One major piece of Jeanine Fitzgerald's approach to working with children who exhibit challenging behaviors is the DISC Model of Human Behavior, which was developed by Dr. Robert Rohm at Personality Insights, Inc. The DISC Model offers a way of understanding temperament, which is each person's innate disposition toward the world. Theoretically, each person's temperament can be placed at a cross-section of two continuums: Outgoing–Reserved and Task Oriented–People Oriented. Here is a visual representation:
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| Retrieved from http://stevenblubaugh.com/2013/10/21/disc-assessment/ |
Everyone's temperament is some blend of these four types (D, I, S, and C), but most people have tendencies that strongly identify with one or two of the types. And each type has unique strengths as well as characteristics that could drive challenging behavior if they are misunderstood. For example, D types like to be demanding, decisive, and be in charge, but in a traditional classroom setting they might be viewed as defiant. S types tend to be very supportive and sweet towards others, but they may be self-sacrificing to their own detriment. C types are cautious and calculating, always looking for the right answer, but others may see them as too critical. And I types can be very inspiring and influential, but their desire to jump into everything might make them seem impulsive.
Temperament is the first and most powerful influence on our behavior, and though it can be managed and refined throughout our lifetimes, it never really changes. It's pretty amazing to observe especially during the early childhood years; as children learn to walk, talk, and interact with the world around them, their temperament is the core of their being that stays the same. And in any interaction between two people, both parties' temperaments are at play. You can imagine that two D types might clash over who's in charge, or a quick-moving I type might be overwhelming to a cautious C-type. So as teachers we work to understand our own temperaments as well as those of our students. When patterns of behavior emerge, this understanding gives us a platform to analyze what's really happening during both successful and unsuccessful interactions.
The DISC Model can also be used to understand interactions within families, and when Jeanine works with families that have been driven into crisis mode by challenging behavior, it's one of the first tools that she offers. Jen found this article which offers five ways the DISC Model can improve relationships between parents and children. I really like that the article emphasizes the nonjudgmental nature of DISC. Rather than promoting certain traits as better than others, the goal of the model is simply to create awareness of each individual's strengths and tendencies. Such awareness offers valuable objectivity when situations become emotionally charged. In classrooms, families, workplaces, and many other settings, the DISC Model can help us all understand each other better.
Thanks for reading, and happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!
Megan
News and Reminders
We are closed this Friday June 22 for teacher in-service. Thank you for your continued support of our professional development.
Join us this Thursday, June 21 for our annual Solstice Stroll! We will meet at 5:30pm behind Stowe Community Church at the beginning of the bike path, then stroll and sing until we return to our starting point for a picnic. Please pack a picnic for your family; ice cream will be served to end the evening.
Kitchen Update
Highlights of the week included squash soup and sweet potato quesadillas. The older classrooms enjoyed a packed lunch on Friday so they could take part in Field Day activities. The infants snacked on school-made cereal batons, ripe strawberries and frozen mango.
Classroom Updates
Infant I by Megan
The highlight of our inside play this week was definitely the Magna-Tiles contributed by Stef. All of our infants found different ways to use them. The youngest were fascinated by looking through the colored opaque plastic, holding stacks of the tiles and bringing them to their mouths. The eight- to nine-month-olds repeatedly picked up and maneuvered a single thin tile, testing the edges and tapping other objects. And our oldest children began to experiment with how the tiles attach to each other and how they might be used to build structures. Outside we enjoyed the abundant pine needles and spent lots of time scooping them into containers or just mixing them with dirt for the tactile sensation. Our older children also enthusiastically participated in outdoor soapy water play; for the most immersive experience they'd recommend you climb right into the bin!
Infant II by Amanda and Hannah
Our exploration with paint continued this week using hands, feet and sponges. The highlight of the week was playing in the water table and pool with soapy water on the hot days. The children loved splashing and pouring water from one area to another. Watching the birds on the roof and on the bird feeders has also been a strong interest. They get very excited to see blue jays or mourning doves fly in for a snack. A few of the older children have started potty training, so we have been talking a lot about wearing underwear. It's an exciting step! If any other families would like to start potty training please let us know. During the past few weeks we've also had a special emphasis on being kind and gentle during our interactions with each other. When Hannah and I see unkind or hurtful behavior towards other children, we do our best to explain to the children that their actions are hurting their peers and they need to find other ways to express those feelings or needs. It may be beneficial to talk with your child at home about those situations, too. Thanks.
