Recently I was working with a student (Jade) who was using a certain curse word over 40 times per day. The team had tried everything they could think of to try to help Jade to stop using this language. Instead of punishing, the team decided to teach Jade to use different words to express herself. Jade brainstormed the list of words on the post-it and her peers and teachers worked to coach her to use her list of words. One post-it was placed on her desk and the other in her pocket; when Jade would say that certain curse word, her peers would say, “Pick a different word.” There was no punishment involved; there was only teaching and coaching. Over the course of one month Jade eliminated the curse word and chose better alternatives.
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