Lecture #2 - Part 1- Discipline
Thursday September 6, 2007
WHAT A STRONG START – GREAT GOING CLASS!!!!
As of this writing we have in class –
7 Superintendents or supervisors/ leadership roles
Steve at Mitchell, Lynne at Newburgh New Life, David at Heartland, Donna at Cloverdale, Heather at Brownstown, Stan at Princeton New Life and Michael at
8 Teachers:
Pre-school – Lisa –
Jamie – elementary –
3rd & 4th grade – Betty N. –
4th and 5th grade- Nicole –Eastview
5th and 6th grade-Regina –
Pre-teen – Candie –
Pre-teen – Betty -
Junior High – Kenton –
GO AHEAD AND ENCOURAGE OTHER TEACHERS TO JUMP IN
Lecture #2 – Part 1- Discipline : Needed for Them and for You
Or
A Prevention in Burnout
While each age group presents a different challenge when it comes to discipline and control in the classroom. If you are in a challenging class in this regard then you need to know all you can about control. You must realize that there are techniques and methods that can help transform your classroom.
This is an open ended lecture. I will give some ideas to help but you will also give the other class members techniques that have worked for you.
Here are some ideas that might help:
1) Part of discipline begins outside the classroom.
The more you know about the student the more they will realize you really care for them. They will also tend to obey better as they see you invest in time at their games or other events.
Let’s say you really can’t attend the activities then the phone is your friend.
For instance if you know when the child is going to be in a special activity you could call before and give a word of encouragement (or pray) or call after the event just to see how it turned out.
They key is you are interested. This is your little flock.
2) Move the disruptive child.
Your insistence on behavior is a relief to a number of children. You are providing a safe environment for them.
The odd thing about it is often the unruly child is crying out for boundaries and kicking against them all at the same time.
3) Have backup.
If parents are at the church then tell the children up front that it is your policy to send disobedient children to their parents or you will speak them. You will be tested.
Remember you are teaching the most important Book in the world and you only have 45 minutes to an hour each week. Every minute counts because for many of our students they will not hear any more talk about the Bible or about eternal things for another week.
4) Change your teaching style.
While they need a sense of stability and routine they do not need the “same o, same o”…… Keep them off balanced as to how you do things. Do not be predictable.
Now let me add a thought: Who do you focus on in the classroom?
Does the noisy disruptive student get all your attention or do you see all of them? I found that because I am on so much guard to control the disruptive child I often have missed the quiet child. It is as if they do not exist. Our best teaching efforts helps us see all the children.
This is your Thursday Assignment
Assignment For Teachers:
1st –Tell the your greatest discipline struggle in class
2nd -- Name a discipline technique you will try Sunday ?
(Monday you will report how it went in class)
3rd- Respond to the thought of at least one person this week.
Assignment: For Superintendents and Supervisors:
1st – Tell us today what problems you think exist in your Children and Yout classes
2nd- By Sunday talk to a couple of your teachers and find out what they say is their biggest discipline problem in class.
3rd- Read at least 3 of the NazClass teachers responses for today
Pastor Daugherty
812-573-3734 kentondaugherty@yahoo.com
posted by Naz Class @ 9:48 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
I have 2 boys that are ADHD in my class and can be disruptive. I have learned one thing that will help is by giving them something to do. I have put the names of each student in a bowl and each month we have someone outside of our class draw a name and that person is my special helper for the next month.(ex: I drew a name on the last sunday of August and that person is my special helper for the month of September). This seems to help alot and also I try to get the children involved in some activity during class that will also reinforce the lesson. Sunday I will try to be more patient and will encourage to let their parents know themselves how they really behaved in class.
Jamie
Thankfully, my geatest problem in class is talkers. Several students do not know how to listen. Some of them are home schooled and do not have much chance to talk with other kids except at church.
I let them talk as they work on projects or work sheets, but insist on their attention while I am talking.
The secret to getting their attention is to be well prepared, use various types of aids (see;hear;touch;smell;taste), and to keep the class moving from one activity to another.
It is also very important to be a friend outside of class. Class activity (at least 1/qtr). Cards or letters anytime you can. Phone calls. And home visits. These all take time but they pay off in class. If you are their friend, they will not give you near as much trouble.
