W. A. Porter adopted the seven habits as the campus-wide discipline philosophy. Instead of rules such as “Don’t do that” or “Don’t do this”, the seven habits are used as guidelines for behavior. A child is never told, “You were not being proactive.” Instead they are asked after a discussion of the behavior, “In the future, if you were in the same situation, what habit could you use to make this situation turn out differently?” Using the seven habits in this way has made a positive impact on the students and their behaviors, as well as decreasing the number of disciple referrals.
After our meeting together on Monday morning and debriefing in the afternoon with the various groups, there was discussion about whether using the seven habits as the discipline philosophy was positive or negative. Any thoughts on this topic?
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31 comments:
Yesterday's discussion made me think about the 7 Habits and discipline in a new light. I can see both sides of the debate and actually tend to land on the side of not using the habits to discipline. I wouldn't want the students to feel beaten down by the habits. If they feel they are constantly breaking habit #5, for example, then they may begin to believe they can not (are not capable to) understand others and then give up even trying. That said, though, I like the way you put it where kids are given the opportunity to identify a habit that could help with fixing poor choices in the future. This way, rather than identifying a habit they are "breaking" they identify a habit that can help them in real situations.
Perhaps it's just a matter of semantics, but I like utilizing the habits to improve the discipling process rather than using the habits to discipline.
Lisa L.
WA Porter
You know, Lynnette, I had not thought about good or bad associations with the habits as they related to class rules until our get together on Monday. The only way I can respond to your question is to say that I had a record number of kids with an E or S in conduct during the first six weeks. I did have a couple N's in conduct the first six weeks, but those kids will be getting an S this six weeks. While I do feel I have a "good" group, I also know they have choices. This group seems to have connected their sense of responsibility to their behavior choices. I think they've made this link due to the habits discussions and using them as a reference point in behavior. Does this answer your question?
I have agree. I think they have made a connection that their behavior choices are their own responsibility and with that comes positive and negative consequences. For the younger ones, they are learning and seeing the relationship between the habits and how they relate to rules and real life situations. They are identifying habits that they hear in a story or see being used on the playground. I think the habits improve the discipline.
I just feel like the overall improvement in behavior, plus the respect that children are showing for each other as well as staff, indicates that what we have been doing is working.
Yesterday, Michelle said that she believed that her job was to prepare her students both academically and socially. I share her belief. However, I feel that I have always struggled with how to prepare my students for the real world. How could I effectively model and teach the values which my family enstilled in me? The 7 Habits for Happy Kids has provided me a way. I feel confident that I'm better preparing my students. My class has developed RESPONSIBILITY which I've taught for years but I don't think it ever stuck. The students are making connections from their choices to consequences, both positive and negative. I see them then being proactive about coming up with a solution. Isn't that what we want them to be able to do in life?
I too can see both sides of this although I prefer to not to see the habits used strictly for discipline. I am amazed at how far our school has come with this in such a short amount of time. I actually think at the pace the students are picking this up right along with us that we won't even see the need for a discipline book in the near future. I have to admit that I have said to a student you are not being proactive and I see the need to reverse that and start asking them to identify the habit they could have used instead. All in all I think we are on the right track. I know that I have not had any discipline problems this year at all. I love seeing students more responsible and caring this year.admit that I have said to a student you are not being proactive and I see the need to reverse that and start asking them to identify the habit they could have used instead. All in all I think we are on the right track. I know that I have not had any discipline problems this year at all. I love seeing students more responsible and caring this year.
I agree that we may need to reword some of our conversations with the kids. Like Cheryl, I can think of times when I have said you are not being proactive. I can see how that conversation could and should be flipped to the more positive side. I have seen such improvement in my students ablity to be responsibe. They are generally kinder than in years past. I agree with Jill. Using the habits as our guidelines for behavior have helped them to link the habits to their actions. I think having a record of behavior that travels is a good idea. Maybe we could just change the wording. Someone suggested yesterday that we replace what habit they "broke" with something that just tells what they did. We could then discusss what habit they would use in the future and record that when they return to class.It's just another way of pointing to the positive. I also liked Julie's idea that we record positive behavior in some way as well. I think we are doing so well with this. We can still improve it, but the kids have really taken hold of these habits. I'm excited to see where it will lead in the coming years.
