Week+2

Today's lecture really opened my eyes to the differing methods of disciplining children. On personal reflection, with my own experiences of teaching musical instruments to groups of 4-5 students at a time, I believe I used the Coercive approach more often than any other. The reason for this I think stemmed from my psychology studies of reinforcement and the idea that negative behaviour will 'disappear' if it is negatively dealt with. I can now understand that this will not necessarily eliminate a negative behaviour as children may act-up for attention, and if you are punishing them, then you are being attentive towards them which they may view as a positive situation. In hindsight, I can now see better and possibly, more effective strategies to deal with little Jay-Jay who couldn't help himself but bash away on his guitar regardless of instructions.  I enjoyed reading about communal responsibility in the article by Lewis (2006) //Classroom Discipline In Australia // and the strategy to hold small group discussions or class meetings to discuss why negative behaviour in the classroom is disruptive for those trying to learn. I like the sense of community that this would bring, and helping children understand that the behaviour in question is not a matter of just being 'not allowed' but it actually affects those around him/her. I think it is very important that children gain a sense of community and understand that their actions, not just now, but in years to come can impact on those around them. It is also important to teach children how to feel empathy for someone else's situation, but I don't know how you teach that!

There is also a great importance I think, of knowing the child, in order to effectively deal with the behaviour. There may be no point in ignoring the negative behaviour in the hope without attention, the child will stop the behaviour, if the behaviour was not an attention-seeking one in the first place. I look forward to building trust and respect with the children in my class one day, and getting a true sense of each individual and their needs in the classroom.

Emma

**Poem from Week#2 Workshop!**
Once there was a boy named Billy, who in school was a little bit silly. He would talk in class, and be a real arse. That annoying little boy named Billy.

One day I asked him to stop, but he wouldn't 'cos I wasn't a Cop. So I gave him a choice, to quieten his voice. Either that or I'll ring his Pop.

So Billy decided to settle, and joined the activity about metal. So I gave him a star, and now he's gone far. And also plays nicely with Gretal.

Great work in class today guys! Laura :-D

I find the issues lectures to be the most interesting of our subjects so far, probably because I have always been fine academically but have had minimal experience with controlling the behaviour of school children. Of the three readings this week I found the article regarding Dreikurs' theory to be the most practical, I liked how it simply outlined possible problems in the classroom and solutions to these problems. From the lecture the concept of separating a child's or person's behaviour from them was a new one to me but one I really liked because at times I have struggled to see both sides of people negative and positive and separate their behaviour from them as a person. At times I would only see negatives of all people and then I went through a period where I could only see negativities of some people and positives of other people, now I more clearly see both sides of people. Hopefully, this ability will increase with experience, practice and reflection. I truly believe that everybody has abilities and strengths in a particular area(s) so I believe this along with working on my ability to separate a child's behaviour from them will allow me to develop the ability to discipline the children for inappropriate behaviour without thinking negatively or vocalising a negativity toward them as a person. As has been discussed the above abilities will require practice, reflection and an ability to be present in the moment and decide what is the most appropriate course of action rather than falling into a trap of simply resorting to my own experiences of having every action of mine commented negatively on as if that entire action was solely me.

In agreement with Emma I like the concept of discussing with the children acceptable behaviour and the most appropriate means of discipline. Interestingly the sense of community was stronger in Primary to Secondary school, perhaps because it is encouraged and fostered more in Primary, this is very nice thought as we will be teaching in Primary schools.

Personally, I know I have strong analytical and reflective skills so one of my own personally challenges will be to not be too critical of myself as a teacher and perhaps limit the number of events during a day that I reflect on and try to improve and I should enjoy the successes of teaching children along the way.

Matt It was a very thought-provoking lecture about classroom management! It has certainly provided a very strong framework for reflecting on classroom management. Emma, it was interesting that you noted that you think you used coercive power the most when you were teaching music to students. When I think about my work with kids, I think I also tend to use coercive power. However, I also think that coercive power is the easiest power to recognise. What I mean by this, is that I think it is highly likely that both of us have used the other types of power as well, but they are a little bit harder to notice and recognise. So I guess the great thing about R. Lewis drawing our attention to the different types of power is that 1) we will consciously make an effort to use a range of powers depending on the situation and type of students and 2) we will also notice when we are automatically using referent or reward power simply because it feels like the right thing to do. I am looking forward to going out on rounds and being able to put some of these theories/ideas into practice! Cat