1.
Guiding and Managing
Children’s Behavior
Developed and Presented
By
Kari Lewinsohn
Summer, 2008

2.
Welcome to Guiding and
Managing Children’s Behavior
Please do the following tasks BEFORE
we get started at _12_:_30_
• Go to station A and write a scenario of a
challenging student you’ve had in the past.
List what you tried. Be sure to put your name
on it. When finished put the card in the
basket.
• Go to station B and write your name on a 3x5
card and decorate it. Give it to the instructor.
• (Note: For school, I’d take your picture)

3.
Introduction
 Kari Lewinsohn
 Special Services Director, Libby Public
Schools, 2nd year
 Former teacher, K-1 four years, 6-8th grade
math/science/sped for seven in Washington.
 Have 2 Masters Degrees, and am 1/3 of the
way through a PhD in Special Education
Leadership.

4.
Text
Beyond Behavior Management: The six
life skills children need to thrive in
today’s world.
Author: Jenna Bilmes
2004

5.
Assignment #1
Read
Please read the
Introduction
story.

6.
Activity #2 Write
 Answer “Exercise question
#1” found on page 13
• Take a closer look at a
challenging child you’ve had in
the past. Which of the six
strengths are they lacking?
What is the relationship
between the behavior that is
driving you crazy and that
missing strength? Which
strengths is the child already
developing?

7.
Share
 Share your answers
with your group.
 On the chart paper
fill-in what all your
example students
seem to have in
common, and what
is unique to that
child.

8.
Reflection
Throughout this workshop you will be
asked to reflect upon your own
classroom management and
experiences.

9.
Quote by Peter Druker
“Follow effective action
with quiet reflection.
From the quiet reflection
will come even MORE
effective action.”

10.
Assignment #3: Reflection
Write
 Answer the Journal Assignment
on page 14, this is your own
personal reflection.
• Think of yourself in relation to the
six strengths. How have these
strengths helped you to get to
where you are today? Are you still
working to develop one or more of
these strengths? If so, how has
lacking a strength had an impact
on your life?

11.
Activity #4 Opinion
 On the chart, place a
yellow dot under the
life skill you think is
the most critical for
children to have for
success in school.

12.
Activity #5
Reward vs Punishment
With your group list out the pros and
cons for using rewards and punishment
as classroom management strategies.
Share

13.
Think about it
Think about your classroom rules and
routines. If those were imposed upon
you as a worker, would you want to work
in that environment?

14.
Planning for the incoming class
Reflect:
• Do my rules and routines encourage children
to learn from their mistakes and guide them
toward making a better future?
• When I redirect students, is it with problem
solving or punishment in mind?
• Is my classroom building children’s strengths
and guiding them to overcome their
weaknesses?

15.
Classroom communities
Resources
http://www.teachingstrategies.com/conte
nt/pageDocs/BPC_Ch2.pdf
Beyond Behavior Management By Jenna
Bilmes: Pages 87-101
http://www.ethicsed.org/consulting/Class.
htm

16.
Classroom Community Basics
Establish a regular routine
• Song or story
• Special activities scheduled for the day
• Play a transition game
• Warm “fuzzies”
• Discussion box
Classroom jobs (see handout)

17.
Emphasize the Community
 Promote friendliness and caring
• Friendship tree,
 Create a class scrapbook of events throughout
the year, complete with student work.
 Class made “big books”
 Class newsletter sent home each week
 Class pledge
 Inverted musical chairs: as each chair is
removed, children have to figure out ways for
everyone to find a seat!

18.
Break
Take about
10 minutes.

19.
Find your Name Card!
You now have a new group!
Please find your name and
corresponding group location.

20.
Maintain Chart
Use the 6 life skills chart I’ve provided
you .
Write down the ideas that strike you as
important.
This will provide you with a quick
reference for each of the 6 Life Skills.

21.
Attachment p. 38
 Description
• Looks to adults for love
and affection
• Depends on adults for
safety and security
• Seek out adults for
conversation and play
• Accept adult’s help and
comfort
 Children’s needs
• Nurturing classroom
community
• Recognition for arriving
and leaving
• Opportunities to engage
adults and peers in
conversation
• A dependable adult they
can access for help
• Validation of feelings

22.
Attachment Teaching Strategies
Use a “getting to know you” worksheet
Learning styles inventory
Meet parents and ask what they think
child’s strengths and weaknesses are
Use opportunities for relationship
building: peer work, partner read, partner
jobs

23.
Soren Kirkgard quote
“To be a teacher in the
right sense is to be a
learner. I am not a
teacher, only a fellow
student.”

