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Angela Ouellette ESDE 5002

Extra Credit: Love and Logic: Solutions for Kids with Special Needs Main Ideas
The book starts of telling the tale of a novice teacher not knowing what to do with his students. As the book progresses, you can see how he has added in the love and logic idea to his classroom to benefit his students. He begins the book by explaining what love and logic, and how to implement it into the classroom. When using love and logic in the classroom, there are four key principles that must be hit on for it to be successful; self-concept, shared control, empathy with consequence, and shared thinking. From what I have learned about love and logic, it is important for the empathy to be real, otherwise students will feel as if they are mocked with sarcasm. Funk ends the book by discussing different B.I.P.s and how love and logic can change the way teachers and students view them.

Information Source
The information presented throughout this book is told from the perspective of a veteran teacher. He begins the book speaking of his first years as a regular teacher. He goes on talk about how he became a specific learning disability teacher, and how he eventually became a qualified special education teacher after working on his masters in special education for eight years.

My Views

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I was lucky enough to attend a love and logic seminar with other teachers from my school. I learn a lot of good tips and tricks to use in my classroom, and the students responded well to it. How does the love and logic approach relate to constructivism and emotional intelligence? Constructivism is how we create meaning from the world around us. Love and logic transforms the way students think about their actions and behaviors. It allows the teacher to show the student that we do care, but was are in charge and their actions are the reason for their consequences. Because love and logic plays on student emotion, it effects emotional intelligence. Love and logic allows the teacher to reach out to their students and show them that we understand and have empathy for them and their decisions. Did the information change any of your ideas about teaching special needs kids? After reading the book, I still feel the same way about my special needs students, but I feel that I have more insight in way to help them learn. Because I had previously attended a love and logic seminar, I was already on the bandwagon. After the seminar, I did some independent research and tried to use some of the techniques in my class. I used them with my sped kids too. My principal also invested in some love and logic books for our campus as well. However, many of the teachers at my school are in the grove of teaching and do not want to learn new ways to interact with the kids. I have been using the same techniques on my sped kids that I did on my gen. ed. kids, I know now that these approaches are correct, they just need to be altered a little.

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Is the information practical and useful? Give two examples of ideas you might use in the classroom. I think the information is very useful and practical for use in my classroom. I had a student last year that I used these techniques on. He was E.D. and would do whatever he could to get pulled from the classroom. I talked to him over the course of the year and got to know him. We shared stories and used L & L to let him know that I understood. I learned why he was upset and the things that set him off, and he learned way to cope with them. As a team, we ended the year successfully and I feel that he is prepared for high school now. I think one of the most important things a teacher can teacher their students is trust. Students that usually misbehave see situations as you vs. me. They do not see the teacher as someone who is on their side. I try to break this idea the first week of school. I show my kids that trust is a valuable thing, and they must learn to trust and respect me, and I shall do the same. If the students trust you, they may come closer to talking to you about issues that make them act out instead of actually acting out.

Would you recommend this book to another teacher or parent? I already have. When school starts back, I plan to add this book to our school library and email teachers to let them know that it is there. I think books such as this can be a valuable resource for ALL teachers to have. I also really like the rules presented on page 30. I plan on using them in my classroom and presenting them to other teacher in our faculty meeting.

Book Reference

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Title: Love and Logic: Solutions for Kids with Special Needs Year Published 2002 Arthur: David Funk Publisher: Love and Logic Institute Inc.