A couple of years ago one my students made a little gift for every child in the class. It was a tiny figure made from little plastic beads. She was keen to give them out and so as the class started to eat their morning snack, I agreed with her that this would be a good time to go around and pass out her little “beady baby” presents.

We all admired them, thanked her and then I never thought any more about it. Of course, if I HAD been thinking, I would have realized that we needed to discuss what to do with our little gifts once snack time was over! However, on the other hand, if I had been thinking in a proactive way (and had established a procedure as I should have), we wouldn’t have had the following “teachable moment” to talk about what it means to be able to “choose your teacher!“

After snack, we met at the carpet for an activity and that’s when a little beady baby decided to come out of a pocket! When it did, that child and I had a little discussion about what level of operation it was to be playing with a toy during a lesson time. He said, “B” and I asked him what he should do with the beady baby since it wasn’t acceptable to have a toy out at carpet time. He said he would put it on the back table and he did.

After the story at the carpet, the kids returned to their desks and as I started to give directions for the assignment, other beady babies began to appear! Oh brother! Hadn’t we all just been at the carpet, listening to a discussion about toys out at lesson time???!!

As my stress level started to rise, I first felt annoyed with myself for not having dealt with the situation correctly at snack time, but then decided that instead of focusing on my mistake, I could implement the Discipline Without Stress “Principle of Choice.” I could CHOOSE to look on the bright side and change my mindset. As Dr. Marshall often suggests, I could choose to look at this situation in a different way—as a “discipline opportunity,” rather than as a “discipline problem!”

We calmly talked again (for heaven’s sake!), about what level a person was operating on if they chose to ignore a classroom expectation that had just been discussed. I didn’t actually speak directly to any one individual–I just asked the class as a whole. Someone replied that it was Level B and explained why.

I asked if they realized that when someone acts on Level B, they get a “Level B teacher.” I said, “And what does that mean–what is a Level B teacher?” One child said, “A bossy teacher,” and I asked how a Level B teacher would respond if people CONTINUED to play with beady babies once they knew that this wasn’t acceptable. They could all answer that one–they knew that a Level B teacher would simply take the beady baby away.

Then we went on to discuss how it was interesting that in a class like ours, some people might have a Level B teacher and some people might have a Level C or D teacher–-yet, all the people in the class have EXACTLY THE SAME PERSON for a teacher! How could that be? We talked about how it related to the level of operation of each student.

A student misbehaving at Level B, who kept pulling out a beady baby and making it dance across the desk, would probably have to deal with a Level B teacher–a teacher who was getting mad and eventually would take the beady baby away till the end of the day.

A student operating at a higher level would know that it wasn’t a good idea to bring out that beady baby until lunch time–whether the teacher had discussed it or not. They would simply know from having been in school for almost two whole years that having a toy out during lesson time was something they shouldn’t do.

We talked about where the Level C/D students might store their beady babies… perhaps inside a desk, in a pocket, in their backpack, in their mailbox, or even on top of their desk in the “eraser house,” but… THEY WOULDN’T TOUCH their beady babies during lesson time! Level C/D students would have the self-control to see the toy there in the eraser house or know that it was in their pocket etc., BUT THEY WOULDN’T PLAY WITH IT during lessons.

We talked about what type of teacher these students would have. Well, of course, they would have a Level C/D teacher… which means what? “A friendly, nice teacher,” according to the kids. Then we talked a bit more (and were amazed!) about how this friendly, nice teacher was actually the SAME teacher as the bossy teacher!

What if someone interviewed the kids in Division 7 for a TV show? One student might say she had a friendly, nice teacher but someone else might say he had a bossy teacher. Wasn’t that interesting?!!! In fact, wasn’t this even kind of funny?!!! Yes, the whole class could see the humor in this!

We talked about how there were lots of kids (the ones who didn’t know about the Hierarchy), who wouldn’t know that they were actually CHOOSING the kind of teacher they wanted! Bossy or friendly–it was a CHOICE! Wow!

We had quite a good laugh over the whole silly situation! Imagine–some students actually CHOOSE a bossy teacher, but they don’t know how they did it! I told them that there were even kids in high school who hadn’t figured this out yet!! My students couldn’t believe it–it seemed so obvious to US! Of course we had to laugh again!

And then, since everyone seemed to “get it,” we went back to our lesson. I never saw another misbehavin’ beady baby again that day, even though many of them actually spent the day right out on top of the desk in the eraser house!

And that’s why I love the Hierarchy from DISCIPLINE without STRESS! An annoying problem can be turned into an opportunity. You can have a laugh with your class and at the same time help them gain a valuable understanding about how to operate successfully in life.

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Posted In: Choice, RRSystem in Action
posted On: April 6, 2007: 7:09 pm: By Kerry Weisner
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