A webinar that I attended last week, very much influenced me and opened my eyes to new ways of dealing with aggressive students. It is important for teachers to be familiar with ample of ways to deal with students behaviors. Because at the end of the day, the students inner urge to learn and motivation are a result of a positive behavior from them and a teacher who is able to create a well suitable atmosphere for them to learn.
The webinar was presented by Jill Molli, a Conscious Discipline Master Instructor. Molli, highlighted the importance of training our students to build conscious discipline skill, i.e to be aware of their behaviors and outcomes. Both students and teacher should be able to manage their anger. Moreover, she discussed the concept of mind shift, in other words, bringing our mind from one state to another according to the situation we are in as teachers. For example; to get a well respond from a student we are to shift to a better behavior our selves.
My role as a teacher is to bring the best version of myself. It is important to be able to manage the stress I go through in order to model good behavior. To manage stress, Molli suggested the breathing technique, in which we take a few deep breaths to relax and release the tension and then think of a way to deal with a certain conflict, because when we are stressed we are not modeling the right behavior for our students to connect. It is important that we model positive behavior.
In addition, building good relationships with the students is crucial. It is important to ask ourselves if these students have a person they can go back to, and if we can be that person, because we all need someone who is able to listen to us without judgment and help us keep up. Sometimes, having the right one to listen is the solution for many problems.
Molli gave a variety of ways we can build good relationships with the students through, like games, peekaboo for example, or through classroom rituals that bring the student and teacher closer, or iloveyou rituals or provide proximity and hold the hands of the child when you talk to them which makes them feel important. Studies have shown that these strategies reduce opposite behavior by 50%. Also, another way to reduce conflict is by providing students a classroom job and giving them the responsibility to handle a certain task. This, an intrinsic way to build self-esteem though fulfilling responsibility.
Another technique is to have them act the necessary behaviors and watch them when we need to instead of repeating them the whole year, and getting our selves stressed out. We can do that though pictures or videos, instead of punishing them. Let them practice the behavior, because teaching social skills is a huge skill, and what we tech them inside the classroom will stay with them their whole life, even outside school.
Finally, Molli talked about using a language that will provide them with safety and comfort, and encourage them as well. Describe what they did instead of just saying thank you, say their name and use "you", it is about them!.
I really enjoyed attending this webinar, and was informed with a lot of new ways to use in my future classroom. Glad that I was able to share this information with you. Hope you find it useful.
Thank you!
It was really enjoyable to read about the webinar you attended. It presented different ways to deal with aggressive students. We, as teachers, are always in need to learn about new techniques and approaches to be implemented in our classrooms. Thank you, Amal!
ReplyDeleteI love the webinar's subject. Aggressive students are to be concerned about and know how to deal with them.
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