Blog Power

Today is Monday. It is a ped. day. It is the first day back to work after a week of vacation.

Today I set up my classroom in preparation for my IT classroom revolution. I have a computer ready and a projector. Tomorrow, I will attempt to have the students create a classroom blog.

I added a new blog to my Google Reader today, authored by ms_teacher.

Ms_teacher comments on her son's 13th birthday.

He is our last baby and the last that we will have the pleasure of enduring the teen years. I'm a bit melancholy about it. Where did the past 13 years go? It doesn't seem possible to me that my baby is now a teenager!

Her comment is trite, but it caught me off guard and made me feel sort of sad.

I have two children of my own. My son is almost 6 and my daughter is almost 3. I look at them now and think, wow, they've grown up so fast. Already. I know, in the blink of an eye, I'll be looking at my son, and he will be 13.

Yesterday, my son was misbehaving. How do I correct misbehaviour?

Undesired behaviour stems from at least two sources: the desire for attention (love), and from boredom. When children are bored, they act out, just to entertain themselves and to burn off nervous energy. As they say, busy hands are happy hands.

I think it is pretty well-known that bad behaviour often comes from wanting attention. In the case of my two children, they are obviously motivated by sibling-rivalry and jealousy for the attention of the parents.

Thus, the best way to stop childish misbehaviour is to pay attention to them, give them your time, and to engage them in an activity they enjoy.

I feel like I should spend more time with my kids, before the time slips away. I feel like if I spent more time with my kids, then that would solve most of their behaviour problems. But I don't know what to do. Many of our interests are not the same. We can go for walks, I can read them a book. But I don't enjoy board games, I don't like to play cars, or dress up dolls.

I am going to start a new blog to chronicle the activities I do with my kids. What's good for my students is good for my kids.

I think, and hope, that a classroom blog will excite and motivate my students.

I think that a family blog will excite and motivate me.

When they ask me at a job interview how to motivate students, I will answer: have a classroom blog. When they ask me how to deal with students who misbehave, I will answer: have a classroom blog.

Blogs. The power to motivate. The power to sublimate.