Section 4 Interventions

The first intervention that I found very effective in my classroom was the changing of location. When two kids are were being disruptive, I would move one of them to the other side of the classroom.
Another intervention I've seen in my field experience was time out. The problem with South Range's time-out is it is in the Principal's office. The students would come back with revenge on their mind. Like the book says, " Students are supposed to come back from time-out when they are ready."
One problem I see with the interventions is the after school conferences. I don't think many parents would be willing to pick their child up at 3:15, for a thirty second conference. Unfortunately, the problem child's parents often do not hold a high value on education.

chapter 15

I think the time-out room is a great idea. I have one student in my class who decides about once a week that they are going to be disruptive. On these days know matter what I try he continually disrupts the class. By having a time-out room this student would not disrupt the learning of others.
My favorite part of this chapter was when it gave the different scenarios. I've had each one of those situations come up during my student teaching. It was cool to see how to handle the given scenarios using love and logic principals. I now see how easily it can be done.
One issue that wasn't discussed that I think needs to be is, this school took time out of the school day to implement this plan. I don't think that would fly here.

Chapter 14

South Range is very big on the rewards system. If your have good behavior for 30 days, You get to pick a prize. If the class is good for 30 days they receive a reward day. This seems to be a great motivator for the students,for the most part. However, when the prize boxes start to run low the students start complaining. The teacher then becomes angry and refuses to buy more stuff. The students are no longer motivated and behavior worsens. This is what I experience in my classroom.
The one principal of Love and Logic that I've tried to implement is giving the students choices. When I do it works wonderfully. I liked the idea of letting your students know, so when I situation arises they can ask if they have choices.

Chapter 13

After reading this chapter I now see why teachers document everything. My cooperating teacher fills out a discpline report everytime a student pulls two or more cards. At first, I thought this was rediculoios. Why fill out this report for a student that disrupts your class twice in one day? However, I now see that she is just making sure her butt is covered. A second thing I learned was to have the students invovled in the discipinary process. I seen this work at South Range. When we had a sub, the students came up with the idea that behavior penelties be double. Because the syudents came up with the rule their was no compliants when they had to serve double time.

Chapter 12

The beginning of this chapter discussed styles of teaching. The science teacher I'm working with is a "helicopter" teacher. His style is to spoon feed the students. The math teacher I'm working with has a "drill sergeant" style. Both of these style are very different from my style. I believe students should come up with their own ideas, and being a drill sergeant is not in my personality.
One idea I liked in this chapter was the point value for grades. I feel that if a student is trying their hardest they should get a decent grade. I have one student in math who tries hard, but struggles with several concepts. I don't feel it is right to give the student a failing grade, or hold them in for every recess to have them redo assignments. Also, it is important to give students choices when it comes to learning.

Chapter 11

I like how this chapter started by saying that,"Teachers use massive amounts of energy doing much of the thinking that kids could do for themselves." Often times I feel as though we as teachers do all the thinking for the kids. When the students are taking notes, we summaries the info for them. When we want students to answer a question, we echo the question for them. When we pose a question, the answer is given word for word in the text. Often times I feel like teachers spoon feed the students to much. If kids are given adequate time, they can make a lot of these connections on their own. Some teachers do all the thinking for the students. As a result, the teacher goes home exhausted and the student goes home full of energy.

Chapter 10

One quote that stands out for me from this chapter was,"kids will respond positively to a penalty when they see a logical connection between their behavior and what happens to them as a result of that behavior." This past Friday all the teachers were going to a funeral. On Thursday, my teacher told her class that they better behave for the subs.One of the students (who is usally terrible when there is a sub) suggested that any cards pulled should be double time at recess. The class agreed, and when they got their cards pulled that day were more then willing to serve the extra time. By letting the students come up with the consequences they took ownership of their behavior.