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| Bird watchers |
Toddlers by Carly
We had a busy, interactive and engaging week. We have been very focused on our sensory work outside and are really enjoying the new additions to the muddy hill. We have worked on creating rivers and have had a ball on the hotter days when we can wear our bathing suits and play in the water. This week, we continue to work in small groups, which allows more one-on-one individualized attention and an opportunity to focus on child-directed activities. We especially enjoyed painting outside on Wednesday and Thursday, working with orange/yellow and red/pink, respectively. Working with our home-made playdough continues to be quite intriguing, with students creating new shapes and forms every time we use it in our class. On a classroom note: Please send in lots of extra clothes (we are doing a lot of water and mud play) and bathing suits for the warmer days. Have a great weekend and have a great Father's Day!
Wow, what a week–it's hard to figure out where to start. Our cricket habitat experiment was a great learning experience, even though tragedy struck and one of the crickets passed away. After much discussion Team Shannon decided to continue setting out the cricket habitat and see how the children processed the discovery of the dead cricket. What followed was a fascinating child-dominated discussion of living things vs. dead things, and how we could differentiate between the two. This conversation carried into the next day as the children discovered living ants and a dead spider. However, interest in the cricket cage has come to an end, so we will pursue any further interest in bugs by finding them outdoors.
Along with these exciting developments, some of our older children have started participating in more structured play with roles, such as "Duck Duck Goose" and "Sharks and Minnows." Structured games truly challenge the children' self-regulation skills, their listening comprehension, and their willingness to participate in much larger groups. We are excited to nurture this new type of play!
This week one child brought in several shoe boxes, inspired by a conversation with her mother to turn them into fairy houses. Everyone loved the idea! We did not have enough for everyone to have one, but the children teamed themselves up so everyone could participate. We worked together to find natural and recycled materials to create with, along with some glue and markers, and the project took off! Many children asked to work on their fairy houses day after day, with impressive initiative. Some have been quite intentional while others are examples of the fluidity of young children's ideas from moment to moment. I am hoping take dictation from them next week about their designs.
The children also knew that Father’s Day was soon, and wanted to make their Dad’s a present. We put together the simple project that came home this week, and tucked a Mother’s Day present inside too. Hope you enjoy!
We have been enjoying summery weather with long outdoor times which include breaks in the play to sit down and eat, read or draw together. Outside, children have been given one large piece of paper, and have been choosing between using it to make a map, or folding it into a mini-book, to create a story with a beginning, middle and end. They are starting to demonstrate understanding that a story has a main idea, such as a character or place, that carries all the way through.
In the heat of summer and the variable Vermont climate, please remember that helpful items for your children to have on hand include a bathing suit, water bottle and rain gear. In return I will remember to sit with your children on sunny days twice daily, at arrival and after nap, to make sure they are sufficiently sunscreened.
So many interesting things have been happening in PreK–it's hard to choose! Several recent projects have included intentional drawing. While we normally offer completely open ended art materials, occasionally we provide a prompt or a specific set of materials. This might be, "Let's draw a pictures of something you like to do with Mom," or, "Let's paint a pictures of the sun." As we continue to learn more about maps–a slower, more deliberate unit of study that will continue through the next few weeks–we'll be doing more intentional drawing. We'll also be creating other types of representations. One we experimented with this week was using our construction straws to recreate our climber. We left this as open ended as possible and enjoyed watching the teamwork and problem solving that unfolded. We weren't quite able to complete the project but enjoyed the process. Later in the week as children created other representations with the construction straws, we revisited our work.
JDC: I'm making an airplane.
Jen: Is it going to be a real airplane or a representation of an airplane?
JDC: A representation.
Jen: Why not make a real airplane?
Group: We can't do that.
Reasoning included not having enough straws, the right parts, or enough room. We thought back to our climber construction and realized we could make a smaller representation! Scale is an important concept we'll work more with next week. Of course, our Friday Field Day trip was also a highlight of the week!
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