Weekend Reflection and Reset
Weekend Reflection and Reset
Sitting in my den, reflecting and planning for the next week. This is what I’ve done and any free time I’ve had this weekend. I have literally woke up in the middle of the night trying to figure out a solution to help us switch gears. The last two weeks have been hard. I try to figure out where the regression in our classroom behavior started and I can’t put my finger on it. In a conversation with Elizabeth she reminded me some thing that I know to be true. When children feel safe with you they show you their true emotions and sometimes those are big.
Think about when you are upset- how you hold it in and pass people in the street and you say no, I’m fine… I’m OK… And you smile. When you get to your person the overwhelm hits you and you cry or yell or scream, or just sit quietly until the feeling passes. The first few weeks of school were really calm and I think it put me in a place where I was not aware of some of the supports I needed in my classroom. Now that children are comfortable with me and they know they are safe here and they know I’m not going to lose it – they are beginning to show more emotions and test more boundaries. That’s not an entirely bad thing. Some days it can be really hard. My job is to figure out how to help them regulate in a safe way.
“Our response to challenging behaviors is critical. Many adults assume children’s motives are negative. However, negative intent always encourages children to be more oppositional.
Since we get to make up the child’s intent behind a behavior, we might as well make it positive. When we define children positively, we hold them in high esteem, keeping both the child and ourselves in a higher brain state.
Instead of seeing a child as bad and trying to make life difficult, we can shift our perception and assume the child is simply trying to achieve a goal but lacks the appropriate skills to do so.
💙 Continue learning more about the Power of Love and the Skill of Positive Intent here: https://consciousdiscipline.com/seven-powers-power-of-love/“
Partnering with parents to raise kind and responsible little people is truly an honor. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. There have absolutely been days in the last two weeks. I stood at the door and smiled and waved goodbye holding in tears because I felt so defeated and tired. But we have the tools and we can do this. One thing I have neglected to do this year is to teach you conscious discipline routinely. When we’re all using the same methods our children will thrive.
So here’s to another week. Another week of learning about children and how to help them in the best way we know how.