Cross posted at NASSP’s Middle View
I hope this post catches your attention. Discipline is not exciting, glossy fun or new. In fact, if I sent out survey asking you to rank your least favorite part of your job, I would be willing to say I can guess the top vote getter (I know, I know, I am from Florida so not voting jokes please). However, as an assistant principal, discipline consumes a good portion of my time. Here are a few tips on how I handle discipline. I doubt any of it is researched based or part of a “program”, but these techniques have helped me deal with the discipline issues we all face.
Time
How your school is set up will directly effect how you handle time and discipline. It you are at a school where you are the only administrator or at a school with 5 other administrators, the makeup will affect the time aspect. When I was working at the high school level, we implemented a plan that worked well. There were 5 assistant principals, including myself. Every day, there were two A.P.’s assigned to discipline. This meant you were stuck doing discipline all day for about 2 days a week. However, this left you with three complete days to be an instructional leader and handle your other duties. It worked well and I think we all liked the system. Of course, our office days were not our favorite, but we knew we would have time on the other days to get out and work with our teachers. That was the purpose of the system and it worked well. The only downside is that there was not any continuity for the kids. If they found themselves in trouble, they never knew who would be handling the situation. I hampered the ability to grow relationships. At the middle school I currently work at we are each responsible for our grade level.This is great as far as developing relationships and getting to know the kids. You are better able to sense things and intervene before it is too late. You are also able to set your expectations more clearly. If one of your students gets in trouble, they know they have to face you! On the down side I usually have to handle discipline issues daily. I though about setting up a schedule for minor discipline. However, I would rather deal with it ASAP. I think my teacher’s deserve it. The discipline that seems minor to us, is probably huge for that teacher.
Style I would assume most of us are on the same page with this one. I do not attempt to degrade or humiliate my students. If they misbehave, I want to handle it in a manner that will prevent future incidents. I try to follow the catch phrase “discipline with dignity”. If my own child was in school and misbehaved (of course, he never will misbehave!) I would want the same. I do not see any reason for degrading a child in the name of discipline. Of course, we need to be firm. I think I am when I deal with discipline issues. The students need to know their actions are unacceptable. You have to establish yourself as the authority figure.
Relationships
Read the rest of this entry »
Staff Development. These two words can strike fear in many a’ teacher’s heart! When I was teaching I vividly remember sitting through some staff development sessions wondering if this was the end as we knew it. There seemed to be no connect to my job and there was definitely not anything sustained. We all know the catch words, “sit and get, hit and run”, but many of the offerings were more like sit and wonder how this impacts your job!
This of course is not only for teachers. As an administrator I have sat through some strinkingly similar staff development sessions. Most, if not all, of these sessions educators attend are well meaning and have wonderful points. The sustaining factor is what hurts us most. I know this is nothing new and we have all heard this before. The high school I worked at in Florida always had a staff development theme for the year. We tried to connect as many of the offerings together. To me, it was sustained and continuous rather than a hit and miss approach. I only hope the teachers felt the same way! However, we all know this and this is not the point of my post.
This year we are focusing solely on curriculum mapping. It is a sustained effort that directly ties to the everyday job of our teachers. In our district, we have a series of late start days and the usual teacher works days. Our teachers also meet as grade level departments twice a week. All of this time (or as close to 100% as possible) is spent on curriculum mapping.
When a new or recycled “thing” comes out, it is easy to present it to the staff and forget it. Everyone hears about the glossy parts of the program and then moves on to the daily grind of education. Even at my last school, when I was in charge of staff development, the “sustained, themed” approach was still a bit scattered and at times disconnected. This year has been devoted to curriculum mapping. The teachers know this and know they will have ample time to complete this tough task.
I think this is working. Our teachers are hard at work and are engaged at our sessions. They already know what is expected and we give them TIME to actually work on it. It is no longer an administrator talking to a group of teachers. It is teachers working together on a sustained goal.
