My Discipline Style “Five Basic Needs” of students: The Five basic needs of Dr. Glasser are survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.  When a student acts out, it is because one of these needs is being frustrated in his life. The teacher’s job is to find out which need is being frustrated, and then find a solution to help the student.  Survival has to do with food and shelter.  It is more of a physical need.  If that need for survival is not met, a teacher can’t even begin to address the other 4 needs which are psychological.  The Love and belonging need can be nurtured by having students work in groups or by having regular class meetings where the students can offer valuable input.  The need for power can be met by making sure every student has success.  The freedom need can be met by making sure we. as teachers, are not dictators, and that we give our students a choices.  The need for fun can be met by making sure our lessons are interesting to the students.  This means that we have to ask questions as to what kinds of things they like to do, etc… “Six Step Approach for reaching out to students: The 6 step approach was formulated by Dr. Glasser.  The message in this approach tells a student they we care as teachers.  The first and most important step is “Building a Relationship”.  Having a caring relationship with a student before any trouble occurs, makes it a lot easier to problem solve with that student if trouble should arise.  The student will then trust the teacher and be willing to work out a solution.  The second step is “Identifying the Problem”.  It’s important for the student to know specifically what he did wrong and why it was inappropriate.  If the student doesn’t know what he did wrong, the teacher should specifically tell him what she witnessed.  The third step is “Analyzing the behavior in terms of needs”.   This is where the teacher can empathize with the student about what need is lacking in his life.  The teacher can even educate the student on needs and how they are very normal and important in everyone’s life.  The fourth step is “Determining alternate behavior”.  This is where we talk with the student about what he is trying to accomplish by doing this behavior.   We must then try and lead him to a conclusion that his behavior is not going to get him what he really wants in the end.  The fifth step is “Creating a plan”.  It’s important to look to the future and not dwell on what the student did wrong.  If the student cannot come up with a plan for new behavior, we must help him find one.  The sixth step is “Following up”.  It’s important to make sure we tell the student that we will talk with him in a few days or so to make sure our plan is working.  This lets him know that we are not going to just drop him.  It also provides a time for us to come up with a new plan if ours is not working. Differences between an effective discipline plan, and an ineffective discipline plan: An ineffective discipline plan focuses on the negative behavior without helping the student come up with a good alternate behavior.  Ineffective rules focus on unwanted negative behavior.  Ineffective consequences punish the student.  By doing that, the student has learned nothing.  This type of discipline also creates animosity between the student and teacher.  The student may even try to revenge the teacher at a later time.  There is no kind of caring relationship with this type of discipline, and relationship building is the key to successful discipline.  Punishing a student has detrimental effects on the student’s needs.  It actually frustrates their needs even further.  An effective discipline plan, on the other hand, creates a caring atmosphere and teaches the student how to problem solve and get along in a group.  Rules are basically life rules such as “be considerate of others”, take care of your classroom, etc…  Positive boundaries are set up so that the students know just how far they can go.  Consequences focus on brainstorming a new plan for positive behavior.  By learning these skills, the students gain confidence in themselves as being an important part of the group.  Students then choose appropriate behavior because they want to belong to their group. An effective teaching time-out; A teaching-time out is a place where the student can go to figure out a new plan for appropriate behavior.  It is not meant as a punishment or a time to embarrass the student.   Timeouts are given in a matter of fact manner, but are given swiftly, as soon as the unacceptable behavior happens.  For younger students there may be a form for them to fill out to guide them through the planning of future positive behavior.  Older students can just be kept after class to talk with the teacher about the new plan.  In both scenarios it is important to get a commitment from the student as to the new plan for behavior.   It is also important that the student be allowed to take all the time that he needs to come up with a plan and/or to talk with the teacher.  If the school‘s policy require the student to be sent to the principal’s office, the student will still have to have a plan for the teacher before he is allowed to come back to class.  If a student cannot come up with a plan, the teacher must offer suggestions.   The teacher must also keep in mind what need is being frustrated and help to satisfy that need.   High school age students and Elementary aged students? High school students are under a lot pressure these days due to family divorces, media violence, and peer pressure.  These students need for school to be a soft place to land.   However, since many of them have role models that are absent, they rely on outside sources for their behavior when dealing with conflict and their loss of power.  High school problems tend to be things like talking back, stealing, and physical fighting.  