This is good stuff, so lean in close, and you might want to bookmark this one for future reference.
I feel really brilliant today.
I might just have a parade in my honor…no kidding.
I had an idea…
and I tried it today…
and it worked!!!
Amidst kind of a shitty day otherwise even…well, you know – me and my silver lining love to laugh nature try to make the best of everything but still…rough day and STILL my idea worked!
It is MC.
You remember, the greatest and most tenacious teacher I will ever have??
Well, he’s pretty tough when you (or me) and he don’t quite see eye to eye.
He and I have been giving one another the blues lately.
I was rather tired of it.
It just so happened that some of the teachers I work with were feeling rather blue too.
So, I directed them to http://www.wholebrainteaching.com.
I told them plain and simple when the work is hard, you simply HAVE to make some fun…HAVE TO.
My teaching hat is often put away at home (not really, but I am not overtly in action)
Only, for some reason this one little idea from the great website mentioned above stuck with me right when I needed it most.
MC is very…VERY competitive.
There is this strategy for class cooperation where there is this scoreboard for the classroom.
When things are going well (and of course you do a lot of positive reinforcement) the class gets a point.
When there is a problem, the teacher gets a point.
Last night when I was totally over it I started rambling to MC in the midst of his Sassy McSasspants routine…
I said, “that’s it. I’m gonna start keepin score mister. Sassy mouth, tally mark. Nice mouth, tally mark.”
I was spewing nonsense, only somewhere in the midst of it my brain clicked in gear and I remembered the game.
Dare I hope it might work for mamas too???
So I shifted and told him we would play a game and just see who might win.
I told him he better get a good night’s sleep because I LOVE to win (I could care less about winning, but he had to feel a competitor or it might not work!)
This morning of course I forgot at first (before coffee), but about the first time he started in I remembered!
I just said, “DUDE – that’s a point for mama!!!”.
He was worried that I was remembering and not writing it down(he is smart).
He got the paper and told me to set it up.
The cool thing was that he didn’t argue about the point, or the redirection for that matter, he smiled and laughed and so did I.
I knew I was on to something.
He got a point everytime he did just what he was asked and talked in a nice way.
I got a point for everything that WASN’T that.
He showed me the power of our back and forth when he did something and I got really exasperated and said his name in an exasperated way.
He just looked at me and smiled and said, “I think I just got a point!”
Now we had’t talked about HIM getting points if I was grouchy, but he had me, so I said ok with a frowny face because he loved it all the more!
Ladies and Gentlemen, I don’t know the score, but I do know that bedtime was more responsive than EVER, AND I do know that he had a really great day and so did I.
He didn’t even ask what happens when you win.
He’s pretty smart.
He probably already figured out we won…laughing and tally marking our way through a kind of rough Sunday.
(ps if you are going to try this…it will only work if you play this game with love in your heart and a smile on your face)