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9 thoughts on “A Point About Classroom Discipline”
Look what James did:
1. He recognized the offense when it happened, in that instant, and stopped class in that instant.
2. He didn’t glare or make some ineffective threat (the kids are quite used to idle threats from ineffective teachers, thank you very much).
3. He acted. He moved the kid.
4. He did this all in a positive way with a smile on his face and then made sure to include the kid in the discussion afterwards, completely removing from the disciplined kids all hope to harbor a grudge and get the other kids on their side against the mean teacher.
We seem to have lost some comments on the Address Behaviors… post, so I am putting this here. I am thinking about what Robert wrote about distinguishing between classroom rules that are strictly enforced and the communication behaviors we are trying to develop. He put it really well, but I can’t find his comment. Anyway, I rewrote my rules (short and sweet) and interpersonal communication skills posters and separated the two. Both will feed into their grade as with jGR. Here’s what I did:
Interpersonal Communication Skills (thanks Eric Herman ๐
1. Try to understand.
2. Make eye contact.
3. Listen and watch when others are speaking.
4. Respond appropriately without blurting.
5. Use the signal if you donโt understand.
6. Respect and support otherโs learning.
Classroom Rules
1. Sit up and focus on speaker.
2. No side conversations.
3. Nothing on desks unless told otherwise.
I may have to revise. We’ll see. Kids start here on Monday.
Appreciate the shoutout, but none of that can be attributed to me ๐
This PLC has given me 10+ years teaching experience!
I know, Eric, it’s all a huge joint effort – branches off branches off branches… I just adapted some of your wording on the rubric you divided into Category 1 Being Attentive and Category 2 Responding.
What do you do if the student refuses to move his or her seat? I’ve encountered this a few times and never felt like I had a good strategy.
That is insubordination and deserves a call home and a discipline referral, in my opinion. I will send a kid like that to the hall to cool down, get the class started on whatever plan B is, and then step out and calmly tell them what my next steps are going to be and why. The important thing is not to argue with them in front of the class, because whatever happens, you will lose.
Sometimes I have luck with waiting pointedly until the kid moves seats before I continue. The peer pressure gets to them, and I avoid any further confrontation.
Our Code is clear: refusing a reasonable direct order from a teacher– e.g. “Please stop talking, move over here, and continue to keep quiet”– is grounds for referral. It sounds like some of us need to talk to Adminz about an effective, school-wide and shared set of consequences for clasroom idiocy.
If I ask a student to move and he/she resists, I say something like “You’re not in trouble…I’m moving you to keep you OUT of trouble” or “It’s your sparkling personality. I have to separate you from (other student involved in talking), because he/she cannot help it.” If the sincere negotiation/humorous yet firm appeal don’t work, I send the student immediately to the office.
Ok, my solution may seem a bit unorthodox…but I have a wide open field right outside my door where we can see Mexico about 3 miles away, so I stopped class in mid-story yesterday, told everyone to stand up and go outside and run to the fence and back! (Like the ‘dog-whisperer’ sorta). Told them to make sure to look at their live picture of Mexico, better than a picture on the docu-cam, and get some of that restless energy out!!!! After some initial grumbling most at least ambled their way to the fence and back. Some told me they didn’t know you could see Mexico from our campus! Unbelieveable!
I took the opportunity to talk to my constant chatterer/class clown and worked on getting him to come around to my way of thinking. Trying to get him on my side in helping to build rapport with all of the students…there are 2 students with autism , and the kids won’t know that yet they are amazed by the behavior they tend to exhibit, the kiddo with ODD, etc.
Without pointing out any one student I spent a couple of minutes trying to appeal to his sense of wanting to be the center of attention and getting him to see how he can be an integral part of making our class successful by being a different kind of leader. I truly believe he wants to be a successful student, he is a junior in a level one class, but hasn’t had much success in other classes.
Patience and like Laurie Clarcq says, a lot of love ๐
I also do a lot of Simon Says so they are up and out of their seats!
Whew! It is a process and can be exhausting, can’t it?
Louisa