"Capturing Kids' Hearts"

"Capturing Kids' Hearts" is a Flip Flippen trademark to teach behavior management for use with children and teens. The methods have been proven effective in classrooms as well as child rearing in the home. Last weekend I attended a retreat with 7 of my co workers to learn about ways to implement the program in my classroom where I teach. Here are my thoughts about our awesome 3 days in Round Top, TX.
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“My Thoughts about Capturing Kids Hearts’
By Mary Lou Martin

First of all it was a much needed retreat for the eight of us that attended. From the moment we entered the 3 story, antique-filled house the stress of our everyday lives seemed to melt away. Upon our arrival we were welcomed by friendly handshakes and greetings from the two trainers we were soon to know well.

Our trainer was Brian, an all American athlete from Mississippi. Having taught history and coached track for 14 years, he had learned much about relating to his students. His relational teaching style made him a perfect candidate for the job of teen leadership. Teen leadership is a program for middle to high school teens. It molds the child into a person of integrity that will go out better prepared to meet challenges in the college and job world of their futures. However perfect Brian seemed, like all of us, he was not without his personal struggles which he openly shared with us.

We also learned that Brian is married, with 2 young daughters, Mary Margaret and Natalie. Mary Margaret is well on her way to becoming an accomplished gymnastics champion and her sister, Natalie born with a condition that required a stint to be implanted in her head, is an outgoing 5 year old and according to her daddy a real charmer.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with our experience at the Capturing Kids’ Hearts retreat? I would have to answer, “Everything.” The relationships we were all able to form with each other are at the core of what CKH is all about. Brian was open with his personal stories and made us feel the comfortable, safe environment we should all strive to establish in our own classrooms.

In order to do that, we make ourselves approachable from the moment we shake their hands or give them a hug. As much as first impressions impact the way we think of any person, the same holds true for our students toward us. I was impressed to learn that it takes only 30 seconds to make a first impression and 21 additional encounters to undo or change a bad first impression. That’s something to consider if we want these kids on our side.

A five step teaching model was presented and built around the word EXCEL. Engage, X-plore, Communicate, Empower and Launch. Those 5 steps are said to be used by master teachers. This is from our workbook. We are the master teachers when we are willing to set aside our personal agenda for a greater cause. We are master teachers when we serve and empower others. As master teachers our goal is to empower our students to succeed.

Implementing Capturing Kids’ Hearts in our classrooms and on our campus will take time because of the process and labor it will take to build relationships. For just as Brian warned us, if we drop it all on our students at once, they will not know what to do with it. When we returned we explained to our 3rd graders where we had been and why. Something that was easy to try the first day was to greet and do some handshaking at my door. Many of our students are huggers so we got a little of both with not much resistance.
The next tool I was able to practice this week were the 4 questions designed for dealing with misbehavior.
1. Excuse me? What are you doing?
2. What are you supposed to be doing?
3. Are you doing it?
4. What are you going to do about it?
Those are magic questions because almost each time I got the right answers and it redirected their behavior. The next thing I’ll try is writing a Social Contract. That should be interesting with our 3rd graders. But I am feeling confident it’ll have positive effects on our classes.

Capturing Kids’ Hearts can change a lot of negativism that may be present in our school. Not only will we see significant changes in our students, I believe the real changes will be seen in the way we the teachers relate not only to the students, but to each other.

What a wonderful conference and learning experience this was! It revived and reframed my attitude about teaching. It drew my colleagues and I closer together. I’ll never hear the word Honky-Tonk again without thinking about Robyn’s favorite song…at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. Or Suzy’s card game of Phase 10, which was a new one for me and I won! And how could I ever forget Sheryl’s wake-up call with a cowbell? As I said earlier, relationships are at the core of Capturing Kids’ Hearts. What better way to learn about growing relationships with our students than to first grow them in each other?