Beyond Behaviors Book Study: Ch. 1

I have been in education for 23 years.  In all that time, I have been trained in everything from Guided Reading to Physical Education strategies.  Never, have I been offered a training in social emotional education or dealing with challenging behaviors.  Since the dawn of time, we have been using punishments and rewards to get others to do what we want.

One day, I came to work and I felt like there has to be more than this.  The world is different and the children in it are different.  There must be something more to get children to be more cooperative in class.   
I've heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

 There are countless variations of punishment and reward systems and I did not want or need another.

By chance, I happened to find this book by Dr. Delahooke and I knew I had to read it.  This coupled with my study of Conscious Discipline by Dr. Bailey has led me to a new way of looking at discipline.

  Using our knowledge of how the brain works to think about behavior is truly innovate and moves us into the 21st century!  

I am so excited to be doing this book study! I hope you will join me and leave me a comment about your thoughts!

According to Dr. Delahooke, we make three errors when we address behaviors. 

1. We don't try to find the cause of the behavior.

2. We don't individualize our approach.

3. We don't use a developmental approach.

Why are so many students expelled? We mistakenly believe that behavior is intentional, when it is actually a reaction to a stressor.  We try to reason with the child before they are developmentally ready.   

We need to determine if the behavior is intentional or a response to stress.

Supports put in place must be suitable for the individual, taking into consideration how individual interprets the environment.

Expecting a child to "calm down" and "use your words" when they do not yet have the ability will not bring about the desired results. When polled over 50% of parents believed children under three have impulse control and over 30% think a child under two has this ability. These skills only develop in children after reaching neurodevelopmental milestones. 

To find success in helping children develop emotional regulation is to create an atmosphere of safety and connection. Adults who are helpful with co-regulation will help children develop theses skills.

Dr.  Becky Bailey of Conscious Discipline has developed a curriculum called the Feeling Buddies which helps adults teach children to regulate. 

A DEVELOPMENTAL ICEBERG

We only see the tip of the iceberg when we look at outside behaviors.  Looking under the iceberg helps adults make a mind shift.  Instead of judging behaviors, we seek to find what is happening in the mind and body.  These include sensations, emotions, memories, ideas, developmental capabilities- the causes of what you see.  

By AWeith - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link


Unfortunately, we as teachers, have not been trained to understand the "complexity of the body-mind-brain connection."


The polyvagal theory, in an extremely simplified version, is the way person responds and regulates stress.  Continual behavior problems attest that a child is adaptively responding to different forms of stress.  The nervous system trying to adjust to stressors to find relief.  Simply put, it is survival instinct in action. 

Further, social engagement is the newest and most adaptive of neurophysiological states, yet it is still driven by the need to find safety when we feel threatened.

Those that suffer faulty neuroception, due to trauma or a susceptible nervous system, may over or under perceive a situation as  dangerous.  Therefore these reactions come in the form of behavior challenges.  

In neuroscience, the need for safety is a prerequisite to thinking.  To engage students, we must build a connection.

Kenneth Wesson, neuroscience education consultant, says "Emotional safety is a school requirement and priority." 


This information calls for teachers to make a mind shift from student compliance to creating emotional, relational safety.

"'I have a discipline problem.' No! You have an engagement problem."-Kenneth Wesson


This very idea can be summed up with this quote from Dr. Becky Bailey's book Conscious Discipline, "Our brains are wired to connect, attune with, resonate with and learn from each other.  For this reason, a child must be able to answer the questions "Am I safe?" and "Am I loved?" in the affirmative... (p.172)"


Next week: Chapter 2:  Top Down or Bottom Up? 

Rock Unit

I love doing my rock unit with my class.  They are so interested in rocks and there are so many activities you can do with it.  Each year, I have a parent tell me that their child is so interested, they wanted books and rock collections to keep at home!

My favorite activities is making the anchor charts for each type of rock.  This chart demonstrating how metamorphic rocks are formed, was done as a group. Colored pencils and markers were taken out and we placed the chart paper on the table and gathered around. I drew lines and rocks in the middle and class helped to color it in.  Later, I added the labels and arrows.  

This was our very messy brace map that we also created together.  I wanted the children to understand the way a sedimentary rock is created.  We used layers of sand, dirt, and gravel with insane amounts of Elmer's glue on a science fair board.  We took turns adding layers. We had a little trouble putting it all together on the left due to the confined space, but the children understood the concept of sedimentary rocks.  

 


This is the unit wall with the big idea and essential questions.  The bottom right hand corner is the interactive writing chart showing how igneous rocks are formed. I had a couple of student who were enamored with this type of rock.  They couldn't get enough of pumice and obsidian.

The left has an interactive writing on how minerals make rocks.  The right is integrating print concepts. We sort letters, words, sentences by using vocabulary and sentences that are unit related.

Sometimes I challenge the children with a higher level thinking question.  I don't expect them to be able to write the answer at this stage, but I will take dictation and they are expected to draw a picture for their answer.

This was an experiment with floating and sinking.  The children were given a baggie with pumice, obsidian, granite and marble.  They were asked to inspect each rock.  Then make a prediction about whether it will float or sink.  I charted the predictions.  

Students were given the chance to try out the rocks.They were asked to place them in the correct category of the chart.  The only floater was pumice.

Here was another higher level thinking question that followed up our experiment.