Chapter 9

I loved the example were the math teacher gave the students the option of doing the even or the odds, by assigning twice as many problems.Then when she wanted them to do the whole page she gave them the option of writing their answers on the front or back.
Another valid point this chapter made, was if you give students choices they will be more excepting when they don't have a choice. I seen this when one of my teacher's I'm working with had a substitute teacher. The regular teacher never gives her student's a choices. As a result, when the sub came in the students made the choice that they were not going to be controlled today like they had been all year. There was more noise coming out of that room in one day then I had heard all year combined.

Chapter 8

This chapter makes me think of an interesting situation I observed this week. One of my student's got an A on their math test.Usually this student fails their math test. When the student recieves the failing grade he announces it proudly to the class. This week when I handed the test back, he went to his sit and had a big smile on his face. However, he didn't announce his grade to anyone. For some reason, he didn't want the class to know he had done well, even though his facial expressions showed he was very proud.

Chapter 7

When this chapter talked about the school with 324 rules I thought it was South Range Elementary. One of the hardest things for me to this point, has been trying to learn all the rules and the consequences that go with them. Sometimes it feels like no matter what the kids are doing their breaking one of the rules. I loved the one rule idea."You can do anything you want in this class,provided it doesn't cause a problem for someone else. I think most students would see this as fair and reasonable.

Chapter 6

I like how the teacher handled Johnny and is playground behavior. I have a student in my class that always tries to put the blame on something else when were discussing his behavior. I've used this exact approach, I telling him that we are not here to discuss Joe's behavior. This student is now on a behavior plan so after every class period, I have to give him a score based on his behavior. He often wants to argue with me, but I always answer," I'm not going to argue with you now, but if you want to discuss it at recess or after school I would be glad to.
Another thing that open my eyes was the sexually abused girl's situation. As a teacher you perceive education as very important, but some students see education as pointless. It is these differences in perception that leads to a lot of altercations between teachers and students. It is this perceptiion that I'm working on changing with my student's. No matter what they want to do with their lives, education is an important part of that dream.

chapter 5

The begining of this chapter makes several valid points. The first being that kids have rights. At the begining of the semester when I was observing, I heard a student say, "You can't talk to me like that.I have rights." The second point I think that speaks to why some kids are a challenge, is the home environment.We had a 1st grader come to school this week with a shirt that said," I'm a virgin and you are not getting any." What kind of of home environment does this child have? The last point that caught my attention was Mr. Fowler. He reminds me of the math teacher I'm working with. She is very much like a drill sergent. As soon as she leaves the room her students' lose their halos over their heads.

Chapter 4

I loved how the teacher handled the picture day situation. One problem I see at South Range, is a large portion of the day is spent on disciplining the students. This takes time away from teaching, and makes the school feel like a boot camp at times. The other protion of this chapter taked about how to deal with students that feed off each other. I do not agree with the divide and conquer idea. I think if you start sending students to other classrooms, they become a distraction to the class you sent them to.

Chapter 3

One method this chapter suggested, that I've tried on the problem child in my class, was to give the student choices. The other day we were working on a science project and this student was not on task. He asked me if he could move to the back of the room. At first I thought no, but decided to make him a deal. If he worked quietly, I would let him work in the back. He worked very efficiently and quietly for the rest of the hour.
Another point this chapter makes that I feel is important is, " You cannot make a withdrawal when there is nothing in the account." I've been working with all my students on building this account. One student, in particular, has a hard time completing his work. I found out that he is a Red Wing fan. Every night that the Wings play, we discuss the game the following day. Due to this, he always gets his assignments done for the classes I'm teaching.

Chapter Two

Two things caught my attention while I was reading this chapter. First was the delayed consequence idea. I found it very interesting that that a teacher said, "It was the only time the student didn't argue with me." I wonder if this would work with the student in my classroom? He is very argumentative with all the teachers.
The second thing that was of interest to me was "one-sentence intervention." I think this is something simple I could try with the student in my class. I tried this already with the student and it seem to have a positive result. I noticed he is a very talented artist so I commented on one of his drawings, and he was very excited to share it with me.

Chapter 1

I loved the idea of letting students have a cool down period. The student in my class gets sent to the office daily, and he comes back to the room 10 min. later madder then ever. The problem never seems to get resolved.