8. One
suggestion for overcoming our natural inertia is to
shrink the change. If you want to start an
exercise
program, you might start by simply getting
yourself to the
gym and stretching or working out for 5 to 10
minutes.
Can you think of a way to shrink the change for
something
you want to switch in your own life or with one
of your
students?
For me, shrinking the change might start with working on the snacks I eat between the time I get home from school and eating supper. I could start my program by eating one portion of fruit as a snack to tide me over until supper, but no other snacks.
ReplyDeleteOne of the students I work with does no homework. What he finishes during class time is all that gets completed. He doesn’t hand in his incomplete work; he has many, many ‘0’s in the grade book. I’m going to have him select one class to start with. At the end of class, he will record the number of the problem he has finished in his agenda book, but also turn in his completed work to that point. When his elephant sees the change in his grade from just turning in this little bit of work, I want him to see the problem is one he can change.
One thing I do not enjoy is filing. I usually get a huge stack of papers accumulated each nine weeks or semester before I sort and file it. I could shrink the change by spending 5 minutes each week filing just to stay on top of it and not let it get out of control.
ReplyDeleteI've also heard of people do 5 minute cleaning in their houses. They spend 5 minutes in each room every day to clean it. At first you pick up things and put them in place, by the third day you're diving into drawers to organize them and doing more deep cleaning. I can say from experience that it does work. By the end of a week of doing 5 minute cleaning, your house is spotless
I like your 5 minute cleaning. I need to incorporate that!
DeleteTo get my basement organized I need to attack one area at a time. If I set a goal to clean one area each week, hopefully I could have it organized in a few weeks. I also like Jamie's idea of five minutes of cleaning daily. I just have to figure out a way to keep the other members of my family from undoing what I accomplish. They seem to be attracted to newly cleaned and organized areas.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend that is always saying this, just start with a small step for a week and then add something new. I think for most of us our behaviors are ingrained and habitual. The thought of completely stopping some behaviors and starting others is overwhelming and before long, we go back to status quo. Our students are the same way. They might get some successes with new behaviors but given stresses, they fall back. It makes perfect sense to shrink the change and start with small steps.
ReplyDeleteIn adding more exercise into my personal life I am trying to focus on walking for short amounts of time and shorter distances. ¼ mile walked 4X equals a mile and can be done in short moments of time throughout the day verses a mile (and about thirty minutes for me) at a time. I’ve got back out the exercise ball that I used to work with and purchased another one to bring to work (someday).
ReplyDeleteIt seems hard to “shrink the change” for our students but I have a student who is in eighth grade that we have been working with for two years. While it seems like we take one step forward and ten steps back I can see some “change” – attempting to do homework assignments where as last year this student would just stare at a closed book (and refuse to open it).
I need to use the 5 minute a day method to begin on my garage. I should adapt it and begin with going through one tub a week to save/donate/or trash. When that is successful, I can go to 2 tubs a week.
ReplyDeleteAlong with trying to lose weight and eating healthy, I am trying to stop drinking pop! This is hard for me! I started by trying to stop drinking it all together...cold turkey. This didn't work! I am now trying to cut back in small steps to eliminate pop. I started with cutting out my evening pop. It has been about a week and so far so good. I am sleeping better and no headaches. I am nervous to cut out my lunch pop, so I am going to try to drink half of what I normally drink during lunch. Wish me luck!!!
ReplyDeleteI use this method with my children at home. I am trying to teach them to work ahead on their homework when they are given assignments in advance. I ask them to do a page or two a night so they are not doing the entire assignment in one night. The same with tests, if they have several days before a test we study a little each night so we are not cramming for the test the night before. I try to teach my students at school the same thing but since I only see them during the day I do not have much control over what they do at home.
ReplyDeleteThis time of year brings alot of long "to do" lists, between cooking and buying presents for Christmas I do not see how people can wait until the last minute to get it all done. I start shopping in September buying a little each month. When it gets closer to the holidays I will start cooking making the things that can be frozen first. Doing a little at a time keeps the holiday stress away!!
