C4T January

Post 1

My teacher's first blog post was Sloving Problems. Joe Bower, the teacher, spent the day with Ross Greene learning about solving problems with children collaboratively. He post talked about emphasis on solving problems rather than on extinguishing or replacing behaviors. There is a big difference between believing that children will do well when they want to versus believing kids do well if they can. When we argue that kids do well when they want to, we make up theories about why they are choosing to do poorly. We all do these four things. We all want to get what we want. We all seek attention. We all have trouble. We all avoid stuff we don't like. The big news isn't that kids do these things -- the big news is that while all successful adults do these things adaptively, children with challenging behaviors do all of these things maladaptively. Some people like to lean on a diagnosis to explain why children are challenging, but this is potentially dangerous. Using a diagnosis to explain a child's challenging behavior is circular thinking. I totally agree with Mr. Bower's post. I feel many people do lean on disorders as an excuse for a child's behavior. Children with challenging behaviors are only challenging when their environment demands their lagging skills which creates unsolved problems. Parents and teachers are too comfortable in saying "Oh, he/she just has a behaviorally problem. They can't help it.". This is NOT okay. Part of being a parent/teacher is figuring out how to over come this objective.

Post 2

Mr. Bower's second post I commented on was Tips for better bloging. This post was absolutely perfect for me to read as a beginner in blogging. He passed on some pointers for a teacher who would like to start blogging. A few tips i found helpful were: 1. You have to make blogging enjoyable or you won't do it for long. 2. Link other people's stuff in your blog and then make them aware that you have linked to them. This is a great way of connecting with others via Twitter or e-mail. 3. Keep advertisements and the desire to profit as far away from your blog as possible. Blogging is about learning and sharing. Try not to get distracted from these objectives with profits and popularity. I am still kinda iffy weather I would want to incorporate blogging in my classroom or not, but reading about other teacher's blogs helps keep me open minded to the idea.