24.
Affiliation p. 63
 Description
• Interacts and plays
with other children
• Develops meaningful
relationships with at
least one other child.
 Child needs
• Successfully
progressed through
steps:
• Solo play
• Adult assisted play
• Parallel play
• Dyad play (one
friend)
• Small group play
• Large group play

25.
Affiliation teaching strategies
 Friendship skills and opportunities
 Social scripts: What to say when this happens.
Role play these situations
 Teacher and students look for friendly behavior
and comment on it, or acknowledge it
 Buddy jobs or activities
 “You can’t say can’t” in certain areas
 Class meetings
 Class jobs

26.
Activity #6
With your new group, develop a group
motto using the word on your table.
Write and decorate your motto on the
chart and hang it on your table.
Share motto with class

27.
Self-Regulation p 105
 Description
• Manage emotions
• Control behavior
• Make effective choices
• Take ownership
 Child’s needs
• Opportunities to
demonstrate control
• Time for reflection on
actions
• Choices

28.
Self-regulation teaching
strategies
 Positive Behavior Supports: School and Class
 Broad guidelines for classroom behavior with
specific routines that are practiced, modeled,
and reinforced.
 Time out or recovery time
 Validate the child, explain how the action was
incorrect, provide the alternative correct action.
This should preceed any type of punishment
or consequence. Consequences should be
enforced when you are sure the child has
learned the routine.

29.
Self-regulation continued
 Beginning-middle-end stories and talk about
the child’s feelings and choices and analyze
whether they could have done something
differently.
 Self-serve snacks/lunch with portions and
parameters for using the area.
 Use a puppet to help children learn code
phrases and words to use in different
situations. “I don’t want to, but I’ll do it
anyway” for example.

30.
Activities #7 and 8
1. Write down your classroom rules.
2. Think of someone you greatly admire
and write down a guiding principle for
what you think this person lives by.

31.
Guiding Principles
We take care of ourselves.
We take care of each other.
We take care of our stuff.
We try our best.
We help others learn.
We make good choices.

32.
Activity #9 Think and compare
Compare your rules to the guiding
principles of this person. Does each of
your rules teach or emphasize a life
skill? Write down some changes you
might want to think about for
establishing your classroom
community.

33.
Albert Einstein quote
The ideals which have lighted
my way, and time after time
have given me new courage to
face life cheerfully have been
kindness, beauty, and truth.”

34.
Time out

35.
Time out
Have a quiet spot in the room.
Have a quiet spot in a neighboring
teachers room.
Have a location in the building for
students to “recover” briefly before
returning. Key is no adult interaction.
Send to the principal for overt offenses.

36.
Initiative
 Description
• Can persist, focus,
and complete a task,
even if frustrated.
• Competent and
confident about
learning new things.
• Look forward to the
future.
 Child needs
• To be recognized for
their persistence or
accomplishment.
• Understand when a
task is complete.
• Do it themselves, not
have it “done for
them”. (don’t take the
pencil out their hands!)

37.
Initiative Teaching Strategies
 Rather than praising or criticizing the child’s
work, the teacher should offer feedback that is
specific.
 Facilitate the child solving the problem.
 Acknowledge the child’s attempts.
 Practice sitting quietly to finish a task.
 Self-correcting work.
 Making a checklist.
 Finishing a long term project

38.
Problem Solving &
Conflict Resolution
 Description
The ability to
manage and resolve
problems and
conflicts effectively.
 Child Needs
• A problem solving
attitude.
• Have skills to manage
emotions and discuss
the problem.
• The ability to choose a
solution and carry it
through.

39.
Problem Solving &
Conflict Resolution
Teaching Strategies
 Teach the 4 steps to problem solving:
• What is the problem?, define issue, brainstorm, select a
solution.
 Teacher models defining the problem, and helps
brainstorm solutions.
 Provide time for child to solve problem and take
ownership.
 Model assertive language. Use scripts, puppets, stories.
 “At school we….”
 Problem solving center with peer mediators.

40.
Activity #10
Survival on
the Moon
group activity.

41.
Dr. Robert Schuller quote
"Again and again, the
impossible decision is solved
when we see that the
problem is only a tough
decision waiting to be made."

42.
Respect
 Description
• Recognize and
appreciating the gifts of
self and others.
 Children need
• Understand when its
competition or
cooperation.
• Recognize others have
feelings.
• Realize that we are
unique, but have things
in common.
• Understand that we can
be different, but still be
friends.

43.
Respect Teaching Strategies
Family involvement
 Include a family wall with pictures, stories, etc.
 Have parents volunteer to read a book onto a
tape and place in the reading center.
 Celebrate the culture of each family through
food or art projects.
 Encourage family participation by sharing a
special skill or talent with the class.

44.
Respect Teaching Strategies
Classroom involvement
 Pictures of the children
 Post work
 Class experts
 Goal charts
 Group projects
 Consensus voting for certain issues
 Class books
 Community project

45.
Activities #11 and 12
Look over your worksheet. Using the
blue dot, select the life skill you believe is
the most valuable for students to
possess. (It’s okay if you pick the same
one).
Draw a scenario from the basket. Offer
a solution based upon what you’ve
discovered. Find the owner and share
your ideas with them.

46.
Tom Connelly quote
“He who asks a question may
be a fool for five minutes, but he
who never asks a question
remains a fool forever.”
 Hint: any questions???

47.
Thanks for coming