Real Talk For Real Teachers By Conscious Discipline

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 40 million adults. Persistent worry has a lasting negative impact on both mind and body. In children, anxiety often looks like avoidance, clinging, aggression and other challenging behaviors. This can make it difficult for adults to recognize and support children in managing the anxiety that’s at the root of the b...

Are there people in your life you find challenging to work with or be with? Why do we find some people so irritating and how can we utilize those irritations as opportunities for growth? The way we perceive sensory input, information from others and data gathered about the outside world determines if we will react from old programming or respond in wise and helpful ways. When we take others’ upset...

Have you noticed some children will increase their behaviors in what seems to be an effort to gain your attention? Have you ever had a child exhibit a behavior that just seems so bizarre to you and you were at a loss for how to respond? Children with extreme behaviors and mental illness present some of the most challenging moments in the classroom. Some of these behaviors can be alarming to the ad...

What was your experience as a child during holidays? Do you find them stressful now? How do we help students prepare for extended holiday breaks? The holidays can bring stress and disruption to daily routines. These times can result in an escalation of stress and misbehaviors in the classroom. Maintaining structure and routines during this time helps create predictability. Predictability helps cre...

Are you struggling with creating behavior intervention plans resulting in successful changes within your students? Have you wondered how PBIS and Conscious Discipline could work together in this process? Over the years working to help students change behavior has resulted in many programs and intervention strategies. Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) does not state to use specific...

Do you dread Monday mornings after your students have been home for the weekend or long holiday break? Have you noticed some children seem to ramp up their behaviors as Friday dismissal time approaches? What is it about saying good-by for the weekend and hello on Monday that presents a challenge for some students? Leaving the school family on Friday afternoons and re-joining on Monday mornings is...

What messages around disciplining children did you receive growing up through your faith/religion? Do these messages mostly rely on fear such as children learn responsibility by being punished for their acts? What if we shifted to a method that relied on a love-based approach – seeing the best in everyone at their worst moments? While Conscious Discipline is not a religious program, it does inters...

Does your role in your school include coaching teachers, students and parents? How well do you coach yourself when things do not go your way? Successfully coaching others to change requires we consciously and lovingly coach ourselves. The inner speech we use with ourselves when things are not going our way will automatically be the words we use with others when we are triggered and things are not...

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the words resistant child? Disruptive? Mean? Hurtful? Angry? We might even call these children disconnected. What if we shifted our view of these children to see their behaviors as a call for help? Children who are relationship resistant are the most challenging in our classrooms. We can relate to these children on some level as we have all had hu...

Is it possible for early childhood programs with many federal regulations and initiatives placed on them to create an environment that successfully support both children and their family’s social emotional development? How does a director rally underpaid and under-appreciated early childhood teachers to embrace a new way of being and teaching in their program? Many demands are placed on early chil...

Have you ever thought Conscious Discipline was just for younger children? Do you work with middle school students and struggle with managing behavior and classroom disruptions? The middle school years present many challenges for students. They are experiencing many life changes internally, struggling to find a sense of belonging with friend groups, and are often because of their age expected “to k...