Capital City #2

My first visit at Capital City was to observe Kindergarten. For my second visit I went to see 4th and 5th grade. This class was coming from testing and was not completely focused. The boys were particularly figety, but the teacher was calm and steady.

After class the teacher talked with me about disciple, and some of the tools she uses to encourage good classroom behavior. The school provides teachers with a form for serious offenses like fighting or swearing, but Ms. Stromberg uses something called a Reflection sheet for minor issues. Students learn early in the year that if a student has to fill out 3 of these sheets, the teacher will call home. These sheets ask the child why they are being asked to fill out the sheet, what the event was, what they did, how they could respond differently, etc. Ms. S made it clear that it is important to stick to your word when presenting a child with disciplinary structure. If she has to call home, she has the child in the room next to her so there are no surprises and after she is done talking to the parent, she hands the phone to the child.

Capital City also has a code of protocol of sorts for teachers to address recurring behaviors. This seems to involve a the child engaging in a dialog about how the teacher can help them. Ms. S said that this technique is not successful with all students and told me about a particular student for whom this kind of introspection was simply not happening. She said is up to the teacher to identify the childs needs and to understand that different unbringings and personalities may require different strategies. In the case she told me about, this meant calling grandma and telling (not engaging the child in a conversation) the child that his behavior would simply not be tolerated. Good to recognize different approaches, but I am not sure how effective that sounds in creating lasting change.

It was nice of Ms. Stromberg to share these stories and offer some practical tools for a beginning teacher. We also decided that some stretching or peer to peer activity before class could have helped reduce some of the built up energy from morning testing.