Cute Classroom Discipline???

Discipline

The word itself is strong enough to send chills down teachers', parents', and students' spines.  It sounds so scary, but it doesn't have to be if teachers approach it in a respectful way.

Huh?  Teachers giving the respect you say?

Yes!!!

I cringe every single time I see a new blog post or pin on Pinterest of some cute management board where kids either move clips, magnets, change color cards, etc.

Seriously people - stop and think about this for just a minute.

Picture yourself in a faculty meeting with all your peers.  You decide to talk to your neighbor or text your husband back, or something else that "breaks a rule."  Your principal calls you out in front of all your friends and then makes you come up and physically move your name/marker/whatever and each one of your peers watches you.  The rest of the meeting your eyes keep going to where your name is - in a spot of shame.

Sounds pretty harsh doesn't it?

My principal would never do that to me you say!  Bingo.  Why in the world would you do that to a child?

Oh, but if we put a pretty chevron pattern on it, that's okay right?

NO!!!!!

Think about what those visual discipline boards do to kids!  Please, please, please, just stop and think about it.

Is that what you want to do to your students?

Not me!  I will say that I did do it my first year teaching and it didn't work for me or the kids.  I had a basket where my students moved their folders down each time they got in trouble.  They each had three strikes (I had a baseball theme in my room that year).  When it was time at the end of the day for me to sign folders I couldn't remember why I asked the child to move his/her folder, and the kiddo for sure didn't remember.  Signing the folder in the middle of the day didn't help either.  I had deflated a child's attitude and the rest of the day was either heartbreaking or got worse.

Well, now I'm a little older (sigh) and wiser.  Thanks to a coworker that I took a graduate class with, I now use a sheet on my clipboard for my discipline.  This way it is only visible to me and I have a record of what exactly the child is doing and on what day...you know in case those folder sheets just happen to get lost on the way home.  ;)

The sheets also help me when report card time comes around. I know exactly how to mark a child's discipline grade.  If there is any concern from a parent I can simply pull out my sheets and show them exactly how I came up with the mark I gave.

I also put my Daily 5 and BUILD check list on the clipboard, so the clipboard itself is not just associated with getting in trouble.

Now I know that some people will say, "What about ownership of actions?  The child needs to know they are in trouble."

Trust me - they know.  Give your students a little more credit than that.

You still stick to the same consequences that go along with your normal discipline plan.  

Also, if a teacher respects a child enough to give them a little privacy in the matter of behavior, that child will feel worse about letting that teacher down because they will have a much better relationship with that teacher.

So please, at least consider not making a cute behavior management chart, changing color cards, etc.

You can alway save your cute chevron pattern for the clipboard.  :)


*If you would like to have a copy of the form I use please let me know and I'd be happy to email it to you!*