Our school has implemented a new behavior policy this year. For the past five years I have been using some variation on the theme of color changes. Basically, if you do something wrong you get a "color change" which ideally correlates to some consequence, and also teaches students basic traffic light understanding years before they fail their driving tests. The color system is far from perfect. More than once I have been tempted to yell "who gives a flying -*(#$ about your color getting changed?!?! IT'S JUST A COLOR! STOP CRYING!" to a child who has overreacted to me moving their clothespin from green to yellow. However, knowing the danger of undermining my own management system, I have refrained from such outbursts.
But I digress. Our new behavior management system is called "Responsive Classroom." The basic principle is that children must learn to internalize appropriate norms of behavior so that they can be polite, productive citizens in the classroom. The three consequences you follow in RC are: 1.) You break it-you fix it, 2.) Take a break, 3.) Loss of privilege. These are not necessarily consecutive. For example, a child who climbs up the slide will need to sit out from recess for several minutes to have a conversation about why we have rules on the playground. (By the way, this lead to tears and a child holding a grudge for DAYS after he lost two minutes of recess privilege... DAYS!) (Also by the way, I can't be the only person wishing more adults would abide by "you break it-you fix it)
The consequences are thought of as "logical consequences" that are both responsive to the behavior, but are not punitive and are ultimately instructive of what should happen in the future. Ideally, consequences match the behavior in both deed and severity. (A child who draws on his desk will clean his desk, not the whole classroom.) I have not kept my cool at every moment of every one of the last seven days, but I do have to say that I have been very pleased to see my students "taking breaks" when they need them without prompting, and overall pretty polite behaviors. After years of seeing teachers futility attempting to wield external control, I like the idea that I could be part of rearing citizens who think. Therefore, I have dubbed responsive classroom "How Not to Raise a Tea Party Activist."
I wasn't totally sold on the success of this program, in spite of agreeing whole-heartedly to its missions and goals, until the other day. Marco was sitting in his desk, hands folded, with red DRANK on his desk. Yes, drank. Do not get me started about the not so secret tie between red dyes and kids acting like they came straight from the zoo. While still instructing the class I walked over the Marco's desk, picked up his drank, and threw it into the trash can. I did this seemlessly, with the expertise only a veteran can manage. Then again, I took a red drink off of an ADHD kid's desk and threw it into the trash can. It's like taking a beer from a drunk. Honestly, I should know better. We spend so much time talking about the antecedents of negative student behavior, and I'm pretty sure throwing a highly volatile kid's drink in the trash guarantees negative behavior.
As soon as I moved away, I saw Marco tensing up. Fists clenched, brows furrowed, he was on the peek of a true meltdown. Then suddenly, as if by magic, he grabbed his chair, whipped it over to our "take a break" station, and sat down to do our breathing exercises. While I continued to teach, never breaking my stride, he sat and calmed himself down. Within a minute he quietly moved his chair back to his seat and returned to doing his work.
I think this was one of the more amazing moments of my teaching career. Without prompting, begging, arguing, or disrupting, Marco was able to self soothe and return to work.
I admit, I cried a little when they told me I couldn't have my stop light up in the classroom this year. My heals may have dug slightly into the asbestos tiles. I was a little like the crusty and curmudgeonly teacher held up as the example of why schools are failing. But Marco has given me hope that change can be good, and that in spite of government shut downs and riots in London a new generation will rise up...and hopefully they were taught in responsive classrooms.
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