CCBOE hosts statewide Conscious Discipline training workshop
Jul. 25—VINEMONT — Educators from across the state are spending their week attending a training seminar at Vinemont High School.
Cullman County Schools officals are hoping the event will result in teachers spending less time correcting student behavior inside the classroom and more time teaching.
Rather than teachers reacting to student behavior, the organization Conscious Discipline aims to teach a proactive "adult first" approach to classroom management. Throughout the training educators are taught skills such as self-regulation, assertiveness and empathy which they can then model for their students.
Partner Operations Manager Erika Bettinger said classroom discipline is often thought to be an external response to the actions and behaviors of students. She said a more accurate definition would be a person's ability to recognize and control their own internal emotional state to better meet the needs of students.
"It's about changing your own mindset and being aware of your own emotional state so you can be a calm, conscious adult that can help students," Bettinger said.
The training focuses on the three neurological "brain states" executive, emotional and survival. During conflicts, adults and students tend to default into either the emotional of survival states. The program provides what it calls "seven powers" — perception, unity, attention, free will, acceptance, love and intention — which give insights adults can use to change their relationship with conflict as well as learn to recognize the emotional states of their students.
The ultimate goal of the program is to help educators learn to remain in the executive state and demonstrate how they can pass along those lessons to students.
"Learning is basically off-line when you are in your emotional or survival states. Having awareness of that and being able to set your classroom up for success allows students to stay in that higher center of the brain," Bettinger said.
Once adults become more aware of how they react to conflicts they are presented with "seven skills" — composure, encouragement, assertiveness, choices, empathy, positive intent and consequences — they can use to respond in more beneficial ways.
The organization reports a number of benefits from clients who have implemented its disciplinary model. These reports show a 45% reduction in disciplinary referrals, between 20 and 50% increases in academic achievement and a 100% increase in collegiality and positive school climates.
Superintendent Shane Barnette said he is excited to see the benefits of the program when teachers return to the classroom next month.
"We were excited to be able to bring this training to the educators of our school system and community. They will be able to implement many of the strategies they are learning this week as soon as they begin this new school year," Barnette said.
CCBOE learning support specialist Karen Pinion is hoping for more long-term benefits for the CCBOE's students. She said the biggest impact will be from showing children the benefits of coping and resiliency skills they will need long after leaving the classroom.
"This is going to create adults who leave our school system who can regulate their behavior and make good decisions. They're not always going to have teachers there telling them what the possibilities and consequences of things are. We would ultimately like to change the trajectory of our kids and redefine what is truly a successful kid is," Pinion said.
