Nurtured Heart-Discipline Plan

I ended my last post with thoughts and questions about The Nurtured Heart Approach:

The question I will ponder and post on next is: If my focus is on building up greatness in each child, and refusing to feed into negativity in my classroom, is there really need for a conventional behavior management system with the standard laundry list of warnings and consequences, or is that totally counter-productive to the approach??

After attending the 3 day Nurtured Heart workshop, I understand that my wonderings were somewhat founded. It is not possible to have a behavior management system that uses warnings and reminders, because it sends the message to students that the rules are not always the rules. Children know what is expected, so why waste your time with warnings when you can quickly consequence the behavior with a quick timeout (no longer than 60 seconds) and welcome the child back, eagerly looking for success to highlight with that same student when they return.

With teaching kindergarten this year, I do feel like those little kiddos do need a little extrinsic motivation so I have tweaked my discipline plan:

Level 1: Reset (quick, clean time out)
Level 2: Buddy Room (students who refuse to reset or have substantial resets during the morning, afternoon will be sent to a Buddy Room. In this room, the teacher will give no energy to this student. They will be in this room for no more than 15 minutes.
Level 3: Loss of recess (this is not a time for lectures/discussions about why the student has lost recess-they already know so there is no reason to pour negative attention into the situation)
Level 4: Referral to A.P/Principal (this is a level for severe actions like fighting, bullying, theft, etc.)

Rewards/Incentive Systems:
Our school is a PBIS school and we use "Gotcha" tickets when we see students making positive choices. In my room, I will use these "Gotchas" as a credit system to honor students showing their greatness. When students are showing leadership, being a good friend, persevering through a tough task, participating, being thoughtful, they can earn a Gotcha. Every two weeks or so, we will have a "Gotcha Store" where students can purchase things like: eating lunch with the teacher, sitting with a friend, note/phone call home, special messenger for the day, etc.

The tenets of The Nurtured Heart Approach are: Highlighting the positives and the greatness of each student, avoiding the leaking of negativity, and being strict and consistent (the rules are the rules every day for everyone). This approach is not to manage behavior, but rather to turn right-side up the culture in the classroom in to one that highlights and promotes the greatness that we all possess. I cannot wait to see the impact of this approach in my classroom this year!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Nurtured Heart Approach

I was up into the wee hours of the morning (2:30am) reading what I feel has totally shifted my philosophy on 'behavior management'- Notching Up The Nurtured Heart Approach: The New Inner Wealth Initiative for Educators by Howard Glasser. Our district offers workshops on the Nutured Heart Approach. I used the approach in my classroom this past year, but now realize that I barely scratched the surface! This approach is one that seeks not to change or improve behavior, but rather to meet each student's needs by building up their inner strength to deal with the various situations that impact their life. This is not an approach just for the difficult child, but it is instead a whole-child, whole-class approach.

Glasser says in his book that this approach "is about giving child an unshakeable sense of self-worth with which they can navigate the complex territory of modern life. They will learn to use their intensity to propel success rather than to break rules and create chaos.

Based on the book, there are three 'Stands' that teachers should take in their approach with children in order to build up their 'greatness'

1. Stand 1: Refuse to energize negativity (ABSOLUTELY NO!!)
2. Stand 2: Relentlessly energize success (ABSOLUTELY YES!!)
3. Stand 3: Clearly but un-energetically enforce limits

My mind is so filled with emotion and ideas about how to truly 'notch up' my approach to energizing success through clearly enforcing limits without giving any energy to broken rules or poor choices. I will be posting over the next few days about kinks I plan to work out hopefully leading to a transformation in my use of this approach.

The question I will ponder and post on next is: If my focus is on building up greatness in each child, and refusing to feed into negativity in my classroom, is there really need for a conventional behavior management system with the standard laundry list of warnings and consequences, or is that totally counter-productive to the approach??

Have a wonderful Sunday and happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!!