Discipline

I found Ben and Adam’s presentation and paper interesting. Before the presentation, I had very little understanding of how I would discipline in the classroom. I hate to punish kids, but at the same time I do not do well when students disrespect me. I had some clue that a lot of discipline problems occur when the students are not interested or motivated, thanks to my research project. But I found it a lot more comforting hearing it from the people who actually did the research on discipline. I do believe that if you create an environment and lesson that fits all the students needs in interest, then there will be little issues. I thought along with motivating the students it was a good idea to mention that everyone has good and bad days, and that you should take that into consideration before deciding to discipline a student.
I’m not sure exactly what method I will use for discipline. I liked the discipline with dignity when they were describing it in the classroom, but I did not understand the definition they had on the website or in the paper. I thought the choice theory had some appealing aspects in the paper. I imagine that I will use parts from both of them to create my own. The one thing I will defiantly do is allow the students to help me make up the rules. I liked that a lot, and I liked the examples that Ben and Adam gave for them. Students will have more of an appreciation for the rules that they helped create; there also won’t be any confusion on what they are as well.
One other important part that I learned is if you are meeting all the students’ needs, and there are still one or two students that cause trouble; then they probably need help from outside the classroom. It is important to help these students find that help, rather than continue to punish them and decrease their feeling of self-worth even more. Some adolescents are not emotionally stable enough to understand the help that you are trying to give them. Hopefully this will never happen, and that all my students will be so engaged that they won’t cause any problems. If it does happen, then it is important to discipline them like you design the classroom, beneficial to them and with their help.