Success stories and practical know-how from 15 current special education teachers.
Presenting the future of special education through positive classroom discipline.
A book filled with the heart of a special education teacher who grows with children while opening their hearts!

Every student has the right to an education without discrimination.
However, infrastructure and resources for special education remain inadequate, and while social awareness of disabilities is improving, prejudice and discrimination persist.
Even in this reality, there are many special education teachers who are dedicated to special education.
Written by 15 current special education teachers, "Classroom Positive Discipline: Special Education Practice" is filled with touching examples filled with special warmth and sincerity.
We hope that this educational program, which offers a glimpse into the future and vision of special education, will become widely known.

This book contains stories of students who puzzle their teachers.
Teachers are candidly revealing the feelings of bewilderment and confusion they experience when meeting children.
But these stories go beyond mere anecdotes; they are practical examples grounded in a solid theoretical framework of classroom positive discipline, demonstrating the process of building a sense of belonging and self-esteem.
Children grow up in their own unique environments and personalities, and through positive discipline, they learn to respect each other's differences and work together.
Teachers also learn from their students the "courage to be imperfect," encourage themselves, and show them how to get back up again.
With the promise that teachers who can encourage themselves can encourage students, we systematically present what kind and firm education is from the perspective of 'positive classroom discipline.'
I hope this book will become a seed of hope and pride for the many teachers struggling in special education today, and I hope it will also be widely used as an educational guide for parents of precious and special children.

“All humans are born small and weak...
“The moment our students are labeled ‘special’...” When this phrase caught my eye, I thought of the ‘special’ children who had come to our classroom.
It was a special relationship that was not 'slow and more difficult', but rather one that required more effort, and so we grew together and were even more touched.

--- p.10

This book is a story about the classrooms of ordinary teachers.
Just because the word 'special' is attached to it, we see many things 'differently.'
So, special education teachers sometimes blame themselves, wondering if the child's disability and the resulting difficulties are due to their own shortcomings as teachers.
I've often felt tormented by thoughts like, "Wouldn't it have been better if it had been another teacher?" "Wouldn't the child have done better if it had been another teacher?" I've even felt like my child's difficulties were due to my own incompetence.
The philosophy of positive discipline, which creates schools and classrooms where everyone respects one another, is also connected to education for all.
So, the special education teachers in this book also began to practice 'positive discipline'.

--- p.15

Unfortunately, kind and firm discipline doesn't happen overnight.
If a teacher's attitude is usually biased towards either kindness or firmness, it is more natural for him to fail.
Here I'm going to show you the magic word that can be both kind and firm at the same time.

--- p.37

Being a teacher doesn't always mean you'll be successful.
You can't be good at something from the beginning.
Teachers are beings who grow and develop together with their students.
So, teachers, like students, are also in the process of learning.
This would be the same for parents as well as teachers.
However, many teachers are kind to their students but overly strict with themselves.
If you tell your students not to be discouraged by mistakes and to try again, you should tell yourself the same.

--- p.47

Among our emotions, when we get angry, when our anger explodes, many destructive actions come out.
In particular, Eunha would explode with anger if the numbers were even slightly off.
Until now, Eunha had been controlling her surroundings and getting what she wanted by venting her anger, so she was easily angered by even the smallest rejection or trivial things.
Together with the galaxy, we approached understanding emotions using the palmar brain theory.
The process of emotions occurring in the brain was easily explained by following the teacher and making hand shapes with visual aids.
By connecting the palm brain theory to the mirror theory, we were able to see that our emotions can be transmitted to others. We looked in an actual mirror and made facial expressions of happiness, sadness, fear, and anger, and practiced them with the teacher.

--- p.73

We are 'imperfect PDC teachers' who repeat trial and error and mistakes, but learn from them and constantly try to involve children in our problem-solving.
I experienced freedom and liberation by accepting my imperfect self.
So, I am willing to move forward today as well, to become a ‘PDC teacher’, which has led me to have the courage to be imperfect.
--- p.94

Coexistence means that two or more things or phenomena exist together, helping each other to exist together.
It contains the hope that all students exist together and help each other to live.
We also planned a class on “coexistence” by taking the first letters of the two characters, “empathy,” which means feeling or feeling the same way about the thoughts or feelings of others, and “respect,” which means that all people should be treated as valuable just by their existence.

--- p.246