A student who talks back has a frustrated need for power.  It’s important to talk with this student, ask what is bothering him, and offer him a safe place to go until he feels he can come back to class.  Stealing can be due to a frustrated need for power and/or love and belonging.  Sometimes a student will steal to impress his friends.  The teacher should address the problem in a class meeting and encourage someone to come forward if they know who did the stealing.  When the teacher is absolutely sure who did it, she should confront the student in private and try and figure out why he stole, and then come up with a replacement plan.  Students who fight in school are usually unsuccessful in school and so are very frustrated.  Using the 6 step approach to fighting involves finding out, one on one, what happened, and then coming up with more appropriate non-violent ways to solve the conflict. Elementary students seem to have problems such as bullying, talking, and cheating.  With bullying, it is important to address the needs of the bully as well as the victim, because both are hurting.  The bully may have come from a violent home and doesn’t know of any other way to become accepted.  The teacher must teach the bully appropriate ways to be accepted.   With the talker, the student usually has low self esteem and is trying to fulfill his need for love and belonging, or power, or freedom.  The teacher needs to have a relationship with the student to determine what is involved.  Then the 6 step approach should be followed.  With cheating, it usually stems from a desire to please the parents, or the student is having trouble with the material.  Either way, it is the teacher’s job to offer the student some help, and to make sure the student knows he can come to the teacher if he is struggling. Elements of an effective class meeting: Class meetings can be educational, open ended, or problem solving.  Educational meetings have to do with the lessons being taught.  Students are given an opportunity to reflect on what they have learned, to offer suggestions to homework requirements, and to critique the way the lesson was presented.  Open ended meetings can be about anything the students would like to talk about.  This creates a relaxed relationship between students and teacher, and the students and themselves.  The problem solving meeting discusses issues within in the classroom dynamics such as sharing, talking, respect, etc.  This kind of meeting can occur either before an incident or after an incident occurs.  The teacher’s job in a class meeting is to remain objective and act as a springboard for the class, not a dictator.   Teachers should allow the class to come up with suggestions.  This makes them feel as though they have ownership in the classroom.  Teachers should not pass judgement, whether good or bad, on any comments made by the students.  The teacher should, however, make sure that students’ comments are always respectful of others.  Every class meeting should have a topic that is defined by the teacher at the beginning of the meeting.  Then the students should be encouraged to share their experiences and ideas.  At the end of the meeting the teacher should try to ask open ended questions to get the students thinking outside the box.   Middle School aged students: Middle Schoolers have a lot on their plate.  They are in a new school; hormones are unstable; they now have more than one teacher to deal with, and they are between childhood and adulthood.  With all this pressure, most middle schoolers look to their peers for acceptance.   Defiant behavior escalates as they show their peers that they can handle all that life has given them.  It is our job as teachers to let them know that they can depend on us to help them through this tough time.  A “Do Nothing” student usually feels as though they just can’t succeed in school.  We need to chunk their assignments and follow up with them.  This will build their confidence.  The “Talking Back” student feels powerless, as if no one is listening to them.  Class meetings are an excellent way to allow these students to be heard.  These students also need to be given choices as to who they will work with and how they will complete tasks.  Basically, they need to be heard.  Teachers must also remember to never embarrass a student in class.  This will create feelings of resentment between the teacher and student.  Any delicate issues should be discussed in private.  Vandalism in schools needs to be handled the same way.  Talk with the student as to why he did the vandalizing.   Have him clean it up after school.  As a preventative, have class meetings about school pride, and have classroom awards for clean areas and desks. ADD and student classroom behavior? (Attention Deficit Disorder): Students with ADD have difficulty staying on task.  If they get distracted, they can lose their train of thought.  They cannot always understand directions correctly.  They should not be reprimanded for that.  Many times when you are talking with them, they are not concentrating on what you are saying.  They also lose important items such as homework, house keys, and books.  Teachers must be very understanding with the ADD student.  We must encourage their strong points so that we can help to build their confidence; give them lots of manipulatives in order for them to better understand the lessons; make sure we are communicating with the parents; give the students constructive feedback as soon as the task is completed; give the student lots of choices in every aspect of the classroom; and help the student create new plans while in the teaching timeouts.  The author of this course believes that ADD can be attributed to the 5 basic needs being frustrated.  Having known adults with ADD, I tend to believe he is correct.  Given that, teachers need to make sure their lessons speak to every one of the 5 basic needs.