At this point, some of you may be wondering why this chapter focuses so much on you, the parent, instead of how to "handle" your kids. I'll be honest - when I first began learning about Conscious Discipline, this was my first thought! But upon reflection, the only person you can make change is yourself... and it is how you respond to situations and create loving environments that offer the best discipline strategies and guidance for our kids. Therefore, first we look towards ourselves!
I can relate to each of the "powers," but some of my favorites that I have been really working towards are listed below:
1. The Power of Intention - Conflict is an opportunity to teach. As someone who has been a pleaser her whole life, conflict can be difficult for me. I love looking at it in this light - conflict is not a bad thing, but can be a positive aspect in our lives. This idea has really helped me in my relationships with co-workers (and my husband!) and also in calmly helping students who are in a conflict.
2. The Power of Love - See the best in one another! Unfortunately, it is so easy to make quick snap judgments about one another... and about our kids. Seeing the best allows me to not only feel more positive about situations (that may have caused upset in the past), but also allows me the opportunity to focus upon what I want with kids, instead of what I don't want.
An example: I was teaching a guidance lesson with a class and early on in the lesson a student started yelling at a classmate for accidentally hitting her. A conflict immediately ensued. I had two thoughts - first, this was really distracting to my lesson and second, these students needed to learn some basic conflict resolution skills. One of the students had even started crying. I said, "It seems like you have a choice. You can choose to continue to get upset about this and focus on that instead of the lesson or you can choose to hold your frustration and talk it out at the end of the lesson. Which would work for you?" Both students chose to wait and at the end of the lesson, they had a very positive conflict resolution. So positive, in fact, that they stated they wanted to both do the same thing with other students! I felt like I was able to calmly and quickly respond, and help them to learn conflict resolution skills. Thank you, Dr. Bailey!
OK... so here are some thoughts to guide you in discussion, please comment!!!
-Which powers do you connect with most?
-Which powers are most difficult for you?
-What do you think so far about the book? Are you particularly interested/disinterested in any parts?
No comments:
Post a Comment