The Teacher Look

If you're a teacher (or mom!) you know what look I'm talking about. The look that says, "Don't you dare or you'll have to deal with the consequences". We use it to encourage kids to make good choices and often it works. Of course, we all know of plenty of times it didn't work.

I walked into a situation in summer school where a little one was not making good choices. In fact, she was making some pretty rotten choices (read: pulling the hair of an adult, hitting an adult, and cursing). When I got wind of it, I walked down to check it out, as I'm the director and that's my job. Plus, I really enjoy naughty kids (I'll explain that later..). When I walked through the door I simply gave the child "the look". The screaming stopped, she ran to her desk, and quickly apologized to the teacher.

I've never had that reaction before, but I'll take it! I'm sure it has something to do with the teacher explaining, in a previous classroom visit, that I'm the principal and I make the rules in the school. Of course, I'm not the principal, but it's easier to explain to little ones with cognitive impairments.

To explain my statement of enjoying naughty kids, I'll make it simple. I love a challenge. Kids with challenging behaviors have reasons for their behaviors and I love problem-solving. I love looking for an antecedent to a behavior (what happened before the behavior occurred) and examining ways to change the behavior. I love trying to find ways to replace a negative behavior with a positive one. I enjoy reflecting on my reaction to the behavior and how I can improve my reactions to improve the behavior. Plus, I can ignore with the best of them.