Starting with the Self & Noticing Classroom Procedures and Norms

Starting with the Self

This blog post is relevant to the assignment, but may not be perfectly aligned. It is not contextually related to any of the three centering resources provided.  I am going to write, for the moment, about irony and self-care. And this will be more personal than I would have been otherwise. 

My blog is called The Joyful Learner. I was not a joyful learner these past two weeks. I spent Wednesday 9/30/20 in the chemo infusion lab. The next 10 days I learned what a chemo fog or chemo brain was. It was not my first infusion, but I had never been so adversely affected. I could not organize myself and prioritize MNGOT assignments. I couldn’t concentrate. I spent a considerable number of hours sitting down to do work. Nothing came of the effort. That is, except for a feeling that attempting to get my work done was only making things worse!!!! Isn’t that ironic????

Through this odd, otherworldly experience I was reminded of something very important about cultivating a practice of centering and self-care, especially as a teacher. On my kitchen wall I have posted the elements of self-care to focus on during my health recovery. Had I been following them? No. As a result, I was not able to engage the assignment to experience and to begin to develop a teacher-focused centering “protocol.” Ironically, I learned that in the absence of self-care, it is virtually impossible to cultivate a centering practice. And without this centering practice, a teacher is left defenseless against day-to-day stressors in the classroom that, to avoid being hooked, require self-patience and deep self-knowledge.

Because I practiced sitting meditation for many years as part of my Buddhist practice, I understand how a centering practice enhanced my life and my availability to myself, friends and family. I am lapsed at this moment, but for many years I would attend morning meditation and week long meditation retreats. This continuity and constancy made all the difference. I know from first-hand experience the benefits of creating space every single day to self-connect, breathe, calm down and see anew. 

As far as the connection between a teacher’s mental health and her ability to create contexts for learning where students thrive, take risks and feel seen, I sincerely see these as directly correlated.  As a teacher, I need to be thriving, taking risks and feeling seen --- especially by myself --- if I am to serve students in creating an environment where they can do the same.  I have been trained in ENVoY /Catalyst classroom management techniques. These provide a framework to ensure there is space for teachers and students to be centered and available to each other.  Self-care is at the heart of one’s ability to maintain a centered approach to everyday stressors. 

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Noticing Classroom Procedures and Norms  

Positive Academic Expectations: Positive academic expectations/norms for positive learning.

This version of an Expectations/Norms Poster stood apart from others I found. Most came off as rules enumerated; helpful reminders, but rather threatening. This one acknowledges the positive in each person and provides descriptive words or phrases that can be easily transformed into action statements to reflect the positive. This poster is, in and of itself, an example of positive learning.

 

Prosocial Behavior: Ways to engage social and emotional learning. 

Do you ever have family game nights?  Is there an uncle or a sibling or someone that always challenges the rules?  Calling them out sometimes makes the game more fun. But really, what’s happening in the context of playing the game, is the players setting their social and emotional boundaries for themselves as individuals and for the group as a whole.  

Culturally, games and play have always been used to teach prosocial behavior. Anthropologists have recorded many instances from widely ranging cultures in which this is a fundamental part of who families and their communities are.

Behavior Management & Discipline: Expectations for behavior & consequences for undesirable behavior.

This image depicts the four consequences of undesirable behavior:

Positive and Negative Reinforcement (R- and R+)

Positive and Negative Punishment (P- ad P+)

Reinforcement increases or strengthens the frequency of a behavior in the future. Punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior in the future. 

The critical understanding is that “only the [student] that is doing the behaving chooses whether a consequence is a punisher or a reinforcer.  Always, that value is from the eyes of the learner.”  APA version of link.

 

Transitions: Cueing signals in place to create stress-free transitions

Call-and-Response.  This poster spells out 6 call and response strategies to manage transitions in ways that will minimize stress. 

Used consistently and continuously, these manage 6 very common actions that students need to learn in order for them to contribute to a thriving learning environment during every transition. 

Caring Routines: Daily events to engage students in caring relationships

I have mentioned before that in the absence of self-care, calming and centering practices vital to building healthy relationships are impossible to establish.

Because of this, I chose this poster of prompts for checking all the intersections that a teacher herself as well as the students experience the space in which to form healthy relationships.

Picture Sources: 

Crockett, D. (1970, January 01). Building a Positive Community. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://www.crockettsclassroom.com/2014/06/you-oughta-know-about-building.html

Hawkins, R., & Nabors, L. (2018). Promoting prosocial behaviors in children through games and play: Making social emotional learning fun. New York: Nova Science.

Desatnik, L. (2020, April 22). 4 Quadrants of Operant Conditioning. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://somuchpetential.com/the-four-quadrants-of-consequences/

Learning, E. (2019, December 11). Managing Transitions: Visual and Auditory Techniques. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://www.mothergoosetime.com/topic/managing-transitions-visual-and-auditory-techniques/

Elizabeth Scott, M. (2020, August 03). 5 Self-Care Practices for Every Area of Your Life. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/self-care-strategies-overall-stress-reduction-3144729