Teachers Need to Go through This post At least once!

AS A TEACHER, WHAT ARE THE THINGS WE MUSTNOT DO? (Resource: Ms. Caroline and Mrs. Karma Gayphel, Lecture from SCE, Samtse.)

It’s all what I gained from the short Professional development program I attended recently. It was based on “POSITIVE DISCIPLINE IN THE CLASSROOM”.

We should not opt for punishment if our students tend to do things which we don’t want them to do because punishment is not only physical as we see, it is also an emotional punishment as punishing a particular student will affect that child emotionally which we haven’t thought till date.

Some of the emotional punishments can be shouting at the child, yelling, ignoring, insulting, name calling, putting down(you don’t know anything, useless…)…and many more which will lower the self- esteem of the child. Doing such thing in class will definitely hamper the child emotionally leading in ineffective teaching learning.  If we are using punishment as the means of improving our students, we are walking on the thorny path; it will be very tough and difficult journey to reach to the destination.  Punishment leads to a certain cycle in which our students are trapped in and they will be circled by punishment leading to withdrawal, leading to criticism, to anxiety, to low motivation. After having low motivation, they will not be in position to cope with the stress which will again lead towards punishment and the cycle will go on. The diagram below shows the cycle of punishment which keeps our children entrapped if we punish our students. I think I may not have to explain the diagram because this cycle is created by us unconsciously (p.s. not all the teacher punishes their students), it’s already there and some children are already in that cycle.                                         

(sorry, the diagram can't be copied here. As i am just the starter , i m lacking some important knowledge about how to do such necessary things online. Hope my readers can visualize the diagram and understand the cycle better.)
                                                

We must always keep in our mind that ‘there are no bad students, only bad behaviors’.

Q. If punishment is not the best solution for the misbehaviors of our students, what else can we do to improve them?

Here are some good ideas which will help teachers as well as students in moving towards better future.

1.     Safe and secure students….teacher- students’ relationship (teacher being very approachable, responsive and supportive while students need to be cooperative, dedicated and enthusiastic).

2.     Teacher and students work together to create shared ground rules for learning along with consequences for breaking them (that will keep students mindful of their actions since it’s them, who framed the rule).

3.     Set up classroom management committee (elect members amongst themselves who can manage the class in absence of teacher; these members should be first made clear with how to manage the class).

4.     Teachers need to work with reactivity( upon seeing students unexpected negative behavior which makes us feel like punishing them, first we need to track our own inner feelings, then notice how we are feeling at the moment. If we are angry, irritated, then we need to pause and ground to let that ill feeling leave our body. After that try to find the reasons for students such behaviors. Later, when we have known the reasons, why the child have done like that, it will make us get rid of our anger or frustration. Ultimately, after studying the while in-depth cause of the misbehavior, we can respond accordingly. And then react in the way which won’t let our students feel threatened.)

5.     Before responding to any problems, first teachers need to understand what are the reasons for the behavior? What are the unmet needs? After that we need to evaluate examined problem (does the behavior actually deserve a disciplinary response?).  If yes, offer choices of consequences (what kind of punishments they want to do for their misbehavior) and if no, offer support (talking with the students, trying to solve the problem together...).

Some of the positive discipline responses (it’s more about HOW than about WHAT?):

ü Explain rationale of rules

ü Correcting flawed beliefs of our students

ü Offering two positive choices which would benefit them in one or other way round

ü Celebrating good behaviors( exampling  those who showed good behaviors and encouraging others that they can also do so)

ü Inviting reflection ( take a break and giving time for reflection on how everything is being done)

ü Respecting dignity ( private discussion with student)

ü Ending every session on a good note ( talking about good things happened in the session)

ü Whispering( it will arouse curiosity in students and can even seize their attention)

Doing all the above mentioned things will be definitely uneasy but giving it a gradual try isn’t any harm. I hope my fellow teachers would happily make use of these ideas and move positively forward. The positive result in our students wouldn’t be very immediate; obviously it will take the longest route but finally its counts to be the best teacher ever. So, good luck and THANK YOU!