Discipline Answers

One day last February we learned that a new boy would be joining our grade one class.  In an effort to be proactive, my teaching partner, Darlene, planned a class meeting the day before he arrived.  She wanted to encourage the students to welcome the new child and she also hoped to avoid a situation [...]

This week I had a neat experience while teaching a grade 7 student at my newest job at the middle school. I just thought I’d share. For those who don’t know me, I have three teaching positions, all of which are shared with the same partner. Darlene and I share a grade 1 classroom, each [...]

Posted by J.E., a member of the Discipline without Stress mailring. Here is my latest success: Last Friday, three third graders left their homeroom in route to my class (science) and on the way, chose to yell and scream and play an impromptu game of tag. (At my school, we don’t walk the kids from [...]

QUESTION: Today I began introducing the DwStress Hierarchy to my class. As we were discussing the four levels of behavior, one boy with emotional problems said, “I like Level A. I like to be on Level A. I don’t want to be on Level C or D.” This boy has had so much negative attention [...]

QUESTION: My class talks so much that I would like to keep them in at recess to get their work done. Is this against the philosophy of DwStress?? RESPONSE: It would depend on how the situation comes about. Dr. Marshall points out that imposed consequences are typically viewed as punishments by students and so lead [...]

QUESTION: I have a 3rd grade student who is demonstrating increasingly 
disruptive behaviors. I have all kinds 
of support with him – my principal, school counselor, 
behavioral specialist – we’re all involved, every day. This boy can work elsewhere when he can’t manage in the classroom. My question is this: How do I 
teach the [...]

Almost every year, Darlene, my teaching partner, and I, do a dinosaur unit in our primary classroom. As a culmination to a month of learning about dinosaurs and fossils, we always plan a field trip to Darlene’s house, which is located close to a beautiful sandy beach. The “Dinosaur Dig” is often the highlight of [...]

QUESTION: I am still waiting for my Discipline without Stress book to arrive, but this morning I introduced the system to my class anyway. Even though it’s almost the end of the year, I have such big behavior problems that I decided I had nothing to lose and everything to gain! However, I must have [...]

Initially, some teachers new to DISCIPLINE without STRESS, have difficulty visualizing what is meant by the practice of “setting up consequences proactively” in a discipline situation. Here’s an example of “eliciting consequences ahead of time” with a group of boys in my own primary class. My teaching partner and I had a group of boys [...]

QUESTION: The biggest problem I have in implementing this discipline approach is kids talking when they’re not supposed to. We go through the questions about what level that behavior is and whether it’s appropriate, which they are able to answer just fine. But when I ask them what can they do next time (or when [...]