Conscious Discipline

Conscious Discipline helps students and adults to respond from the higher parts of the brain instead of react from the lower parts of the brain. It is a relationship-based model of discipline. The students have to communicate their emotions to one another to resolve any issues rather than the teacher solving the problems for them. An example of using conscious discipline would be, if a student hits another student and the student that was hit comes to tell the teacher, the teacher would tell the student that was hit to tell the student that hit them that they did not like being hit because it hurt them. This form of discipline encourages students to communicate their emotions instead of reacting in a negative way. Conscious Discipline also shows students how to deal with confrontation instead of avoiding it. When people are not shown how to deal with confrontation, they will either avoid it all together or confront others in unconstructive manner. Another benefit of conscious discipline is that it promotes respect among students in the classroom and in the real world. When using conscious discipline in the classroom it is important that the students feel safe. One strategy of conscious discipline is the “safe place”. The “safe place” is a place where students can go to calm down and choose how they are feeling. Students can use the “safe place” to read books about the emotion that they are feeling and see how they want to deal with that emotion. Another strategy that Conscious Discipline uses is deep breathing. Students can do this when they are upset to calm themselves down, but teachers can also use it when students are getting out of hand and he or she wants to make them refocus. One strategy from Conscious Discipline that I will be implementing in my future classroom is the Choice Board. The Choice Board is a board that has different ways for students to choose how they want to be greeted when entering the classroom. Some of the choices on the Choice Board include: handshake, hug, high-five, wave, fist bump, and smile. I will be using the Choice Board in my future classroom because it builds relationships between the students and the teacher. It also starts the day with a positive attitude, and can be a do over from the day before. We never know what a student could be dealing with at home, and starting their day with a positive interaction and showing them that they are loved is so important.