Wow what a staff!

Our teachers have started staff development this week. These are some great teachers ready to do some great work. While staff inservice could potentially be a dull thing, these ladies make it so much fun because they are eagerly embracing new ideas, discussing better ways to do things, and truly enjoying their passion for teaching.

We have talked a lot about our teaching philosophies this week. Mrs. Roxanne led a great session about child guidance versus behavior management. Child guidance is a child-centered approach that is positive, proactive, and has the goal of long-term success for the child. It is a classroom where the adults teach replacement behaviors instead of just punishing bad for bad behavior.

We have tweaked our Good News Preschool handbook to better reflect this philosophy. Our time-outs will not be a punishment where a child is banished to "think" about what they did wrong. As much as we might love for the child to truly spend time thinking through their actions, most will just wait in frustration until their time-out is over. Our different approach is to use the time-out as an opportunity for the teacher to get to the root of the child's emotion and help give them language to express that emotion. After identifying the emotion behind the behavior, the child and teacher can come up with better choices for how to handle those emotions.

I'm very excited to see our teachers in action as they implement some of the ideas we have discussed this week. We are always learning and growing as a staff, and I am impressed with the level of professionalism that these ladies have shown this week as they evaluate their teaching philosophies. I know I am sounding like a broken record, but it is going to be a great year!