Help Students Express Gratitude and Brainstorm Solutions

Behavior: Do We Really Understand Series? Part 2 of 3

When considering our students’ misbehaviors, let me pause this scene for just a minute and zoom in closely as to what is really going on here. It’s a total conflict of mental desire and physical action. The classic case of knowing what the right thing to do is, but not wanting to do it. So, the real question becomes what is causing the conflict? And perhaps at six or seven years old it’s probably safe to assume that not all students know how to articulate their needs.

Build a Grateful Community for Solving Behavior Challenges

There is so much to unpack here. First, we need them to recognize their feelings so that they are aware of the discomfort and hopefully move to addressing it before it becomes an unmanageable crisis in the classroom. How they are feeling first thing in the morning. Then I connect with a social emotional activity. Keep it simple, I generally use gratitude. What is one thing you are grateful for in the last 12-24 hours? Building a grateful community allows for the practice of compassion. This is how a safe space begins to develop. Students are encouraged to share their vulnerabilities. After all, we are ultimately talking about mistakes being made. We need to offer the opportunity for students to speak about the problem without judgement. Solutions are not resolved at this time. The floor is only open for a candid conversation about their current social emotional state.

We will learn how to create a goal setting behavior checklist next week.

Danielle