Love and Logic

I finished reading Teaching with Love and Logic today.

One thing that I really took from the last part is the importance of a cool down time and not needing to enforce consequences immediately in all cases. I think back to times when I have been angry and in the heat of the moment. Those are not my best times. I often say things I don't mean and I'm not thinking clearly. If only in those cases I had taken a moment to step back and addressed the problem an hour later or the next day, I would have been able to think through it and come up with a better solution. The same is true for our kids. If it is something that can wait, then it is important to give them their thinking time. The book talks about just making an appointment with the kid at that time.

Love and Logic

I have recently read the first part of Teaching With Love & Logic. What I have read so far has really made me think about the way that I interact with students.

I have always been a "strict" teacher who consistently enforced a clear set of rules. And for the type of students I was mostly working with it usually worked. My previous school had so many good kids. But it was something that did not work all that well with my freshmen last year. They would push the limits and I would put on my strict face and push them back. I really struggled with my freshmen study hall last semester.

With reading this first part there are some things that I really think I need to change for the coming year. I will be at a new school and so I don't know my students yet so I don't know what will work with them but regardless I want to get out of the mentality of being the strict teacher. I want all my classes to have a more positive vibe.

These are the key things from Teaching With Love & Logic that will be in the forefront of my thoughts as I begin the new year.

• Encouraging students to solve their own problems. Instead of just delving out consequences, I want to ask more questions, listen more, and lead students to come up with their own solutions.
• Using empathy. I need to do a better job showing that I care about them, that I feel bad about the consequences that they suffer, and that I am there to support them in making better decisions.
• Have one general all-encompassing principle for the classroom instead a list of specific rules. This will better allow me to address each individual issue that comes up in the best way for the student and the class.
  
• More dialog with my students on a daily basis. The more that I can have 30 second conversations with my students, the better I get to know them and the more they perceive that I care about them. And in looking back at my experiences, I strongly believe it is true that people are more willing to do things for people they know care about them and that they care about.

I won't know how well any of this works in my classrooms until I get a chance to try it out but I really think there are some great ideas in what I have been reading and it is all common sense, things that I was aware of before but never quite put together. As I read more I will post more and once I start experimenting on my classes in the fall, I will also post more.