The faculty and staff at Porter have embraced the principles of the 7 Habits by incorporating them into a campus-wide discipline approach, and they are reporting success in building relationships with students. DE Smith faculty and staff have also seen many positive changes in student behavior using a slightly different approach. I agree with Lisa (in the first comment) that this is probably a matter of semantics, and we are closer in our approaches than we may at first think. My question is how do you view discipline? Is discipline positive or negative? My personal view is that discipline should be positive. It should be a learning experience that creates a change (paradigm shift) in thought and action. I think it is appropriate to incorporate the 7 habits in your approach to discipline if you share these beliefs. However, I would not want to see the 7 Habits referenced in a negative way where they become viewed as rules to be broken. I think the real goal is to incorporate the 7 Habits into daily school life in such a way that they effectively diminish the need for discipline to begin with, and students learn to be self-disciplined. I also believe that as we all continue to grow we will find that using the 7 Habits in difficult situations will become second nature whether we call it discipline or something else. I think this a great discussion question without right or wrong answers. I look forward to reading more responses and digging deeper.
There is such a fine line between viewing the 7 Habits as a discipline plan or life skills, as you need one to obtain the other. During our group discussion Monday I shared that during the first six weeks I had a majority of students with an S or N in conduct. As we have progressed through our lessons and activites relating to the 7 Habits I can now happily say 18 out of 19 students have earned an E in conduct. It is kind of like which came first, the chicken or the egg? Regardless of how you view it, I feel there is no doubt that incorporating the habits on a daily basis in beneficial to students and teachers. It leads to an overall more positive outlook not only on life but teaches everyone how to handle everyday 'stresses' more effectively, which students unfortunately feel more and more each year.
Lisa Mais
OH! I forgot to say that I truly enjoyed our campuses sharing our experiences! I got several great ideas from Porter teachers and would love to have a copy of the list of books you are using to reinforce the habits!
Lisa Mais
Perhaps much of the debate is semantics. We may just want to "tweak" our class discipline books to not focus on which habit was broken. But rather identify the problem and then have the students come up with the habit that could help them in the future.
I have seen many positives to using the 7 habits as part of our discipline policy. Doesn't discipline mean to teach correct behavior and train our students to have self control and grow in their moral character? The 7 habits help us to teach the children to be responsible for their own actions and gives them great strategies that will help them for life.
Heather K.
WA Porter
I have seen amazing results using the Seven Habits in my classroom. Although we have called it our "discipline plan", I think we can tell that it has so many other benefits for our students. The habits are giving us a chance for developing leadership in our students, which includes taking responsibility for their actions. Our philosophy here has been to encourage and instill the virtues in our students. The Seven Habits seem to clarify those virtues for my kids. I also think that my students can already see how the habits will help them in every aspect of their lives.
I don't have a problem with calling it our Discipline Plan. I do think that the pages in the notebook should be revised to make them more positive.
Even though the beginning of our journey with the 7 habits looks a little different than at other campuses, I think that is OK. We'll evolve and change to do what is best for our students.
I also agree that it seems like a lot of the debate comes from the wording of everything. I think that it's important to keep the 7 habits in a positive light for the kids, and I think we can accomplish this by the way we word our conversations with them. The 7 habits are meant to teach kids how to be responsible for themselves and their actions. It's our job to help kids understand the choices they make and what they can do better next time, and the 7 habits just gives us a specific language to use when doing that.
I really enjoyed meeting with the Porter staff on Monday. It was interesting to see how we are both using the 7 Habits as the guiding principles of our schools. I feel like we are headed in the same direction, as far as teaching our students to lead a happy, productive life. I don't think there is a right or wrong way to incorporate the 7 Habits, it's just what works for you. When behavior issues arise, I don't usually tell the students "you weren't being proactive", but rather talk about making better choices. When I see students "doing the right thing", I congratulate their good behavior and recognize which one of the 7 Habits I see being used.
I've been thinking about our conversation from Monday and I recall someone saying something about how a child can break a rule, but they can't break a habit. I actually don't agree with that. We (as adults) work at breaking "bad" habits all of the time, ie biting our nails, being late everywehre we go, smoking, etc...I think it is the same way with our students...helping them replace "bad" habits (ie not doing their homework) with a good habit such as putting first things first and completing their homework before they go and play. A habit is a pattern of behavior that is aquired through frequent repetition, both positive and "less than positive" behaviors. I think it might be helpful to incorporate some of that into our 7 Habits as well, not to put a negative spin on it, but to share with students that we can all fall into patterns of behavior that can cause problems for us at school, home, or work, but that we can replace those habits with a new habit that will help us get better results. Maybe that is how we could put it in our discipline books: What habits are keeping me from being my best (or reaching my goals) and what habit could I replace it with instead to help me be my best or to help me reach my goals?
WOW! I love these comments. I agree with heather Krier. The definition of discipline is to instruct, and I truly believe we are doing that by teaching teh seven habits.
I dont look at the seven habits so much as a Discipline plan, but a discipline philosophy with guiding principles (seven habits). I think that reworking our discipline book is a great idea, and I loved the idea of having a section for positive behaviors in the book as well.
I enjoyed the conversations on Monday with David E. Smith, as well as the debriefing at Porter in the afternoon. Having meaningful conversations and respectful debates is so valuable to my personal learning. I hope to do more of this type of staff development in the future.
