Well, the first day of school finally arrives! Your room is all decorated, you put on your finest threads and you are ready! NO YOU AREN'T!
If you don't have discipline in your classroom, then you will not be able to teach one thing. The children have to be ready to learn.
Many new teachers think they have to be friends with the students. Many kids need a good friend. A friend is not someone that gives in when a child wants you to. A friend is someone the child can trust. He trusts you enough to tell you if someone is bothering him and knows you will do something about it. She trusts you well enough so that she knows you will be there for her when she is upset about a family problem.
You have to have an atmosphere in the classroom in which the children do the right thing, and feel safe. The children that have some disciplinary problems know that every time they "mess up" there will be consequences.
Around the thirteenth year of teaching, I was given a class that was the most difficult you can imagine. There were two groups. One group (most of the class) was made up of the nicest bunch of kids I have ever met. The rest were really out of hand. Whatever I did, it didn't seem good enough for them. One time I found myself yelling at the top of my lungs at a child who did some minor infraction, but usually was a real nice kid. I'd go home every night with a horror story, and a headache. That year was turning into a nightmare!
My school system invited Dr. William Glasser to speak to our faculty about a method of discipline. It changed my year and my whole style of teaching.
He talked about how you can make the children be responsible for their own actions. This is the basis for my model of discipline. I call it "Glasser with a Twist" because I do follow Dr. Glasser's model but I use the rest of my twenty years experience. I'm sure you will find your own twist to put on this one.
Make the child responsible for his own actions.
Dr. Glasser has ten steps that you should follow in order to make the child a cooperating member of the classroom. What follows is my system that uses part of Glasser's model:
Note: In this section I'm going to use "the child" or the male personal pronoun, "he" or "him". I'm not being sexist nor do I believe more boys are worse discipline problems than girls. It just makes it easier to write, and to get my point across.
Check yourself out.
If a child is having trouble adjusting to the school environment then there definitely is something happening to or within him that is causing problems. What if it is something you are doing that is the cause?
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There was a child in my classroom that never seemed to pay attention. Every time I looked at him he was doodling in his notebook, looking out in space or doing something other than giving me his undivided attention.
This was driving me crazy! I started thinking about the problem, and I asked myself if it was really necessary he keep his eyes on me at all times. I figured if he followed what I was saying and understood the concepts, it wasn't necessary to worry.
Every once in a while I'd call on him to see if he was keeping up, and as it turned out, he was. He also did fine on the tests.
This first step is very important. It was my behavior I had to change so the friction was alleviated.
Another reason this step is important is you may "spin your wheels". If something isn't working, don't do more of it. You'll get deeper into the quagmire! It is time to try something different.
When a negative behavior occurs, simply ask, "What are you doing?"
Let's suppose a child in your class is tapping his pencil on the desk, and it is getting annoying. You say, " What are you doing?" Maybe he doesn't realize he is doing it. He'll stop, and the problem is over. This is better than yelling at him when he didn't do the behavior purposely.
Don't use any emotions as you proceed through these steps. Just tell him to stop it. (Usually you won't even have to do that. He'll just stop.)
What if he continues to be annoying and you now know he is doing it purposely to bother you or one of his classmates? In that case you have to move on to the next step.
Let the child know about the consequences of his actions.
If he continues, say, "What you are doing is annoying, and if you keep doing it, I'll separate you from the rest of the class." You say this, again, with no emotions, and with conviction. You better also realize if you say you are going to do something, you have to do it! Never give idle threats.
Now I have to diverge for one small but important anecdote. In my early years as a teacher I had the children in my class all together in my room waiting to do their part of a Christmas play. They were getting out of hand, and I said that the next child that gave me a problem, would miss the show. About 3 minutes later I saw a girl stamp really hard on a boy's foot.
This is what happened. The boy, a child that had many previous problems teasing, and fooling around, was teasing her. This girl that always had an A in conduct, retaliated. I was going to go through with my threat anyway, they knew it and the girl started to cry. It wasn't just a little whimper. She was sobbing uncontrollably. Of course I had to take it all back. No one was punished by me but the night was ruined. I have recently talked to her about that dreadful night, and even though she has graduated from college, she never has forgotten it, and neither will I.