One of the biggest issues that I have faced in class, whether dealing with ADHD children or those who just can't seem to listen is trying to keep all of the children's attention. I have learned that the busy child is possibly listening even more than that child is who is sitting perfectly still. (they may be in their own little world and not hearing anything I say)
For children who just can't sit still, I allow them to "do" something. This may be holding a stuffed animal or quiet toy (for a younger child) or it might be letting them quietly walk around the room behind the other children if they are having an especially hard time of sitting still. As Jamie and Larry mentioned, keeping children busy will take away most behavior issues. Example: If I have the children sitting down to do a paper/pencil activity and then start in on my lesson time and then asked them to sing and then memorize a Bible verse, I will have even the most content child bored but if I have them fill in the activity sheet and then make it into a paper airplane and fly it to a target (and pick up airplanes after class-they have learned the info. on the paper, had fun with the paper, moved around and they can't wait to take the paper home (instead of tossing it in the trash on the way out the door). If I teach the Bible lesson using visual aids or sounds they can't help but listen to see what will happen next (ex. we are studying the fruit of the spirit-for the word peace I brought out a can of peas-is this what peace is? then I brought out a piece of cake- is this what peace is? then we talked about war time peace. Wow, did you realize that kids thought they knew what peace was? but they weren't right about God's peace.
Finally, relate things in your lesson to common things kids love. Did you know that you can relate play-doh in hundreds of ways? Kids can make something they love and then talk about putting God first/no idols, or try to form something from the dough and talk about creation. Keep kids busy and involved and watch their eyes light up and behavior issues lesson.
Talking to some of my teachers, one of their areas of concern is keeping the kids attention for the full 45 minutes. We are going to start working on memorizing or at least rehearsing the stories (I do have some readers). That way they keep their face out of a book and eyes on the kids. Plus when they know what they are going to say, they seem to be able to emote a little better. Hopefully this will help at least during the story time.
I have at least 2 children in my class whom I suspect have attention disorders. It seems that my greatest discipline challenge is getting and keeping the attention of all of the children at the same time.
I really appreciated Lynne's comment about how the perfectly behaved child just might be in his/her own world and "tuning me out," despite me being impressed by the good behavior! :-)
In the past, I have tried to commend good behavior because I feel that it is very important to appreciate our so called "churched" children, and not neglect them while we're having to spend so much time trying to correct negative behavior from others. However, this Sunday, I plan to keep in mind that the unruly children are quite possibly absorbing much more than I have given them credit for in the past. They may be great "multi taskers" in training. I certainly don't want to dampen their spirits in any way...just hopefully help them learn to channel it more effectively. I pray that we all have a wonderful day with our children this Sunday.
Kenton -Jr High teacher
My biggest struggle in the area of discipline has been in keeping attention or having one (just promoted ) that was disruptive.
I was strict with her and she knew the church loved her.
I changed my teaching style to gain this young ladies attention. It worked.
She is very visual and Iused visual methods
With a newer class I will have to adjust for the learning styles.
Kenton to Lynne,
I used play dough on the junior high level with great success. The students made characters in the lesson - and displayed high retention of details.
I have two girls in my Jr. High class who are at each others throats. They are constantly fighting. One of the girls is always saying hurtful things to the other girl and trying to humiliate her. I gave them a talk today about, "Whatever you have done to the least of these..." I hope it helps. I also spoke about forgiving others. I would appreciate any prayers for these girls.
It makes it difficult to teach a class when you are trying to be a referee at the same time.
p.s. I let the other Sunday school teachers know about Nazclass, so hopefully we will have some of them on here before long.
I think that one of the main porblems that is faced in S.S today is that anyone who teaches (including me) has a hard time making the lesson relevant to the student.
Other problems that I see are a lack of respect in some students for the teacher, minds that are filled with worldly ways and things,peer pressure(especially in j.h.and s. h.), and a short attention span.
One way to get and keep children's attention is to get them actively engaged. Provide a hands on activity that relates to the Bible lesson being taught. Let them create props, story lines, etc. and act out the story. They don't need to complete all workbook pages to be declared taught. Provide a lesson through craft project. ie- as you are providing a lesson on what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, have the children make their own "treasure box" to store their special thoughts or items in. They can be creating while you are teaching. Add technology to your lessons. Try to thing beyond the paper and pencil. All children learn best via multiple stimulation and areas. Quiet does not equate learning.
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