Your student did what? What did you do?

If you are a teacher, you might have had a similar conversation with a colleague. You might even have had nightmares that include an out of control class and you as the teacher, unable to do anything. What is your method for classroom management? Does it work?

Having taught at the elementary level for over 15 years, I have learned and participated in many different school-wide and classroom behavior management systems including: PBIS, behavior ladders, traffic light system, behavior charts, sticker charts, table points, tickets, prizes, classroom marble jars, student of the day and conscious discipline, to name a few. Sound familiar?

This past school year I was introduced to another behavior management strategy: CPS. This is not Child Protective Services, although I think the use of the same acronym is humorous. This CPS stands for Collaborative and Proactive Solutions. This model for behavior was created by Dr. Ross W. Greene (see www.livesinthebalance.org) and is explained fully in his book, Lost at School. The overall premise is that children misbehave because they have not mastered the skills needed to meet the expectations. Children need to master life’s social, emotional, and behavioral challenges as they grow. Dr. Greene believes that children will do well if they can but if they cannot, and the demands placed on the child exceed his capacity to respond appropriately, there is an unsolved problem to work on.

In this model, the behavior of the child is simply what the student does when an unsolved problem arises and they lack the skills to overcome the problem. An important piece of this behavior model is working with the student to identify the unsolved problem, (for example the student has difficulty staying in line on the way to special, not the behavior-running, screaming, etc.), letting the child know about the adult concerns of how the problem affects the student or other students, and creation of a realistic mutually satisfactory solution to use to help the child develop the skills to handle the problem.

As I read Lost at School, I initially thought, “Yeah right. This isn’t going to work.” Then I realized I do some of this already, and by the end of the book, I was looking at the website for the resources to use with students. One of the best features of the book was the example that was weaved throughout the story to show CPS in action. Although the example in the book was an older student, I believe this could work for my younger students too. I already teach social and emotional skills to handle challenges and this resource could help me with the couple of students that need extra support in learning these skills.

If you have time before the school year starts, and you would like a different way to look at classroom management, I highly recommend this book and website. If you already have used CPS in your classroom, or another effective behavior management model, how is it working? Does it help? Do you feel you have the time to devote to this behavior model? I would love to hear from you about what works best with your students!