Conscious Discipline....

I have been dabbling in Conscious Discipline for the past few years after a chance meeting with Dr. Becky Bailey a few years ago. Ever since meeting her I have wanted to study with her at her Summer learning institute. Well this past summer...I got the chance! I was so excited to go! It was the most amazing experience! I learned so much about the brain, how children learn and how important self regulation and emotional well being is to learning! I now have totally embraced Conscious Discipline in my entire classroom and it has changed how I teach! Here is a look at some of the important components I use in my redesigned Conscious Discipline classroom!

This is our classroom Safe Place. It is a space where children can choose to go when they need to get a hold of their emotions. They learn how to use the safe place properly so it becomes a very special place in our classroom. It is comfortable and cozy. Frank the bear and Brownie the bear live in the Safe Place. The green basket has photo albums of our family members and the purple basket has all kinds of tools for children to use to gain their composure. There are specific steps for the children to follow when they go to the Safe Place. So far my children have embraced the Safe place! 

This is the Welcome bulletin board for the first day of school. We refer to ourselves as The Groovy Grade One Classroom Family. 

This is our "Heart" board. Each day the children arrive at school, they bring me their heart and I am the safe keeper of their heart for the day. 

This is our "Good-Bye ritual" poem. At the end of each school day we say this poem together then the Good bye wisher of the week says "Have a good night" to each child as they leave. I also wish them a good night and tell them that I will see them tomorrow. 

There are many, many things I do through out the day in relation to Conscious Discipline. I will try to take some photos of other rituals and routines that we do. 

I LOVE Conscious Discipline! Thank you Dr. Bailey for changing my life so I can help my students to become better learners and better at handling the ups and downs of life! 

This is Dr. Bailey and me! She is so awesome! 

A new school year is here!

It has taken me a little while to get myself organized so I can create a post! I've been so busy with things in my personal life! Anyway... The new year is here and I have a lovely little bunch of kids in my class!
Science has always been one of my favourite subjects to teach! Here are photos of my little sweeties being scientists! We are working on the colours unit, so what a fun way to explore colour mixing with mini explosions! So FUN! Look how engaged they are!