Responsibility

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Responsibility
By JoDee

Julie,

I can totally identify with your frustrations. I've been there for a lot longer than 3 years and have seen it all. Kids are different than they used to be and sadly many don't have much responsibility at home so
it doesn't transfer to school.
Marvin Marshall in his book Discipline without Stress... has a system of teaching students levels of responsibility and then maintaining them in a way that takes the stress away from teachers and leaves the student with a level of dignity as they make better choices. He incorporates the class meeting into his process and personally I have found that an awesome

way of getting students to buy into things. His plan just gave some structure and muscle to the class meeting that I was looking for.

The main point that Marshall makes is that we need to change how we as teachers approach discipline. We need to become questioners rather than controler and we need to give kids contingencies rather than consequences. If we take time to let kids reflect on the level of behavior that they are operating on,give them choices on how they are going to fix the problem, then they will make much better choices.

I have experienced your senario on numerous occasions and am constantly on the lookout for a different way of approaching the situation. I know that the mindshift is necessary and I am willing to try it. To make it successful I will need to TEACH the levels of behavior (Anarchy, Bullying/Bothering, Conformity, Democrach) and then be there when kids need to be reminded of what level they are operating on.

Let me know if you need more specifics of the how to do it.
JoDee