Classroom Management Benefits for Teachers
Teachers will learn how to maintain a keen and calm mental set for classroom management. They will learn how to “read the room” and swiftly, positively, and gracefully nullify emergent challenges. They will see and take the best course of action when challenged, all the while appearing confident and comforting to their students.
Teachers will learn how to properly arrange and design the classroom environment. They will learn the “Teaching Power Position” and understand where you should and should not be, and how to eliminate positions in the classroom where students will successfully challenge them, as well as learn how to keep their students visually focused on top classroom priorities.
Teachers will learn how to teach-to and enforce rules and procedures to transform kids who come to them unsocialized into top classroom performers and teach students how to peacefully coexist in their classroom.
Teachers will learn how to firmly but fairly carry out disciplinary actions. They will learn how to stop letting minor and major challenges overtake important instructional time, start teaching every student with confidence, stop letting minor discipline issues side-track important lessons, and handle nearly any classroom situation that comes up.