Risa

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Home : 2008 : April : 16

Risa
By fischerk

I'm glad that you found the link interesting. I did the same as you, followed a link from another forum (not proteacher) and then spent the evening watching all the videos and reading the materials. There are some things
that I really like about it and some things I don't.

What I don't like:
-It doesn't differentiate.
-It gives kids a lot of structure, but not a lot of freedom.
-It doesn't teach kids about making choices, because they are in a situation where they don't seem to get a lot of practice at that.
-It uses external reinforcement, which is good but not *as* good as if

kids are motivated by their own learning and an understanding of why the rules are important.

But what I DO like:
-It's fun, while still being totally learning-focused. Kids look forward to coming to school with that system, I am sure.
-It teaches kids to USE their energy for learning, instead of having energy be something that distracts kids from being able to learn.
-It is very positive with discipline: lots of clarifying the procedures, lots of rehearsing.
-I really like the "It's cool" which shows kids it's okay to have wrong answers.
-It gives the kids opportunities for many easy successes in their school day. Teaching each other something they have just heard, following a direction to say something (much easier than following a direction to be quiet), etc. This would be great, I think, for re-motivating kids who had grown to feel like failures at school.

I tend to think that if I were in a classroom where discipline was very difficult, and kids were giving up on trying to learn at school, this method would be my first resort and probably my savior. I could really see it turning a class around in a way that few other strategies could.

However, if I were in a classroom where the kids were pretty controlled, respectful, and motivated already, I think this system would be a little too restrictive, and I would use it more sparingly.