I guess since we never had the intention of using the seven habits as a discipline plan here at Smith, I never thought to say that the kids weren't being proactive in a certain situation, or were "breaking a habit". I usually talk about choices when it comes to discipline, just like the rest of you have said. You can choose to do the right thing or the wrong thing, but the habits are not rules, they are life skills/principles. I love the idea of having the kiddos write in our discipline books which habit could have been used to prevent a particular incident from happening. I learned a lot from Porter and was glad to have the opportunity to share our ideas.
Allie Jones
First off, I would like to say that I really enjoyed working with Porter on Monday....over the past few years the ALT groups have clustered us with schools from our own area and I had not had the chance to meet with this group of teachers.
I agree with the majority of the posts that it is all a matter of wording...at DES we might not call it our our discipline plan, but almost every time a student gets a mark it is directly related to their not choosing to use the 7 habits, so it seems we are all very close in our methods.
On another note, I am anxious to get through all of the habits so that the students have a better understanding of how all of it fits together to make life easier on them and how good they will feel when other people notice the change. We started slowly this year, and I like the idea of getting to all of the habits in the first week before jumping into any curriculum...I think it will give the students a better understanding of the direction the entire year will take.
Michelle Hughes
I agree with you Michelle. Introducing the habits together may make more sense. It's something to consider for next year.
I think the 7 habits are an extremely useful tool in the area of discipline. The students are taught values rather than rules which carry on from school into life. I can see how there are some weaknesses being the first year the students have gotten into this, but after hearing this same terminology for 3-4 years, I think the students will fully grasp this concept of life lessons and we will see a vast improvement.
I agree with Michelle, too. I often find myself referring to a habit that the students haven't been introduced to yet. As I stated in an earlier post, I feel this is so much more than "just being good." The habits are a mind set, a way of thinking...and I believe it can be taught.
In our group we discussed the different approaches we have made in troducing the habits to the students. I like our idea of taking them one at a time but I also liked the Porter idea of introducing them all.
We thought it would be a good idea to take the seven habits at the beginning of the year - do a brief overview of each. Then every six weeks focus on one habit and really talk about that habit in conjuction with the student workbook.
Roxanne Magee
David E. Smith
Well...coming in here after 20 comments or so leaves me without much "new" to contribute. I have agreed with the thought that it is a matter of semantics.
Additionally, I use my time with students as a positive interaction. I choose to view discipline as an opportunity to help a student take a step back, look at his/her behaviors from a different perspective, and think about how we can remedy the situation as well as make some life changes to prevent the same types of behaviors from happening again. My biggest belief is that students must accept responsibility for their actions. I almost always have them call home and explain their choices and how they're going to strive to prevent this type of situation from happening again. The whole act of accepting responsibility and looking at the situation globally goes hand-in-hand with the 7 Habits. I love that I am able to speak the same language with the students. I agree with Michelle that we should consider teaching all 7 Habits the first week of school next year. While the students can speak the same language with me...I know they haven't practiced implementing all 7 Habits in a structured setting yet (simply because they haven't gotten to "that one" yet).
I was at my other campus on Monday. I look forward to continuing to learn with Porter!
Thanks for the conversations.
Sarah Upchurch (Assistant Principal at David E. Smith Elem)
I guess I am following the trend here to agree with certain points in these posts, such as "it all depends on the wording", but then also have a different view on some other things.
This is my first year teaching and my first experience with the Leader In Me and the 7 Habits. So I am in the same boat as many of the Porter staff. However, with such strong teachers and peers at Smith, I was able to quickly learn how everyone was using the habits. At the beginning of the school year I spent a lot of time going around to other teacher's classrooms and seeing how they incorporate the 7 Habits. Each teacher does it a little differently, but overall what I picked up on very quickly was how the habits were being used as a way to help build student's character, teach responsibility and maturity, and basic life skills. I did not see any teacher use te habits in a "negative" way by telling a child that they broke a habit, and asking them how are they going to work on it next time. Every teacher at Smith had a separate discipline plan and policy in their room/ grade level. So if a child did do something wrong, they met the consequences according to the discipline plan in the classroom that was separate from the habits. The teacher might talk to the child about how they didn't display "being proactive" or "beginning with the end in mind", bt never tell them that they broke habit #1 and they need to write some things down on how they will fix it. I also learned from my colleagues to take my time going through the book of habits. It is more important to make sure the children really understand a habit first before moving on to the next one. Otherwise what do they really learn? It is in one ear and out the other. My class is currently on the 4th habit, and slowly making our way to the last 3. I also make sure I go back and revisit the previous ones with them too.