The moral of this story is to think. Think about what you are going to do before you do it. Be sure that the punishment you choose fits the crime. Don't threaten with something when you can't follow through.
If I had used the Glasser method, that disaster never would have happened.
If the child can't behave in class, send him to time out
If the boy continued tapping his pencil and annoying the class, then you separate him. You say," I told you to stop, and you didn't, so go to time out."
You have to find a place in the class that is separated from the rest. I use a part of the room where there are no chairs. When they go to time out, they sit on the rug. They can't annoy anyone if they aren't near them. You can also use an empty seat or desk that is away from the rest of the class.
I prefer the rug because time out shouldn't really be a punishment. It should just be a place that is separated. I also use the rug when I read to the class, or play guitar for a sing-a-long.
It is also a place where the children go when they play games, proofread English papers, etc.
The rug isn't always equated with a bad place. One thing Dr. Glasser said at our inservice meeting was that school should be a good place to be. You have to make school a place that is nice. You have to create an atmosphere that makes the search for knowledge better when a child is working at his seat, than being separated and doing nothing on the rug.
Keep the child in time out only as long it is useful. When the child is ready to return to his seat you will know it. Ask the child if he is ready to return to his seat. If he responds with the affirmative then ask him what he did to go to time out. If he tells you something like, "I was bothering people," then let him return. It seems like he understood what transpired. But if he doesn't seem to know, or acts as if he doesn't know, and you are sure that he should, let him sit a little longer, and it may come to him.
He may be in denial so then tell him exactly what he did and have him fill out a time out sheet.
The time-out sheet is similar to what Dr. Glasser used as a contract. It's a document that you would have between yourself and the child. You would say what the behavior is that the child will try to modify and the positive and negative consequences that would follow if the child modifies his actions, or if the negative behavior reappears.
Dr. Glasser worked with young adults. I think a contract might work better with that age group. I found that using the contract was too cumbersome. The time out notice worked better for me.
The children seem to hate it! I hand the paper to the child while he is in time out and say, "I'm not sure you understand why you are here, so fill out this paper and when you have it done correctly, show it to me, and if I agree, then you may go back to your seat." Sometimes they bring it back with something like, "Because you told me to." as the answer to the question, "Why were you sent to time out?"
I would ask him why I sent him, and not the rest of the class, and then send him back to time out. If he doesn't respond, I tell him why I sent him to time out and then ask if he understands. Then send him back to write it into the time out sheet. He'll usually have it correct, but if not, I usually say, "I guess we will have to talk about it after school, because I can't take up too much of the class time with this silly stuff."
That's where I'll get it straightened out. The child will usually want to get back with the rest of the class rather than stay after school. If I'm still having trouble, I'll call the parents. I'd discuss it over the phone or have them in for a conference.
Get the parents involved.
This may be the most important step. You have got to get in touch with the parents if you are at this stage. Many teachers are very timid when it comes to the parents. Don't feel that way. Virtually all of the parents I have ever contacted because of behavior problems have been very cooperative. Some have helped me by "backing me up" and others really had no idea what to do.
There is one last thing I will say about this until the chapter about parent conferences. If you were the parent of a child that was having problems, you would want to be, at the very least, informed about it. Otherwise you would be very angry. You will never get any help from an outraged parent!
Wow, You have read this far! I'm glad you did, but I have to end it here. You see I can't cut and paste the next page of my book. (I don't know how.) It's a chart and the computer won't do it. It's a chart that is a contract between the child and you so that he/she writes down the problem. I keep them to show the parents if they come in if there is a problem with our communication. I never had to use the "Time Out Sheet" yet.
You have to feel your own way. This is just one of the ways I do the discipline. It will not work with everyone. I have had one girl just sit on the rug and cry. That was the last time I used that method with her. I used different methods with her. School would never be "a good place to be" that way!
Any questions? Email me.
