Conscious Discipline Resources: Chapter 1

I know you spent a lot of time on Friday in the book club and your morning meeting session talking about ways to build connectedness in your classrooms, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite resources and ideas.

Starting the Day the "Brain Smart Way"

Morning meeting is a perfect example of starting the day in your room "the brain smart way" and easing the transition from school to home.  Dr. Bailey outlines four key components of the morning routine, here's how I incorporate them into our day:

1. Activity to unite - We sing the "Welcome to School" song by Dr. Jean.  (This is also the kids' cue to clean up their morning work and come to the carpet area for morning meeting.)
2. Activity to disengage the stress response - We greet each other at the start of morning meeting and end the meeting with the "It's Brain Smart Time" song.
3. Activity to connect the children to the teacher and each other - We play some sort of game that either requires us to work together or reinforces that "even though we all like different things, we can still be friends." (This is the "activity" portion of our morning meeting.)
4. Activity to commit oneself to learning - We review the schedule for the day before ending our morning meeting.  I also try to use the morning message to give the kids a preview of the most important things we'll do that day.

Activities to Relax

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Dr. Bailey talks a lot in this chapter about the power of mindful breathing and relaxing.  I use these icons and the associated breathing techniques all.the.time!  The kids LOVE them and I've seen such a positive response in my room since I started using them regularly.  We don't usually use the breathing exercises first thing in the morning, but I love using them when we're a little wiggly on the carpet or after we've done an activity that has us all wound up.

GoNoodle also has some great breathing and calming videos - "AirTime" and "Belly Breathe" are two favorites in my room.  And if your kids aren't sick of it yet, "Let It Go" usually does the trick as well.

Managing Anger and Upset Feelings

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I really like this visual for my kiddies who need some help recognizing when they are beginning to feel angry or upset so that they can calm themselves down before they make a poor choice.  I introduce the idea of driving your car and being in control of your body and your feelings at the beginning of the year and then I put the poster on the whiteboard.  When I see someone getting upset, I grab the poster and pull them aside for a private chat.  I usually say something like, "Andrea, it seems like you're starting to get upset.  When I look at you, I see that your face looks like this and your hands are balled up like this.  That makes me think that you might be getting ready to get in the backseat.  Let's take some deep breaths and make sure that you stay in the driver's seat."