After prioritizing the ten focus areas identified from my initial school culture "temperature check", the next area I felt needed to be addressed was our school-wide approach to discipline. My faculty has complete autonomy to develop their own classroom management system. I have teachers that use the clip up/down system, the strike system, and some that use classroom dojo. I really don't care what they use, as long as we implement the following three principals:
Positive Over Punitive
First, I want to push the “positive over punitive” concept. When I started teaching in the early 2000s, I was bound and determined to handle my own classroom discipline. In those days, this often involved corporal punishment. Over time, I slowly realized that my students didn’t behave because they wanted to. They behaved out of fear! I definitely don’t say that to get into a debate over corporal punishment. I just know that I’ve had greater overall success disciplining students since shifting to the “positive over punitive” concept. For me, this simply means to implement a system in which students are so focused on positive, their negative infractions decrease. There are a number of systems that could be implemented for this, such as a token system or house system. The past two years, we have implemented a token system at our school, in which students earn points for being Above the Line (see previous post). I knew that whatever system we used had to be quick and easy. We chose to use the PBIS Rewards program. This is an online digital system that allows faculty/staff to quickly and easily award students for positive actions/behaviors. Every student wears a lanyard with an ID badge, that has a bar code printed on the front. Teachers can use their smartphones to scan a student's badge. Every time a badge is scanned, points are awarded to that student. Points can also be rewarded from a teachers desktop/laptop. The points are accumulated and stored in online bank accounts for every student. At the end of every grading period, students can spend their points in our school store. One important note…at our school, we do not take points away for negative behaviors. We still have consequences for negative student behaviors, however, our main focus is always on recognizing students for Above the Line actions/behaviors. I have found that when we focus on or emphasize the negative, we get more negative behaviors. When we focus on and encourage positive, we get more positive behaviors. As Jon Gordon says, "Feed the positive dog!"
Never Give Up
As educators, we have all had those students that really push us to our breaking point! You know, the ones that are always in trouble, and when you discipline them…they don't care! What I have learned over the years is that those kids don't care because they think nobody else cares either. These students get labeled year after year as trouble with a capital "T". This makes it easy for a teacher to develop a bad taste for that student before they ever interact with them. After a few times of these particular students getting in trouble, we're done. As educators, we cannot fall victim to this behavior. Those students need us! Instead of giving up, I encourage my faculty/staff to build relationships. Invest time into getting to know these tough students. It's not "rocket surgery"! Talk to them daily about things they are interested in. Do a student interest survey for your entire class. Use this feedback to start conversations. These small conversations build trust, and trust is the key to relationships (more on this later). Students, specifically the tough ones, don't care what you think until they truly think you care about them.
Disciplining Trauma
When I was a teacher, I had my set ways of dealing with discipline issues in my classroom. I was raised "old school", and had "old school" teachers as a K-12 student here in rural East TN. As a young middle school teacher, I naturally developed an "old school" discipline philosophy. Over the years, my philosophy changed. My experiences with students who experienced trauma attributed to that change. Let's face it, its 2020 and most homes aren't like the Huxtables, Tanners, or Seavers (families from 80s/90s TV sitcoms.)
Even though we have high divorce rates, most students leave semi-stable situations when they come to school each day. I'm not referring to these students in this scenario. I'm referring to the students that have experienced real trauma, such as: extreme poverty, serious neglect, drug abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, etc… I had to learn that those students do not respond to traditional discipline methods the way most of my students did. Why? Because, there is nothing you can do to these students as a teacher or principal that is worse than what they already live in, or have been through! I've had teachers engage in power struggles with these students because they were disobedient, defiant, or disrespectful when confronted over a discipline issue. The student and teacher end up in my office like Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield at the MGM Grand entering the ring for a heavyweight fight! This is why I tell my teachers, you cannot discipline trauma students the same. Think about it…do you think a student that has been verbally and physically abused cares that you are upset? They go home every day (or have at some point) to an environment in which the ones they love the most scream at them, curse them, and beat them. The last thing these students need is someone else in their life screaming at them and making disciplinary threats. I'm not saying these students cannot be held responsible for their actions. I'm simply stating that consequences cannot be our first priority when disciplining students that have experienced trauma. What these students need first is LOVE!
Upcoming: In the next blog post, I will get into the importance of building relationships! Until then...Wilds Out!