Conscious Discipline

Many of you have heard of the "Saint" Becky Bailey,  (my personal idol) and her curriculum for teaching social and emotional skills, Conscious Discipline. If you haven't,  I HIGHLY recommend you taking the time to learn about the curriculum. It's not only useful for teaching (especially if you have some children with social and emotional needs - which let's face it, who doesn't). It's also useful for understanding your ability to self regulate, aka not get unbelievably mad at "Johnny" because "Sarah" took his pencil from the table's pencil cup and now they are crying and yelling at each other…It helps with understanding the emotions, reactions, and relationships of friends, family members, and colleagues. 

Although Conscious Discipline is not our school wide behavior plan, the Grand is a BIG believer in Conscious Discipline and about 60% of the teachers use some or most of the elements of the curriculum. This year, our school did an in-house staff development and book study on one of Becky's more recent books, Creating the School Family, Bully-Proofing Classrooms Through Emotional Intelligence. It was a fantastic course that was taught by two of our awesome PreK teachers, Amy Pylant and Tiffany Taylor (who do an absolutely amazing job using Conscious Discpline in their classes).

One of my favorite quotes from this book: 

"If we believe "discipline" means to "punish", we will punish them for lacking self-regulatory skills instead of teaching them how to self-regulate. When we punish them for lacking the ability to self-regulate, we also prevent them from developing the very skill we want to encourage." 

WOW! What a eye opener. I can't tell you how many times I've been frustrated a child for just that. The book does an excellent job explaining why children have difficulty handling, coping, and showing emotions especially coming from impoverished backgrounds and what you can do to help eliminate that lack of coping mechanisms. 

I currently have 4 children who are considered homeless and are living in a hotel/motel although many live with multiple family members and often sleep with 2 or more people in a room or bed. Sometimes I forget that when "Johnny" comes in the classroom 15 minutes late, slamming the door open and throwing his backpack down that he's bringing all of the emotional baggage that he dealt with from home right into my classroom. As frustrating as it may be, Becky and this book reminded me that it's my job to help the child let that all go and feel safe at school so they can learn and grow. 

When my children arrive the immediately give me a greeting at the door (of their choice), then move their face into the circle of friends. After, they move their "stick" into the safe keeper box. 

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After our morning routine is finished, I start the day the "Brain Smart Way". As C.D. (Conscious Discipline) calls it. 

1.   Activity to Unite

• Greetings, Songs, Reciting, Class Activity, or even reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I love using Becky's CD It Starts in the Heart - although you can use any fun or uniting song.

2.    Activity to Disengage Stress

• Deep Breathing/"Calming Technique"

3.    Activity to Connect

• Playful connections that have eye contact, use touch, and have a presence (Nursery Rhyme activities or Chants for older kids).

4.    Activity to Commit 

• Our four daily commitments (most teachers call these rules. C.D. specifically uses the language commitment to have the children understand it's a promise, and not a rule, which is not meant to be broken without a consequence. We recite these aloud, then say our "Commitment Chant".
  
  
  

  
  

I have a number of babies this year that have emotional issues and spend the majority of the day crying or being angry (throwing/kicking/floor fits). The safe place is the perfect place to allow them to "calm" by using the techniques of Becky's self-regulation or being a "STAR" - Smile, Take a Deep Breath, And Relax. 

We've even created some classroom books to help remind the children (especially the ones who have breakdowns frequently) how to calm. 

Our Safe Place - We used Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses to help teach the children to look on the "bright side" of things. They use this as one calming activity after breathing. Also inside is a stress-ball, "calming clapper", and stuffed animals.  

We have a "Safe Spot Counselor" as a job who helps the child in the safe spot self regulate if needed. This makes it easy for me to stay active in my teaching roll, while the children develop amazing social and emotional skills. Our class jobs have a purpose and add meaning and a sense of belonging to our classroom family. I tried to create titles to jobs that we're real careers like Zoo Keeper, Botanist, and Bellman. 

Not only is her classroom routines amazing, but the language she teaches in her book is unlike any other. This is probably the most challenging area of reforming your current form discipline because you have to be CONSCIOUSLY aware of your words, body language, and actions. I am constantly working at this area of her curriculum and can promise you I am not always "consciously" self-regulating myself or my discipline choices or following the curriculum as I should, but I am aware of my actions, good or bad, which is the first step in changing them. 

There is about 10 million more things I could write about Conscious Discipline in in my classroom but for now, I'll leave you with this. As always, leave any questions for me below. More to come soon :)