T2W5 - Alan (2007-05-26)

Classroom Management

2 topics - dealing with children in pain, dealing with bullying

Moral Relativism? What right have we as adults to dictate what is right and wrong?

What is the basis of our ethics?

Plato, Aristotle, Socrates: 'Anything that enhances the goodness of a person'

Who decides what is good? Greeks concluded that Good is basically about relationships, and the quality of relations.

Hattie: 'the most important thing is the quality of the relationship between the teacher and student'

Important to be humble - nuturing, love, mentoring.

Where did we go wrong: over dependence on rules. The world of power and control.

Students: Lives are cluttered. Time is filled with television/sport/computers

Teacher: 'Clutter buster' - challenge students to be uncluttered in classroom and at home. Homework? how important? Surely we can fit all the learning into the time they are at school.

Ask students: 'who do you see yourself as now? where are you heading? what can you let go of?'

Every few years need a spring clean - things, people. What is worth keeping? Relationships and Love.

Are students heads so cluttered that they don't have room for new information?

Vygotsky - zone should include ensuring there is space for the new.

A good structured activity should inspire the student to choose to learn at home anyway.

Summary: To manage a class we need to put students into a place where they can learn - beautiful, empowering, place to be. Unfortunately there will still be some who still can't focus.
Are these students 'in pain'.

Managing children in pain

'Whole brain teaching' Relaxed state with no stress. Getting the WHOLE thing working at the same time reduces stress. WB emphasises active learning - learner makes connections that tap both hemispheres. (passive learning does not do this).

Good emotional management - avoid 'downshifting' to 'primal behaviour'.

Must relax the learners. Outdoor activity, Dance, Art, Wood/metal work. Short term physical goals. Clear goals - clear ways to get help. Imaging (good for concrete learners) is critical - imagining. Lots of stuff that makes sense. If in doubt, use lots of images. Visualise, draw use drama.

Teach emotional skills as an essential part of every course. Self awareness, Mood management, Self motivation, Empathy, Managing relationships.

Solution 1: Develop Emotional Inteligence. Meditations, Reflective activities, Think pair share, with pauses to reflect emotionaly. Make students aware of how their behaviour affects others.

'Graffiti' exercise - small group writes a response to a question, which is passed onto other groups to add their comments. Optional final stage is to get everyone to do their own summary.

Work on stuff when things are going well - not just at times of crisis.

http://www.bullyingnoway.com.au/

Dealing with bullying: Gather detailed evidence directly from the child.

Restorative Justice. Build partnership, balanced approach, preserve safety and dignity of all

"Restorative Justice is a return to aboriginal (commonsense) response where the commission of a crime is viewed as a lack of spiritual balance within the person and as an offence against human relationships rather than an act against the state.

Essence of emotional inteligence is to be able to step back and look at things objectively.

T2W2 Alan (2007-05-05)

Get into the mind of a child who is walking into a school that I know

They arrive in the classroom, or is it a learning place

What is the thought of the child as the lesson is about to begin - what have we done to grab the attention of the child

We have got to bring the child 'off the bus' away from the TV etc. Do they have their own place?

Book 'Twilight of Love' Robert Desade
'what makes civilisation?' 'In a civilised world we have "places"'. In uncivilised world it is nomadic and unfixed. Greek's set the trend, Romans took it on... where do we have our sense of home/place?

What are the special things that we have made in Shearwater that make it a home away from home

New theorists:

Dirkheim and Bourdieu

As humans we have to have a group within which we live. The group has a 'momentum' or coercive power over how we live - following 'patterns'. External control over our conduct. 'Norms', 'Morays', 'Folkways'

Dirkheim: In every human there are two consciences: External one imposed on you by the group. A 'Conscience' that is there. If you break the rules you are either a 'poor wretch/maverick' or the 'lunatic fringe'. Also there is the internal conscience. Everyone has their own understanding of right and wrong, what we like/dislike. We develop this to meet our internal needs.

External: Habitus - (latin) permanent disposition - way of thinking. Deep seated unspoken agreement about the way things are done here. Deportment. Posture.

Civilised: able to critically reflect

How can we make our space more civilised? Sense of place, creativity

French civilisation push: International Baccaulerate

Civilised society values learning, arts, place, temperance, justice, wisdom, rational addults, be aware of time beyond our own.

Barbarians - irrational, nomadic,

Theme 2 - beyond the here and now

look up 'Stephen Downes' - being connected to a larger community - knowledge, information, people in other times

George Siemonds - connectivism

Motivation Thread

Glasser - 5 things (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Therapy)

These needs are classified under five headings. The first is our primary and physical need for:

• Survival (including food, clothing, nourishment, shelter, personal security).

And the following four are psychological.

• Connecting, Belonging, Love (including groups as well as families or loved ones).
• Power (including learning, achievement and feeling worthwhile and winning).
• Freedom (including independence, autonomy, one’s own 'space').
• Fun (including pleasure and enjoyment).

Adler (from http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Dreikurs%2C_Rudolf)

Adler’s Basic premises (Dreikurs, 1972, pp. 8-9)

i) Man is a social being and his main desire (the basic motivation) is to belong.

ii) All behavior is purposive. One cannot understand behavior of another person unless one knows to which goal it is directed, and it is always directed towards finding one's place.

iii) Man is a decision-making organism.

iv) Man does not see reality as it is, but only as he perceives it, and his perception may be mistaken or biased.

Dreikurs (from http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Dreikurs%2C_Rudolf)

All misbehavior is the result of a child’s mistaken assumption about the way he can find a place and gain status (Dreikurs, 1968, p. 36).

Students’ goals that motivates misbehavior (Wolfgang, 2001, pp. 117-122) (Dreikurs, 1968, pp. 37-40)
1) attention getting
2) power and control
3) revenge
4) helplessness & inadequacy

Alan: students are driven by need to be a member of a group - fundamental driver of humanity
Glasser & Dreikurs go together.
Need to teach the students how to operate effectively in a group.

What do we need to do?
1) make sure the general environment is supportive of learning/cooperation/mutual respect
2) learning place - social groups within it - make sure they belong - need an activity that melds them into a grooup - story, common interest, pair them up, talking to each other in the ZPD
3) make sure every student have 5 glasser needs met

Glasser/Dreikers - 'leading them' - non assertive discipline
or Cantor/Skiner etc - 'pushing them' (won the battle, lost the war) - teacher dominates - assertive discipline.

Lee Cantor info here: http://www.change.freeuk.com/learning/howteach/assertdisc.html

All about the rights of the teacher

Maslow's hierarchy of needs