Where has this year gone already? I realized I haven't posted in a while, but had a lot swimming around in my head, so I figured it'd be a good time to write. This year, I have been on a Conscious Discipline journey. I have tried to document some of what I'm learning here, and I've had the opportunity to share my classroom with several teachers across Alabama.
There's one question that I get a lot: How do you find the time? The truth is, I thought this at first too. I heard about all the ways Conscious Discipline helps create a class family, and I thought to myself, "I don't know how they expect me to do all of that and still teach." BUT then I had that class...you know the one...the class full of those kids. I cried a lot. I felt like a failure. I wanted to quit a lot of days. (If there's one thing I've learned about teachers, it's that we hope to make a difference, and sometimes when we don't know how...it's really hard.) I had already used every tool in my box and every trick I knew. It didn't work. I felt like a failure. I carried this with me when I went home, and I dreaded the next day. I knew a little bit a CD, but wasn't practicing it. I was just trying to survive the day, and didn't feel like I had the time or the brain power to give it a shot.
Out of pure desperation, I slowly started to implement different parts of CD. I realized there were ALREADY Conscious Discipline strategies in place in my class. For example, I have a picture schedule up for my kids to see. This meets the survival state of "Am I Safe?" It helps children feel secure knowing what the routine is and what will be coming later in the day. I also already had class jobs. This meets the emotional state of "Am I loved?" by allowing students to feel they belong and are needed in the classroom in order to keep it safe. I started greeting my students at the door with some pictures. They could choose a bear hug, a snake shake, a smile, a high five, or a butterfly greeting. Once I had these down and they students were used to it, I passed in on to them as part of our class jobs.
Then we started talking about a safe-keeper, and then commitments, and then feeling buddies. I started to notice a change in my students. While it was still really hard, and we had many bad days, I watched my students start to be kinder to each other. I watched them notice when others were struggling.
I learned that I'm GOING to spend my time in one of two ways: I can spend it fighting the child in a power struggle, OR I can spend it teaching. Teaching routines, implementing strategies for regulation, and noticing kindness, so my students have skills that will go with them for life.
