When I first read the following list, I will confess I was guilty of saying numbers 2 and 5 on the 10 Worst things list almost every day (to my own children not the children I work with).
Anyway, it took some retraining and practice, practice, practice. If you’ve never heard of Chick Moorman I highly recommend giving his stuff a read. His book Spirit Whispers is a favorite of mine. Although not all of the material applies to the age of the children I teach, I have often applied some of his suggestions to parenting with my three boys. I find Mr. Moorman to be inspirational and experienced; he gives helpful suggestions and seems to have a really good understanding of children and teachers.
The intention of this list to give you some tools and a gentle reminder about the language to use when working with children. Remember this is ‘Best Practice’ no-one talks like this ALL the time but we can try to.
Designed by Chick Moorman
1.) Next time…
2.) Check yourself
3.) Check it out on the inside
4.) Sounds like you have a problem
5.) Choose/decide/pick
6.) Please make a “be” choice
7.) What do you attribute that to?
8.) What can we learn from this?
9.) Problem solver or a problem keeper?
10.)Describe/describe/describe
1.) What did I just tell you?
2.) That is the third time today…
3.) Stop whining
4.) Don’t run/yell/throw/cheat/lie
5.) Knock it off
6.) Because I said so, that’s why.
7.) Tell her you’re sorry
8.) Great answer
9.) Always do your best
10.)Here is my advice…
I have another list I personally like better, I will share it with you soon.
I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful weather! Cornerspring is having their annual auction this weekend May 17th
In PEACE
~MM
5 comments:
Oh, I have been saying #1 on the worst list so often lately to my 3-y-o.... but I'm always looking for ways to improve my language with her because it really works so much better. When I hear myself saying "what did I just tell you?" it's a cue for me to slow down and figure out why she's tuning me out. Sometimes it's my tone, sometimes it's that she's involved with something, sometimes it's rebellious/testing. But so often my knee-jerk reaction is to think, why aren't you doing what I tell you? which is really not a very compassionate approach (sometimes it's hard to be compassionate when you're just trying to get dinner on the table, though). thanks for this!
This would be highly applicable to my staff at my work...
I really echo what Allison said. I have the same knee jerk reaction. Sometimes I'm just not very gentle with my own very spirited child. I shock myself sometimes, the force of my reaction just wells up from below!
I will have to print those out so I can review them daily!
I'm totally guilty of #7 on the worst list and honestly haven't thought about it until now. I can see though, how it doesn't really teach anything. It's more like just going through the prescribed motions.
I had to own my own copy of this. Mooreman supports the inner truth of all of us. He shows concrete examples of how we, as teachers or parents, can honor the immanence of each one. This is a very different kind of classroom management book.
Hyacinth
Westlund Personal Injury Lawyers
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