My Reaction to Lee Canter's Assertive Discipline

As a would-be teacher, I would be dealing different students in a classroom with different behaviors, personalities, likes, and dislikes, abilities and different family backgrounds and orientations socially and economically. Therefore, I cannot deny the fact that anytime, I will encounter behavioral problems and crises.

Dealing with behavioral problems with my student will not be easy especially to an inexperienced teacher like me. However, thanks to Lee Canter for making the impossible into possible. Lee Canter is the developer of the Assertive Discipline or the Counter Behavioral management. Together with his wife, they developed this program because they saw and observed that teachers were often unable to get rid of unwanted behaviors in the classroom. They attributed this problem to a lack of training in behavior management and they believe that no student has a right to prevent teacher from teaching and another student from learning and it is the teacher’s responsibility to enforce them.

I am very fortunate enough because this will be of a great help to me if I will be in field. This gave me an idea that to have an order and conducive for learning classroom is to establish a limited number of rules and consequences for both positive and negative behavior, apply them consistently, and act assertively, as a leader. The rules must be specific and clear enough for the students to follow, yet general enough that they can apply to a variety of situations. They are to be based upon observable behaviors and applicable throughout the day or class period. Further, rules must be clearly and repeatedly articulated and posted in the classroom. I also learned that to confidently enforcing the rules, I should maintain a countenance so that the focus of the discipline is on the child’s behavior rather that the child.

As a teacher, I should calmly and unemotionally applies consequences to undesirable behavior being assertive without being hostile or angry. In addition, in order to motivate students to behave, I should always use positive support to encourage students to continue appropriate behavior increase a student’s self-esteem and reduce behavior problems. And lastly, I should be consistent with the rules so that I can create a very positive environment for the students.

Therefore, it is clear to me now that what most of the teachers doing in the classrooms now are not the right thing, it would be easy if they will impose assertive discipline especially to the kind of students that the teachers are now dealing with. That only shows that they lack training or knowledge in terms of behavior management. Maybe through this, I can make a change.

Victor Hugo

Man and Woman

Man is the most elevated of creatures, Woman the most sublime of ideals.

God made for man a throne; for woman an altar.

The throne exalts, the altar sanctifies.

Man is the brain, Woman, the heart.

The brain creates light, the heart, Love. Light engenders, Love resurrects.

Because of reason Man is strong, because of tears Woman is invincible.

Reason is convincing, tears moving.

Man is capable of all heroism, Woman of all martyrdom.

Heroism ennobles, martyrdom sublimates.

Man has supremacy, Woman, preference.

Supremacy is strength, preference is the right.

Man is a genius, Woman, an angel.

Genius is immeasurable, the angel undefinable.

The aspiration of man is supreme glory,

The aspiration of woman is extreme virtue.

Glory creates all that is great; virtue, all that is divine.

Man is a code, Woman a gospel.

A code corrects, the gospel perfects.

Man thinks, Woman dreams.

To think is to have a worm in the brain,

to dream is to have a halo on the brow.

Man is an ocean, Woman a lake.

The ocean has the adorning pearl, the lake, dazzling poetry.

Man is the flying eagle, Woman, the singing nightingale.

To fly is to conquer space. To sing is to conquer the Soul.

Man is a temple, Woman a shrine.

Before the temple we discover ourselves, before the shrine we kneel.

In short, man is found where earth finishes, woman where heaven begins.

 1) What is your insight about English 11 subject in terms of subject content, lesson sequence, degree of difficulty/ease?

 In my two (2) months of taking this subject, I found it very much exciting because each meeting, we tackled and discussed many and different things. In terms of the content, it’s very interesting for we tackled mostly on developing our speaking skills. For the sequence of the lesson, we won’t be lost for we have already a kind of routine in discussion. In the degree of difficulty/ease, it is quite fine for everything’s falls in place. Though it takes us a little bit longer to work and finished all the requirements but we never failed to pass and submit it, we are coping with it; especially that Ma’am Marian is using technology, like blogging to be specific.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            2) What can you say about your learning environment in terms of classroom appearance and functionality, location, noise level, light/ventilation?
I can’t say anything about our learning environment classroom. Why? Because we are staying in a somewhat like a privilege classroom, the speech laboratory. It has aircon which keep the classroom cool, keep us cool as well.  It is easy to locate for it’s just a step away from the library where we spent most of our vacant time. It is close room, free from disturbance and noise outside that can possibly hinder our concentration. Lastly, it is well lighted and absolutely a very relaxing place.

