The Cooper School Daily
January 26, 2024
No…No…No…
“Ms Lindsay can I….?” My response, “No, no, no.”
“Should I say this ridiculous thing out loud? Again, my response, “No, no, no.”
Run in the halls? Response, “No, no, no.”
To be frank, I have been trained to refrain from no! Positive discipline encourages explaining what you want the child or adolescent to do instead of just flat out saying, “NO!” For example, “Put your feet on the ground, “ instead of saying “NO! Stop climbing the fence!” As much as I do practice this positive vernacular to guide behavior that is expected, I am finding a new respect for just a plain, direct, and affirmative NO!
Starting out as a friendly inside joke in one of my classes, before I knew it, the phrase “no, no, no” was not just implemented by me, but the kids too. It was heard in a British accent, slow, fast, silly, and even very sternly. If someone was being loud, unkind, disruptive, I could just look at them and they knew what three word phrase was about to come. It became the hip phrase of the week somehow and honestly, behavior was noticeably better.
Why? According to Psychology Today, there is a lot of power in the word “no,” which is easily misunderstood and sometimes difficult to engage because it is confused with negativity. Where negativity is an attitude, “no” is an affirmation of a very clear choice. It is a clear boundary between the person stating it and the influence of others, which is why it can be challenging to say, specifically in social situations. However, when the kids clearly heard “no,” they knew what they were doing was not ok. They may not have known what to do to replace the behavior, but they at least knew to stop what they were doing.
I played with “No, no, no,” in my out of school life too last week. “Linds, do you want to …?” If it wasn’t a heck ya, my response was “no, no, no.” I noticed that giving myself permission to use the phrase did indeed affirm a clear boundary, which seemed to be received respectfully because I was blatantly honest and concise, maybe because I said it in a British accent. LOL
Why do we say it three times? Ask Amy Winehouse 😀
-LD
Here’s a look at what is happening in each of the classes:
What’s happening in Science?
Sixth graders worked diligently on their biomimicry project this week. They devised their rough draft and materials list. They created their plans using Tinkercad, a digital engineering planning site specifically for adolescents. The sixth graders also started researching about their biomimicry muse. Some groups are looking to hornet’s nests, others flamingos, and even termite mounds. I am so excited to see what they develop and come up with over the next few weeks.
What’s up in ELA?
6th graders transitioned back to vocabulary this week and carried their research skills with them into our information writing unit. If the last unit was all about becoming a “teacher” with non-fiction resources, this unit is all about becoming a “reporter” who writes about true stories with detail. We considered the stories of real life teen activists, gathering robust notes on them to write informed profiles that could be featured in a trustworthy publication.
Next week, 6th graders will expand their investigative reporting to follow “trails of research” on their activists. These research trails will help them write a longer form essay on their issue with main idea chapters throughout.
What’s going on in Math?
This week, 6th graders explored how graphs of proportional relationships are different from other graphs, graphed two lines on one plane to compare them, created tables, graphs, and equations for a situation, and then explored the relationship in the circumference and diameter of a circle. Next week, we’ll explore how to use pi to solve problems and find the area of irregular shapes that include circular parts!
What’s happening in Social Studies?
Sixth graders worked in pairs to create parody songs on the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine empires! This led to their midterm studies, which ask them to reflect upon their studies from the beginning of the year.
Next week, the students will take their midterms before diving into Feudalism and Medieval Europe!
Important Dates:
Saturday, January 27 5:30pm-9:00pm – Family Fun Outing – Carolina Stingrays Game
February 14th- Valentine’s Day Book Fair, Bake Sale and Bingo!
February 19th & 20th- February Break
“Should I say this ridiculous thing out loud? Again, my response, “No, no, no.”
Run in the halls? Response, “No, no, no.”
To be frank, I have been trained to refrain from no! Positive discipline encourages explaining what you want the child or adolescent to do instead of just flat out saying, “NO!” For example, “Put your feet on the ground, “ instead of saying “NO! Stop climbing the fence!” As much as I do practice this positive vernacular to guide behavior that is expected, I am finding a new respect for just a plain, direct, and affirmative NO!
Starting out as a friendly inside joke in one of my classes, before I knew it, the phrase “no, no, no” was not just implemented by me, but the kids too. It was heard in a British accent, slow, fast, silly, and even very sternly. If someone was being loud, unkind, disruptive, I could just look at them and they knew what three word phrase was about to come. It became the hip phrase of the week somehow and honestly, behavior was noticeably better.
Why? According to Psychology Today, there is a lot of power in the word “no,” which is easily misunderstood and sometimes difficult to engage because it is confused with negativity. Where negativity is an attitude, “no” is an affirmation of a very clear choice. It is a clear boundary between the person stating it and the influence of others, which is why it can be challenging to say, specifically in social situations. However, when the kids clearly heard “no,” they knew what they were doing was not ok. They may not have known what to do to replace the behavior, but they at least knew to stop what they were doing.
I played with “No, no, no,” in my out of school life too last week. “Linds, do you want to …?” If it wasn’t a heck ya, my response was “no, no, no.” I noticed that giving myself permission to use the phrase did indeed affirm a clear boundary, which seemed to be received respectfully because I was blatantly honest and concise, maybe because I said it in a British accent. LOL
Why do we say it three times? Ask Amy Winehouse 😀
-LD
Here’s a look at what is happening in each of the classes:
What’s happening in Science?
Sixth graders worked diligently on their biomimicry project this week. They devised their rough draft and materials list. They created their plans using Tinkercad, a digital engineering planning site specifically for adolescents. The sixth graders also started researching about their biomimicry muse. Some groups are looking to hornet’s nests, others flamingos, and even termite mounds. I am so excited to see what they develop and come up with over the next few weeks.
What’s up in ELA?
6th graders transitioned back to vocabulary this week and carried their research skills with them into our information writing unit. If the last unit was all about becoming a “teacher” with non-fiction resources, this unit is all about becoming a “reporter” who writes about true stories with detail. We considered the stories of real life teen activists, gathering robust notes on them to write informed profiles that could be featured in a trustworthy publication.
Next week, 6th graders will expand their investigative reporting to follow “trails of research” on their activists. These research trails will help them write a longer form essay on their issue with main idea chapters throughout.
What’s going on in Math?
This week, 6th graders explored how graphs of proportional relationships are different from other graphs, graphed two lines on one plane to compare them, created tables, graphs, and equations for a situation, and then explored the relationship in the circumference and diameter of a circle. Next week, we’ll explore how to use pi to solve problems and find the area of irregular shapes that include circular parts!
What’s happening in Social Studies?
Sixth graders worked in pairs to create parody songs on the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine empires! This led to their midterm studies, which ask them to reflect upon their studies from the beginning of the year.
Next week, the students will take their midterms before diving into Feudalism and Medieval Europe!
Important Dates:
Saturday, January 27 5:30pm-9:00pm – Family Fun Outing – Carolina Stingrays Game
February 14th- Valentine’s Day Book Fair, Bake Sale and Bingo!
February 19th & 20th- February Break