Upon reading a recent article on the cons to having students reflect on their behavior, I had to dig deeper into my own philosophy of CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT. I believe my classroom culture to be positive and I use positive charts to help guide me in ensuring I take time to give positives to each student throughout the day. I have a personal goal of at least 10 positives each day. Having stated this it is clear that I also have an area to which students are able to go and attend to their needs concerning poor choices. The behavior of a child stems from a willingness to do or not to do something. At this corner of the classroom where a student is asked to go looks like your normal listening center. The student listens to a tape of a song entitled “Being in Control.” Once the student has listened to the song, I ask for them to come over and we talk about the behavior and how they feel about what took place. This is a very non threatening method to making a poor choice or so I was thinking. After reading this article, I need to think more as to the purpose of this corner and what makes this an effective method to change behavior. I have one of the most well behaved classes on campus and it is always this way. There must be something to my method for course correction behavior. Thoughts? Visit my classroom web page at:http://www.lesd.k12.az.us/webpages/jgrochocki/index.cfm?subpage=734651
Article: http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2015/04/18/why-you-should-never-use-reflection-forms/
Susan Collins
christineportermarsh
jgrochocki
Karla Palafox
Lauren Cluff
Nicole Wolff
Stefanie Ewbank
Ben Sullens
Petra Schmid-Riggins
LEAD FROM -IN- THE CLASSOOM 
Interesting article share. I really liked this quote from it: “True self-reflection is the byproduct of well-defined rules and consequences, every-single-time consistency, and a teacher that students trust.” It seems like the author might only be discouraging the use of reflection forms–not reflection itself. As a preschool special education teacher, having a “take a break area” is very important for my students. It sounds similar to what you do in your room Jeannie. When redirection is needed, I send students to this area (for a very short time). When the time is over, I take the student back to the problem/situation and we role play to practice more successful options. I call this “coaching” and I think it is key to working with students who have communication delays and autism. My students need a physical cue that a behavior change is needed. Once they get the cue, rehearsing is key to improvements next time. I think that a lot of kids benefit from that. I love the idea of having a song for them to listen to! I will have to get a copy of that from you some time 🙂 I think that this article–in contrast to the experiences you and I have had–just shows how some teachers have different styles of behavior management. Thank goodness there is some flexibility in making those decisions–and best practice is when a teacher can really explain WHY they do what they do and why it works. #nbct
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