Transcript
0:00 so one of the things we do we shift our question that we asked how do I get the child to blank is going to be shifted to how do I help the child successfully do blank how do I help the child successfully blank how do I help the child successfully finish their homework how do I help the child successfully stay in their seat through this project that we're doing in school how do I help the child successfully calm themselves
0:26 down when disappointment happens because they go into a rage almost every time and then with that question then you contribute to the brainstorm and you ask the child to contribute to the brainstorming okay so I'm in a school this is actually kind of funny because I thought this was going to blow up in my face for sure um so I'm in a school and they had this classroom that to get from their classroom to the lunchroom the quickest
0:54 way in the school was to go through the the auditorium so there was a door here and a door here so they walk through the auditorium but when you walk through the auditorium there's these steps that go up on the auditorium and then there's the step that goes down so this is I think kindergarten it's been like six weeks or so and at least every day you've got three or four that go up the steps on there and down the steps and
1:17 she's done everything she's taken away re I mean she's done all her rewards and punishments she knows what to do and now she's just crumbled into a pile of I should have never been a teacher and so I said well you know I'm in the school and I'm like oh let me help so I go in there to the class and I talk to the class and I go over the problem and I and I asked them now how
1:42 could you as a group successfully go from your class to the cafeteria and walk straight on the bottom floor all the way across from one door to the next so I Define that and they start brainstorming and the teacher jumps in and she's brainstorming they come up with a list of stuff and then they're going to vote on the ones that seemed reasonable now what they threw out didn't seem reasonable to
2:12 me and often it doesn't but here's where their idea we're going to take a pillow from the safe place and put it on the step and one person would carry it and then when you come back from lunch the person would pick it up you know and at first you're like oh man and I'm like pillow on this you're kidding me kids I didn't say that out loud out loud I'm like okay let's just you know we'll go with that but in my
2:39 head was like oh no this is bizarre so I thought that's okay in my head I'm thinking ah when they vote they'll knock that one out we're good oh no they all voted it was the pillar and so here we go and then we add a whole another job to the job because that's the pillow carrier and so now we got the job set up and I'm telling you They Carried that pillow put it on that step and went on to lunch and
3:10 you know I heard from her like six months later and she says great idea so it wasn't necessarily a great idea it was I changed the question the kids got involved which is called shared power they had to say so in it and that's what they came up with and no matter how much we want to judge him as just crazyness it worked for that class so that's why it's important that we change these fundamental choices that we
3:39 make and the fundamental question that we ask
Summary
- Reframe questions to focus on helping children succeed rather than controlling their behavior.
- Engage children in brainstorming solutions to their challenges, promoting shared power.
- A real-life example involved a teacher struggling with students misbehaving while transitioning to lunch.
- The class brainstormed solutions, leading to the unconventional idea of using a pillow to mark the steps.
- Despite initial skepticism, the children's idea proved effective, demonstrating the value of their input.
- Empowering children in decision-making can lead to creative and functional solutions.
- The approach highlights the importance of collaboration between teachers and students in addressing behavioral issues.