You are going to have a class one year that will challenge you. Not through a learning challenge, but rather behavior. Kids will always act up and act out. It’s the nature of an environment where there is one adult and lots of kids. Whether it’s to see what you are going to do in a situation, an authentic mental health concern, or just a “bad” day, you are going to encounter tough behaviors. You might even deal with them over the entire year.
When faced with these challenging behaviors, what do you do?
Refer the kid to your building instructional team? Coach the parents to request an evaluation? Stand on your head to nip these behaviors in the bud? Give up?
In the book, Good Inside, Dr. Becky Kennedy argues for something different: curiosity.
Imagine seeing behaviors as something you are going to be curious about…
Not something you’ve seen before and handle the way you’ve handled other things, not something that you are trying to prevent or avoid, but rather something you want to learn about.
Wouldn’t that be a holistic change?
You can make an argument to apply curiosity to a lot of “problems,” whether in your own life or the lives of your loved ones, however, it especially benefits you as an educator.