The podcast I participated in is now ready! Check out the Practical Principals for a real world talk on class room walk throughs. Scott Elias and Melinda Miller are the hosts and put on an informative, entertaining show. I would love to hear what you think of the show!
I am sitting here in my office waiting for open house to begin in 1.5 hours. One of the joys of working in education is the annual ritual of open house. We get to meet the parents and it’s not because of a behavior or grade issue. Just a chance to say hello and we look forward to a great year with your child.
I began to wonder if the traditional open house model is growing old and outdated. I think we do it pretty much exactly the same as my teachers did it when I was in elementary school. Parents come in, hear from the teacher, move to the next class, hear from the teacher and this continues through the night. Aren’t there better ways to reach our parents. We are doing so much with technology with our students, why not do it with our parents.
Should we be blogging live from open house? Creating a podcast so parents who miss open house can still hear from their child’s teachers? Record all teachers so we can stream video from our website? Use multi-media to enhance the overall flavor of the night?
This sounds so Web 2.0. We do it with our kids (or at least aim to) so why not with the adults. The other side of me completely disagrees with the high-tech half. I think the beauty of open house is the simplicity of the whole thing. Parents actually get to set foot in the school. They get to walk their child’s schedule and meet each teacher face to face. It is a low pressure situation for all-the kids, parents and teachers. Most parents are not expecting too much information. They just want to know the basics about the class. Of course, some parents try to turn it in to a parent conference, but usually this is limited.
While I was envisioning the high tech open house I thought I was on to something. On second thought, maybe I should just keep on open housing as we have for all of these years!
Open house image from THE ART INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA
Do Something Different
I am sure it’s not an original phrase, but it is the challenge I issued to my 7th grade teachers and students. It is simple, but I think it says a lot. I told the kids, if you have been a C student in the past, do something different to become a B student. If you have been failing, do something different and pass your classes.
During this past summer I spent a lot of time thinking about motivation. I am not a Bear Bryant type motivational speaker, although I really wish I was! I was looking for something to motivate those I lead. I decided on Do Something Different. I think if we all improved just a little, the collective gains would be enormous. I focused on two main “ingredients” of our new rallying cry.
Mediocrity
It is sensationally easy to settle for being mediocre. Just do enough to get by and everything is o.k. Kids do this. Adults do this. It sinks ships! I challenge everyone I come in contact with to not accept mediocrity. It starts with ourselves. It is not o.k. to just get by. We must work hard and make that extra effort to do what’s right for kids. Even if it is 5:45 on a Friday. I think we all understand this. 95% of school administrators I have met understand this. Read the rest of this entry »
I have been blogging for the middle view, a blog by the NASSP. We are just getting started over there and would love to have you stop by. Click here to check out Middle View
There is another blog in the edubogoshpere that is worthy of checking out. The Practical Principals are all about the things we did not learn in grad school! For a shameless plug, I will be taking part in the next podcast on classroom walk throughs. It should be up next week. Remember to tell them Ed Leaderweb sent you!
Put me in coach. Wait a Minute I am the Coach!
I was looking through an old legal pad yesterday and came across something interesting. We were interviewing for a new baseball coach at the high school I worked at in Florida. To give you a little history, I was one of the coaches at that school before I moved into administration. I am a life long baseball fan and know first hand what it can do for a student athlete. It is safe to say I had major buy in and connection to hiring the best coach possible.
What caught my attention were the questions I selected to ask the prospective coaches. They sounded just like questions we use/should use for teachers.
1. What will you do to build and develop your baseball program?
We should look for teachers who build and develop their program. This may be the physics program, reading program, etc…Our teachers need to feel ownership and build their programs as if it were their team.
2. What will you do to create student-athlete’s who are leaders in the school. What techniques will you use to mold and develop their behavior?
This goes without saying! We need to do this with every child. (I guess I did not follow the one question at a time method!)
3. How will you build a sense of community with all stakeholders of your program?
What do we do as educators to make our students feel part of something? We should be asking this in all interviews.
