Ask Polly: Refusal To Join Morning Circle

Date: December 25th, 2022

Polly answers the question: “One of my 4th graders refuses to come to morning circle. I give him plenty of encouragement, but he just stays quietly in his seat and will not join in. My next move is to make him do the circle activities during his recess. Do you think that would get him to come to morning circle?”

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Describe the 4 Most Common School Behaviors

Date: January 2nd, 2022

Pretty much every action done by our students can be defined by these four common behaviors.

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Cheating and Lying?

Date: January 24th, 2021

CHEATING and LYING? It’s tempting to go a little nuts when these behaviors happen, but this is what I do instead.

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Mask Power Struggles!

Date: January 10th, 2021

Right now, one of the most common questions that a client will ask me is, “How should we handle a student who REFUSES to wear a mask?” This is what I recommend.

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Is ‘Camera Off’ Refusal?

Date: November 14th, 2020

Here are some things to consider when it comes to kids having their cameras on or off during remote learning.

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Consistent Learning Shutdown?

Date: August 1st, 2020

I train teachers to do this process when dealing with kids who consistently shut down and refuse to do certain tasks. Trust me, it WORKS!

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Behavior: I’m Not Doing This!

Date: May 13th, 2020

Behaviors are sometimes symptoms and we have to figure out what the CAUSAL factor is.

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Disruption! Refusal!

Date: May 3rd, 2020

DISRUPTION and REFUSAL are the big behaviors! But we make things more complicated than we need to!

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Behavior: The Best Way to Handle Phones in Class

Date: October 13th, 2019

When a kid uses a cell phone in class, the behavior problem is NOT the phone.

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Ignore a Behavior? Part 1

Date: August 4th, 2018

If a kid’s under his desk, do you ignore him, or throw him out?

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