I have a few closets at home that are a mess and I dread the thought of spending a perfectly good Saturday cleaning them. I think if I used the "5 minute" method and did a little everyday, I could accomplish my goal and still have my Saturdays. To shrink the change with my little guys that need to improve their social skills,I break down the changes I want to create and then change a behavior plan or write social stories to work on one small change at a time
ReplyDeleteOne thing I am trying in order to shrink the change is cutting my weekly chores like house cleaning into nightly chunks. I found a really cool deal on Pinterest that someone posted that I have printed and put on my fridge at home. It had it broken down into nightly chores so that come the weekend I can sit back and relax with family and enjoy and not feel so overwhelmed. Monday – clean the bathrooms, Tuesday – dust, Wednesday – vacuum, Thursday – mop floors, Friday – Free Day, Saturday – Catch-up, Sunday – Free. It also had a nice little suggestions for doing on Catch up Days that are weekly like week 1 clean oven, microwave, and fridge, week 2 wipe down walls, baseboards, and doors, week 3 clean inside windows and blinds, week 4 wipe down cabinets. Now I have not started the catch up day ideas but the weekly I have found helps tons!!!
ReplyDeleteAt school we are working on shrinking the change with all the areas of focus for our school: behavior, family engagement, MTSS. We created teams to focus on those specific areas. The teams then take the burden of the change and present information in chunks to help the staff process what is expected.
ReplyDeleteAt home, I am good with big changes like moving, but when it comes to things like changing the summer clothes out for fall/winter wardrobe, I had to take a personal day. Housework in general is really hard for me to tackle.
I ALWAYS drink a lot of soda...all day, everyday. I've always used the excuse that it is my only vice (I don't smoke, I don't drink a lot, etc). It has worked for me for a long time. This past week, I decided to shrink the change: drop down to one soda a day and drink water the rest of the day. I have done amazing this week. There was only one day where I broke down and had two. I am really proud of myself. I am feeling more hydrated and therefore not feeling as tired as I was feeling. I think that my rider and my elephant have connected on this one. I'm pretty excited. :)
ReplyDeleteI think that this a simple, yet difficult concept. It makes sense, but we are always looking towards our end goal, that a small change does not seem to have the potential to work as well as a big change.
ReplyDeleteI have some decision paralysis going on as to what to do in my "free" time. I am beginning to volunteer for more activities as well as take part in new ones at home. I have picked up knitting recently and I can not put it down! I find myself doing that "fun" things before the "required" things. I have more things to do than I make time for! Making them smaller changes can help me to make time for more things, such as reading, walking, knitting, baking, making friends, and my work.
I need to do better on keeping up imputing data on my students IEPs. I do believe if I take 5 minutes a day and do one students data collection could be easier then looking at all the students in one week.
ReplyDeleteOn a personal note I need to learn to take 5 minutes for myself. I think I feel like I have to be doing and doing for everything in my life that I forget to take time for myself. I enjoy reading, baking, and sewing. Since I started it seems that I give but forget that I need not only to take a few minutes for myself. I think teachers give but forget to take a few for themselves. We have families and try to balance work and personal life is what a lot of new teachers and experience teachers seem to struggle with. I hope in my years of teaching I will find a way to balance my life and learn to not feel guilty when taking time by myself.
Keeping up with my logs on the Ipad is one area that I think I could use this strategy. I need to set aside time at the end of each day - or better yet at the end of the morning and afternoon-- to do my logs on the Ipad. I keep track on paper but to file for Medicaid on the Ipad has been a real hassle for me this year. I would be open to any and all suggestions!
ReplyDelete(Mary Schreck) - Personally, I use the shrink to change method with my house cleaning. I set my kitchen timer for 15 minutes and "work like crazy" in one of the rooms of my choice, picking up, dusting, etc. I also use this method with my tasks at school by working for a set period of time each day on updates, lesson plans, etc. This seems to keep me going in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteI have a behavior student that is one of the toughest students I've ever had. We were pushing him to pass all his classes and to behave perfectly and to basically change everything he was doing at once. After MY breaking point (lol) I decided - forget grades - let's work on a relationship that will eventually allow me to ask him to do a simple task and he will do it, not because I am the teacher and he is the student and has to, but because we both have a simple respect for each other. We only talk about grades and homework once a week now. I decided to start letting him cook, because in our family when we are together and having fun and our guard is down - it's in the kitchen. Since we have started cooking and not focusing so much on grades, he has turned more work in than before, he has brought two of his grades up, and he has been more compliant - at least with me. So it's so much easier to just focus on one small thing to change and hope that that small change will have a small impact over the other areas you want to change.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I started when school started this year was with my cleaning schedule. I focus on one thing everyday and pick up toys everyday (I have a 1 year old and a 3 year old so toys are everywhere!). I absolutely hate cleaning house so by focusing on one thing everyday of the week the house stays fairly presentable and then when the weekend comes, I do a few extra things on Friday and Saturday when I have more time so I can spend more time with my family on Sunday. I have really noticed that by making this small change I am less stressed about how my house looks and I am able to spend more time with my kids and husband.
ReplyDelete