Let’s Influence and Empower Our Students Every Day!

Kids are Worth It

Kids Are Worth It : Giving Your Child the Gift of Inner Discipline by Barbara Coloroso

Barbara Coloroso is a renowned author of books on parenting and teaching. She offers great advice that we can all use in our daily lives. I can’t believe I hadn’t read any of her work till just now.

One of her cores beliefs is that we can . . .

Influence and Empower Children

“If we accept that we can influence and empower our children, we will no longer feel that we must control them and make them mind. We can then begin to look at empowerment tools that are alternatives to the manipulative  tools of behavior management. They are encouragement and discipline.”

Here is a great model that we can use when we need to discipline our students.

Four Steps of Discipline

  1. Show kids what they have done wrong
  2. Gives them ownership of the problem
  3. Gives them options for solving the problem
  4. Leaves their dignity in tact

We can let them experience consequences that are directly related to their actions.

Real World Consequences

“Real-world consequences either happen naturally or are reasonable consequences that are intrinsically related to the child’s actions.”

It is perfectly acceptable to let our students and children experience real-world consequences. These events can be powerful learning experiences.

While this book is aimed primarily at parents, I believe that the advice she gives is equally applicable to teachers.

Morally Threatening Consequences

I like the idea of getting our students to think before they act with this simple question, “Why Can’t I?” and then looking closely at the answer to see if this applies . . .

  1. Because it is unkind
  2. Because it is hurtful
  3. Because it is unfair
  4. Because it is dishonest

In each of these situations a parent can take the opportunity to teach the child about the virtues of kindness. Compassion, fairness, and honesty and can provide guidance and options for behaving in a virtuous way.”

Character education is a big buzz word in school these days. We can teach virtues in our daily lives by the way we act and how we treat each other. It doesn’t need to be complex and super-involved. In fact, it all boils down to this . . .

Walk Your Talk

“If you are a courageous and giving [teacher] with principles and values that you are willing to stand up for, if you ‘walk your talk,’ your [students] will have a wonderful model to learn from and emulate.

Children need [teachers] who model self-discipline rather than preach it. They learn from what parents actually do; not from what they say they do.”

This is the first in a series of monthly posts!  Stay tuned to Teaching Tip Tuesday for more!

Teaching Tip Tuesday – great tips, tricks, lessons and inspiration for classroom teachers, every week!


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