"How I learned to speak Spanish" is a brief description of the steps I took as I was preparing for my teaching job in a Florida public school. The State Department of Education requires all teachers to take a "truthful and truthful" testimony when asked about classroom discipline, and I thought that meant I had to get a little more creative with my descriptions of my role in the classroom. So I began to prepare myself for my role as a Spanish teacher by recalling my most memorable lessons in my career. I categorized each lesson by the type of student that I faced and then used those same descriptions to explain how I disciplined students who came to me for help.
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I presented my most important small steps to success in the following manner: First, I received and acknowledged the correction. Second, I offered an alternative so that the student could improve. Third, I offered a summary of the corrected behavior so that I would not have to spend a lot of time correcting the same thing over again. Fourth, I presented an example of how such a disciplined student might become more competent. And fifth, I ended by repeating the key points from the section on credible sources of information.
Those small steps to success in my Spanish classroom are easy to recall because they are so common. But they are crucial to effective instruction, and they should be a vital part of the lesson plan for every situation. As a Spanish teacher, I am always faced with children who are misbehaving, and sometimes the only way to stop the behavior is by using the power of spoken English. This can be effective, but not always. If I do not enforce the corrective measures, the misbehavior will go on.
In a Florida public school, the rules required that we call the principal and tell her that she needed to correct a student for disturbing the peace in the classroom. She did and the student was corrected. But, in the few cases where this same principal was unable to control her students, she allowed the disruptive students to stay and watch the rest of the class take their rightful seat at the desk. This is a perfect example of the dangers of relying solely on spoken English. In these situations, the misbehavior was not corrected through the use of a printed or typed correction, it was ignored, and as a consequence, the student continued his disruption.
The lesson plan included a brief description of the behavior to be corrected, its cause and effect, and the corrective plan that had been approved by the principal and her staff. Although the description was brief, I was able to see the error of my ways after reading the document a few times. I immediately reminded myself that we are dealing with children here, who are under tremendous stress and strain and need a lot of support from us in order to get back to work, and I also reminded myself that I must continue to apply the corrective measures until the child understands what has been asked of him or her.
Unfortunately, this kind of reinforcement was not enough to keep my attention, so I turned to a more traditional form of enforcement. I notified the child directly about the misbehavior. I mentioned the person who had approved the behavior in the original instruction and explained that unless the action is taken, the consequences will be enforced. My biggest fear, however, was that I would be repeating the same behavior and addressing the same issue.
My next move was to try a different approach. I wrote down the specific reason for the requested action and explained why it was necessary. As I shared this information with the child, it became clear to me that he or she needed to understand why I felt the need to ask for the correction. Once the explanation was in place, the child was able to respond appropriately, but the repeated nature of the request continued. In this case, the repeated nature was serving a greater purpose, because rather than focusing on the behavior, the child was actually reinforcing the behavior!
In my final example, I recall the frustration that came with having to explain the same behavior to a child several times. Eventually, I realized that I was repeating the same message myself and had nothing to add when I explained that it was acceptable or even required, that the child stop hitting. The child eventually understood the meaning behind my command. That's where I made my first and only small steps to success! I had successfully taught my child that hitting an adult is not only unacceptable, but unacceptable on all levels. With the help of some parenting help, I was able to teach my child how to identify the problem in himself and learn how to face it head on.