At the end of the day, I have a peer tutor (a general ed. student that comes in to help and work with my spec. ed. students) in my class that has been kind of a nuisance. He comes late almost every day, he sits in the back of the class, he makes inappropriate comments in the middle of class, etc. I was going to pull him aside and give him the "Knock-it-off-or-I-will-transfer-you-out-of-my-class" speech.
On Friday, I was disciplining my class and having them work the whole class period because their behavior was unusually bad all last week. I had each student paired up with a peer tutor in order for them to finish their work. Well, this particular peer tutor did a FANTASTIC job. He was on task the whole time, and just excelled at creating a learning environment for my students. I was so impressed. I decided that instead of telling him to quit the bad behavior, I would reward and compliment him for his good behavior (even though it was just that one day). At the end of the class period, I pulled him aside and said to him, "[Peer Tutor], you work so well with [Student] today. Great job!" He smiled and thanked me for what I said.
I had this class again yesterday, and his behavior had changed dramatically. He was sitting with the group, not making rude comments, and participating more. I can't help but think that being nice to him is what he needed to hear from a teacher. I learned that sometimes the best form of discipline comes through being nice.
And on a side-note: It's almost Christmas!
And on a side-note: It's almost Christmas!
Love,
Sean
I love this post so much. I read this article in the Atlantic a few years ago about the way they train dolphins: they reward positive behavior and they ignore bad behavior. I mean, obviously this kind of stuff breaks down sometimes (people occasionally do actually need to be punished/disciplined/whatever) but it works with dolphins.
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way to aba him by rewarding the good behaviors. :) love it.
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