Is It Friday Yet?

The school year has begun and students have been in school for just about 30 days. I have already begun to feel the effects of arduous weeks of work. Every year, the new students enter Kindergarten bright-eyed and bushy- tailed, most having never been in a classroom. Every day we go through routines and rituals in order to maintain a safe caring environment.

This year, my kindergarten team and I have begun to implement Conscious Discipline. Up until training in August, I had no idea what Conscious Discipline was or is. We are working together to start the practice of Conscious Discipline in our classrooms. This is not a school-wide behavior plan but after reading and learning about the program, I came to realize that many teachers are already practicing some aspects of Conscious Discipline. To learn more about Conscious Discipline, visit: https://consciousdiscipline.com/

Although I am practicing Conscious Discipline to the best of my abilities, I have some outliers. I am working with them individually as best I can with a classroom of 21 five-year-olds and me as the only adult in the room. I began to research whether others were having difficulties with some students that do not seem to fit into the Conscious Discipline world. Although it was not easy to find critics of the program, I did find an interesting article from 2013 https://sciencebasedmedicinew.org/conscious-discipline-more-dubious-neuroscience/

and a blog/survey of Conscious Discipline from a men’s forum http://forums.avoiceformen.com/showthread.php?4950-Conscious-Discipline

In addition, I found an article from a father that felt that Conscious Discipline was not working for his son: https://www.fatherly.com/parenting/discipline-and-behavior/this-is-what-its-like-when-your-kids-school-is-unhelpful/

Is it just a coincidence that the first three critiques I found are only from men? I have no idea, but interesting none the less. (I think I might delve into this idea at another time!) What type of behavior plan do you use in your classroom? Are you part of a PBIS system or practicing Conscious Discipline? What seems to work for you and your students? What is your opinion about these behavior plans or others that you have seen in classrooms? Join the conversation!