Teacher’s Corner

Four things that make disciple in the classroom work:

• Being unemotional.

• Being as matter-of-fact as possible.

• Avoiding punishments.

• Using natural and logical consequences to put students in charge of themselves and give them a reason to make good choices about their behavior.

  (See Sticking to the Rules for more information about consequences.)

Writing Prompts and Discussion Topics 

The following are based on the blog, “Sticking to the Rules.”

1. Imagine that you were a teacher and classroom rules were being broken. Imagine that your goal was to enforce the consequences for breaking the rules in as matter-of-fact way as possible. Describe what you would look like, sound like, and act like when you were being very matter-of-fact about enforcing discipline consequences.

2. Do you think students are given enough independence at school? Write the first paragraph of a “Student Declaration of Independence.” Include the type of independence you are declaring and why you think it is justified using evidence you have seen, heard, or read about.

3. Do you think students are able to be in charge of themselves? Why or why not?

4. Give four adjectives that describe the types of consequences for breaking rules that you think will affect the choices students make about their behavior?  (For example: tough, private, frequent, negotiable). Explain why you chose each adjective.

Teachers, you can use this blog in classrooms. Here are two ideas about how.

1. For middle or high school parenting or child development courses:

• Use the blog for discussion topics

• Require students to research the topics and agree or disagree with what the blog is suggesting.

2.  For all courses, especially English Language Arts:

• Use the blog for writing prompts for paragraphs, theme papers, journal entries, class starters, etc. Have students read the blog and respond to:

  • Do you agree with what is being said about kids? Do kids really act, think or feel that way?

  • Do you agree with what is being said about parents, grandparents, teachers and child caregivers? Do or should they act, think or feel that way?

  • What would be your advice on this topic?

  • What was left out of this article?

  • If you were a parent, would you use any of this information? How?

Why can this blog be a useful teaching tool?

• Students that see connections between their coursework and their lives do better in school.

• Most students will either be parents one day or have children in their lives that they care about, so the topical information can help them build their knowledge about children and parenting and develop a positive image of the type of parenting they want to do.

• The new core literacy standards adopted by most states call for frequent writing in all courses.

• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can think critically. These prompts help students practice critical thinking.

• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can analyze what they read. These prompts help students practice analysis.