Conscious Discipline is a comprehensive classroom management system and social-emotional curriculum created by Dr. Becky Bailey that can also be incorporated at home. It focuses on developing a classroom family and creating a warm, safe learning environment, which is an integral part of my teaching philosophy. When students feel connected to one another and invested in our classroom, they are more engaged, more motivated, and more confident.
Here are some of the components of Conscious Discipline that you find in our classroom:
- Family Jobs: It is important for students to take ownership over our class home. Each student contributes to our class family through individual jobs that we rotate weekly. This shows that it takes each of us make our classroom run smoothly.
- Safe Place: The Safe Place is a little nook in our classroom where students can go to destress and refocus at any point during the day. It is designed to help the students self-regulate and develop strategies to overcome frustration, anxiety, anger, disappointment, or sadness. There is a basket of stress-relieving objects and pictures of our stress-relieving breathing exercises to help the students relax.
- Stress Relievers: One of our class family jobs is the “Stress Reliever.” This students leads us through a stress-relieving breathing exercise that gives us a “brain smart start” to our day. Conscious Discipline has 4 main stress-relievers: Balloon, Drain, S.T.A.R. (Smile, Take a deep breath, And Relax), and Pretzel. We also use these throughout the school day to get oxygen to our brains and recenter ourselves. These are great to use at home, as well! Ask you child to demonstrate!
Stress Relievers PDF (Download the icons and explanations to use at home!)
- I-Messages: Communication and problem-solving are a big part of Conscious Discipline. Although I am always there to handle big problems, I also want my students to feel empowered to speak-up for themselves use their “big voices” to express themselves and solve smaller issues. We use the “I-Message” format to help us communicate our feelings clearly and respectfully. I feel ___ when you ___. I would like you to ___.
- Wish Well: Another one of our class family jobs is the “Well Wisher.” This person leads us through sending well wishes to all the members of our class family who are absent. We have a magnetic board with everyone’s picture, and the absent students are placed in the heart. This is another way we show that each member of class family is important and that we are incomplete without every single one of us.
- Bucket Fillers: This is not a Conscious Discipline strategy, but it does align perfectly with its focus on building a positive classroom environment through helpful and kind acts. Another one of our class family jobs (“Bucket Filler”) is associated with the community-building system. You can read more about its use in our classroom here: http://teacherpress.ocps.net/sarahmcbride/classroom-rules-and-community-building/positive-reinforcement-2/