3) What can you say about your classmates in terms of attitude towards others, subject, group work?


I am fortunate enough to have them, my classmates. Their dynamism and enthusiasm towards others, the subject and group works are contagious. It’s no longer hard for me to deal with them for we became closer with each other now. To be with them for about two (2) years now, all I say is they are very optimistic in all things. They become more responsible enough in their studies now and they’re really trying hard in their studies.

4) What can you say about your teacher in terms of teaching style, lesson delivery, and rapport/attitude towards each students, communication skills, personality and manner of dressing, classroom management?

Hearing the name of our teacher, that is MS. MARIAN B. ALABA, there is only one I could say, “She’s excellent!” Since the first time I saw her that was in my first year of College, I told myself: “Wow! She’s great”. She has unique teaching styles, and is very good in her lesson   delivery that able us, her students to understand the lesson very well. She possesses a numerous skills that a normal person can impossibly have. In terms of the rapport and attitude towards us, no doubt, she’s really good at it. She treats her students as her own children. It is in her class that I always look forward to attend for I know that a time spend with her is a great opportunities of learning.  It is in her class that we are all at ease and well-motivated. She is also excellent in terms of communication skills; in fact, she is our teacher now in this subject, the teaching of speaking. Her manner of dressing and appearance is well-suited in a school setting, as a teacher. By just looking at her, you can already pay respect. She is also excellent in c classroom management; she has a lot of techniques. She is excellent in all things, an extraordinary creation of God.

5) What can you say about yourself in terms of attitude towards content of subject, level of understanding of the lessons, level of improvement in skills? 



I am responding well and is well-motivated in term of the subject content. As of now, we discuss no topics that are too difficult to understand, therefore, I can say that the level of understanding is a little bit higher. Though, to be like Ms. Marian Alaba will take time but I am trying now for she is worth to be imitated. I can say also that I am improving in terms of speaking for I learned a lot from her. I got a lot of ideas and techniques also in the classroom management.

My Composed Rap :

For some say  prayer is essential

For some say prayer is confidential

Most people say pray daily

Ohhh...  pray .

Pray not only when your feeling blue

but also when you feel glow.

For prayer is our constant communication to Him

  the Father.

Though God is always near to us,

 if you didn't pray,

you can't manage to feel His presence.

 Ohh , yeah .
pray.. pray ..

 This drawing represents my understanding and interpretation on Kahlil Gibran's poem, On Children.

I drew a gold for they represents the children whose prize and value were uncountable,immeasurable.

The hand in the right side is the hand of God Almighty, who placed the gold in the care of parents.

It is the responsibility of the parents now to take good care of the golds for they were not their property and anytime God will get them back from them.

The hand with a purse is a hand that get the children away from the parents. It maybe the will of the children or their fate.

Kahlil Gibrans' Poem that Srikes Me Most:

On Prayer
 Kahlil Gibran

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.


For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?
And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.
And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer, she should spur you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing.
When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.
Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.
For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive:
And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:
Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard.
It is enough that you enter the temple invisible.


I cannot teach you how to pray in words. God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips.
And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains.
But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,
And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence,
"Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.


It is thy desire in us that desireth.
It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.
We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:
Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all."

An Essay based on Kahlil Gibrans Poem About Children:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

I found this line very much striking for it is indeed true that our children are not ours. They are just like jewels which value is incalculable entrusted to us by God that at any time He will get it back. Therefore, we should not think that we own the our children that sometimes we come to a point that we control their lives, we dictate them what course to be take, friends and peoples to be with, and etc. In addition, no one can lose something he/she has not possessed,and so, we should be ready for anytime our children will be gone from our sight. Also, we can't control the lives of our children for they have their own lives, own legend to fulfill, we are just merely an instrument and little god in fulfilling such legend of theirs. Keeping those children would be tantamount to stealing them, therefore, we should set them free but must not forget to give them penetration, the values and skills along with them,so that they too, will be ready to face the battle of their lives.
God entrusted them to our care, and there will a time that he will come to fetch them back. Its just a matter of readiness and acceptance.