I am very glad to say that my 3rd graders improve daily and even weekly on showing responsibility and maturity, and I watch students govern each other and solve their own "problems". I have to say also that I am seeing such a difference in my kids since we have been back from Christmas break. They seem more ready for 4th grade now, than just finishing up 2nd grade from August.
I know this is lengthy, but my eyes have really been opened to some amazing things this year. I really enjoyed collaborating with Porter and learning some new things...and meeting some new colleagues! I look forward to what lies ahead for both of our campuses, and any future gatherings/ meetings that we may have.
Kirby Plata
Monday was a great opportunity to tour the building with Lisa Loper, the counselor at Porter. It was enlightning to observe how engaged each grade level was with their conversations about the 7 habits. When we walked into the 2nd grade's discussion, we overheard Juli Stanford stating that their team often incorporated the Second Step lessons which tied in nicely with the 7 habits. When Juli saw me she quickly promised that she had not made that comment just because we had walked in. This made me laugh due to the fact that she was so right about how perfectly the habits tie in with teaching good social skills. We all have the same goal in mind as to help each and every one of our children aspire to be the best they can. Teaching and modeling the 7 habits helps all of us to accomplish this goal!
The icing on the cake was being able to share the 7 habits bulletin board with Lisa! Sherri McDonald did a beautiful job creating Scott's design, and Fifth grade's pictures and explanations were perfect examples of how the students are applying the 7 habits. Thank you Karen Nores, Michelle Hughes and Ginger Rocha for all your hard work putting that together!
For the Children,
Paula Keller
Discipline, when spoken of in an elementary school setting, seems to imply a negative action. In many other areas of life, discipline is a positive. People who are disciplined enough to excel in a certain subject or sport or career are looked up to, and admired in our society.
By not disciplining our children, we do them a grave disservice in preparing them for adulthood.
I am very excited about working with a staff of people who care so much about modeling and teaching discipline to their children.
Using the 7 habits is certainly a kinder way to mold our children into caring, productive adults than the "I said so" tactics of the last half of the 20th century.
The 7 habits are a "discipline" plan, but not in the sense of rewards and punishments. I see them as a doctrine of self-discipline. The language speaks to each of our individual needs to take ownership and have control. Our kids understand this best when we as adults model this as well as explain it. They live it when the consequences of their actions are not imposed upon them by us in the forms of punishments and alternative extrinsic rewards, but by the inevitability of causality. More so than that, the first two habits evoke a spirit of resilience that challenges circumstance.
In my class, I use 3 words to redirect unacceptable behavior: integrity, respect and trust. My students understand what I mean by, "I thought you had more integrity than that" or "I would like to know that I can trust you" or "Excuse me, but someone is being disrespectful to our classmate who has the floor". They respond to this more than my previous threats to phone parents or to take away their recess.
C. Woods
DE Smith
There is so much discussion about the right way and the wrong way to present the seven habits and discipline. I guess I look at it in a more broader view. I think I see the 7 habits as things I want to see exhibited in my students and myself. When my students have to sign "The Book", we discuss what they did wrong and how they could use the habits to make a better choice. I see it as not a habit broken, but how they can use the habits to improve themselves.
Whatever we are doing at either of our schools, it seems to be working. Both campuses are reporting not only better behavior, but a better atmosphere in general. Yay to us!
Angela L.
After reading all the blogs, I see there is a real growth in us as adults. I interact with all our students (PreK - 5th) on a daily basis encouraging them to be the best they can be. I have high expectations for myself and our students here at DES. If a student is having problems, I find taking time to listen many times reveals a need or challenge beyond the existing viewable problem. The 7 habits and each of you inspire me to set and reach greater goals in my life. I truly believe each and everyone can change for the better given the tools.
When talking about discipline whether we think of it as a program, or a philosophy we’re talking about dealing with behavior. And it’s important to remember that every behavior has a natural consequence (positive or negative). I think the 7 Habits is a good vehicle to explain to kids that they have the control to bring good consequences into their lives. When our students engage in inappropriate behaviors we can use the 7 Habits as an opportunity for the students to identify which habit could’ve helped them bring a positive consequence, rather than a negative consequence. That way they’re able to make the connection that they have the power and control to make the best of any situation, despite the fact that they have so little control in their daily life.
To get my students “in the habit” of identifying which habits apply to a specific behavior/consequence I am encouraging them to give “Peer Praise”. When students observe their peers utilizing one of the 7 Habits they congratulate their peers by stating which habit that student utilized on a post-it note and handing it to the student. I’ll let you know how we do.
- Alyssa Webb
I love the idea of having a positive section in the discipline notebooks where kids can be told to "sign the book" and it's not a negative thing! That's a great idea! I think by just making some simple adjustments to our wording, everyone can feel more comfortable with the discipline notebooks. I enjoyed reading the previous comments...lots of good thoughts!
Tracy Clegg
Porter Elementary
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