This is our rock unit integrated into math.  We have counting collections, word problems, and number bonds.

Finally, we created our projects.  We needed to create something that uses rocks. 

This is a stage made of rocks.

This was a rock extractor.  It removes rocks from the water so they can be used to build things.

Rocks used for landscaping.

I hope you found this interesting.

CTA Good Teaching Conference

Last month, I had the good fortune to attend the Good Teaching Conference in Orange County.  It was a great time and a wonderful learning experience. 

One of my favorite sessions was the "Spectacular Books to Make and Take" presented by Mary Peterson.  

Mary taught us how to make very clever books using her skills in origami that she learned as a child. Some books were too advanced for my skill level, but some of them I will make with my class soon.  She sells a digital copies of her book on TpT and here is the link to free directions for the Pull and Peek Book.  Also, visit her website https://www.teachertreasures.com/   
She has resources on Guided Math, Reading and Writing.
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My other favorite session was "Art It Up."
My inspiration from the session directed drawing insects and pattern block art.

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My other favorite was "Easy and Exciting Science Experiments You Can Do."

Here is a fun activity you can do with your students.

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From Brain Science to Instructional Practice 

by neuroscientist, Kenneth Wession

https://www.sciencemaster.com/

Key points from his presentation:

• Give students think time for better responses.
• They need to discuss their thinking in order to make it clearer
• Add regular movement in lessons- moving adds glucose to the brain
• The brain makes no distinction between physical stress, emotional stress or intellectual threat
• For faster learning provide safety, acceptance, inclusion, interaction and involvement

Design lessons for children's developing brains use:

• Patterns
• Emotions
• Relevance
• Context, content, in cognitively appropriate forms
• Use sense making models, like stories
• Add visuals
• Add manipulatives (touch turns on the brain)
• Connect new material to prior knowledge, new knowledge is connected to what we already know
• When students struggle it is in the absence of  mature brain development, not curriculum development
• Students of kindergarten age need a change in instruction every 7 minutes
• Novelty activates the brain

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Visit WWW.CAST.org

for resources on 

Universal Design for Learning

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Join me this June, I will be doing a book study on Dr. Delahooke's new book!

All About Me Unit

This year I added a new unit of study entitled "All about Me." 

It incorporated lessons on feelings, name activities, and Conscious Discipline ideas. When I started to get my classroom ready, I was asked to go through my old Pre-K Splash curriculum.  I was absolutely delighted to find that these four Shubert books were included  in the kit as well as the "It Starts in the Heart" music CD.

Using the Shubert books, I was able to introduce the important concepts of Conscious Discipline and using the CD we were able to start bonding into a school family.

These students are practicing their breathing using the feeling dolls.  These are homemade dolls that are based on Becky Bailey's "Feeling Buddies."

This student is explaining how we use the feeling dolls after we read the "Feeling Buddy" books.

You can get a copy of  my Free Kindness Recording Sheet through my TpT store.

As part of our procedures, we developed a voice scale to learn when and where certain voice levels are appropriate.  

The unit involved explore feelings. Notice that children gave different responses to the same picture.

Using some terms of the unit, we created a "word, letters, sentences" chart.

This predictable chart was used to help students learn name recognition and create a book entitled "My School Family." Each page of the book included a photo of the child named.

This is the unit of study wall.  It included feeling faces and emotion names as well as the breathing posters.  These are available free at https://consciousdiscipline.com/free-resources/

You simply have to sign up to access these resources.

We read many books about feelings and used interactive writing to combine the learning of print concepts with learning about our emotions.

I introduced the time machine when students began having conflicts that they were not able to handle on their own. Students have begun to ask to use this tool when they feel it is needed.

Students were asked what emotions they have trouble dealing with, what they could do to handle it, and what could they create that would help them. We used this information to create projects.

I am not in any way affiliated with Conscious Discipline.  I simply own two of Becky's books and decided to incorporate the ideas into my unit.

I hope you found something useful today.

Insect Unit

This year our school was tasked with creating units of study based around project based learning.  Our final unit was the insect unit.

Here are some of the activities.

When solving word problems, the children were required to add all the details of the story.

Example, "Justin found 6 ladybugs in the park. 2 of them flew away. How many ladybugs does he have left?" In this story children needed to draw the setting (park),the character (Justin), and the plot (ladybugs leaving).  In this way, they are practicing detailed drawings as suggested in "Write From the Beginning." After, they may write the answer as a number or a number sentence. 

This was a drawing activity that challenged the students to listen carefully to the directions. Students were told draw:

• a square, yellow head
• an orange, triangular thorax
• a green, oval abdomen
•  2 antennae
•  6 legs
• a grumpy face on the insect
•  the setting (grass and sun)

Then we were able to tie math into this by having the children measure their insect with cubes.

Our essential learning involved discovering how insects can be helpful or harmful. 

We used these resources to lead discussions.

Insect resources

Insects that are harmful and Why

We created a double bubble map comparing insects.

The final project was to create a 3D insect with all of its parts (head, thorax...) and to tell what the insect does to help to or hurt the environment.  The students were required to design their project and were allowed to add special features to the insect.

The insects were created with adult help.

Materials List

packing foam, felt, pom poms, pipe cleaners, egg cartons, wax paper, left over laminate, paper towel tubes, construction paper, craft sticks, cotton balls, masking tape

Have fun with your units!