Raven's Guide to Special Education: Discipline

Discipline

Take care of yourself | Prevention | How to discipline | Methods

The purpose of discipline is to teach students to control themselves so that adults will no longer have to control them. For students to learn to be responsible at school and in their community, they must understand the purpose of rules and the consequences for not following them. Discipline should not be a punitive reaction to misbehavior, but rather a proactive, well thought out series of interventions that helps students become more responsible. The best way to reduce discipline problems at school is to establish a positive classroom program that prevents problems from developing. Progress may be slow because it takes time for students to adopt self-control instead of adult-imposed control. Your discipline program will be most effective when you give attention to your personal needs, maintain a healthy attitude toward your students, structure your classroom, develop a high-interest curriculum, take preventive actions, and consistently use effective discipline methods.

Take care of yourself

You can best take care of your students if you first take care of yourself. It is important for you to reduce the stress that comes with being a teacher, to set realistic goals for yourself, and to avoid becoming isolated from other staff members. Here are some suggestions:

Learn how to relax. This sounds simple, but it is not. It requires putting your worries aside, slowing down, allowing yourself to be unproductive at times, and finding activities that give you pleasure and are good for your mental and physical health.

Know your limits. Do not frustrate yourself if a problem is beyond your control or if you can not change it immediately. Accept the situation until you can change it.

Set priorities. You likely will feel overwhelmed if you try to take care of everything at once. Instead, make a list of the tasks you have to do, prioritize them, do them one at a time, and do the most important ones first.

Be good to yourself. Get enough rest, eat well and exercise. Schedule time for both work and recreation. Find something fun to do each day. Keep your sense of humor.

Chinese Proverb

Tension is who you think you should be.

Relaxation is who you are.

Share with others. Participate in social activities. Share your concerns and worries with friends and colleagues. Get involved in the world and people around you.

Accept your mistakes. People are inherently imperfect and always will make some mistakes. Admit your own mistakes and accept them. Do not judge yourself.

Keep your job in perspective. Do not base your sense of self-worth on how well you perform your job. Who you are is more important than what you do.

Taking care of yourself means understanding how you, as a person, deal with your students. Some of the following questions might help you better understand your own teaching style and personality:

What student behaviors do you find most annoying?
What levels of noise and confusion do you consider normal?
When does the level become intolerable?
Do you identify who really has the problem in a conflict?
When a student is angry toward you, do you feel hurt or threatened?
Do you need to be in control all of the time, or do you share control with your students?
Do you model the behavior you expect from your students? Are there any contradictions between what you say or expect and what you do?

How to prevent discipline problems

The teacher's attitude and expectations:

Respect individual differences. Encourage students to respect the worth and individuality of each member of the class.

Encourage communication. Maintain a classroom in which students feel free to express their opinions and feelings without fear of criticism.

Build relationships with your students. Get to know your students. Talk with them about their interests, concerns, and attitude toward school. Listen to them and spend time with them. Show them that you are interested in them as individuals as well as students.

Be fair and professional. Be supportive and impartial. Do not nag, criticize or lecture your students. Avoid a sharp voice or an adversarial stance with them. Try not to favor the pleasant, likable student or reject the one having problems. Give responsibility and recognition not only to students who already are responsible, but also to students who are having problems so they will have an incentive to cooperate and try harder.

Show respect. Do not embarrass students in front of other students. When you must reprimand them, do it privately whenever possible. Treat them the way you would like to be treated if you had made a mistake. Apologize to a student when you are wrong, even on a minor matter. Your goal is for your students to learn from their mistakes, so do not look at their mistakes as failures.

Find opportunities to catch students doing something right. Do not try to catch students doing something wrong. Instead, ignore misbehavior whenever possible, and look for positive student behaviors you can reward.

Set realistic expectations. It usually has taken years for students to develop behavior problems in school. It is unrealistic to expect them to become well adjusted in a short time. Look for small successes, accept setbacks, and try to gradually shape more appropriate behavior. Expect the students to improve, not be perfect.

Set a good example. Students learn social behavior by modeling what they see and hear significant adults do, rather than by doing what they are told to do. Model appropriate behavior in your classroom. If you are courteous, prompt, organized, and patient, you will promote these qualities in your students.

Be in charge. Handle your own discipline problems within your classroom so that your students learn that you are in charge. Do not, however, become a tyrant.

Develop a written discipline policy and include a summary of it in each student's IEP. This will ensure that the rights of your special education students are not violated.

Work closely with parents. Establish positive relationships with the students' parents. Encourage them to support the school. Do not call them only when their child misbehaves. Schedule regular phone calls to report positive behavior and academic successes, and send home regular progress reports.

Classroom management:

You can create a classroom that promotes learning and reduces discipline problems by carefully arranging the room, following a daily schedule, having clear expectations, and giving immediate and appropriate consequences for acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Arrange your classroom to minimize disruptions. When you are alone, sit in a student desk and take a good look at the room. Take the perspective of a student in the class. What you see may give you some ideas about how to improve the appearance and arrangement of the room. If your room is clean, orderly and attractive (but not too stimulating) your students will tend to be more settled. If it is cluttered and disorganized, it may promote distractibility and tension among the students.

Workable rules and routines are essential for teaching appropriate social behaviors and maximizing academic learning time. Keep a routine academic schedule and teach your students the schedule. Have four or five classroom rules stated in positive terms, and for each rule, discuss and define acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Post both the rules and consequences for breaking the rules. Periodically review the rules with your students to ensure that they understand what you expect of them. Praise them for behaving the way you want. When they misbehave, correct them in a constructive way, and teach them appropriate alternative behaviors.

Structure transition times. Students will act out the most when they are not busy working, such as before the bell or during a change in activities. Control the process of students entering and leaving class, sharpening pencils, going to get materials, etc. to ensure order and structure. For example:

Begin teaching immediately at the start of each day. Do not let students wander in and out until the bell rings; do not let them talk or walk around in the class during this transition time. Require them to be in their seats, quiet and ready to learn.
Do not allow students to leave class when the bell rings. Let them leave when you dismiss them and only when they show you that they are ready to go - materials put away, quietly seated, etc.

This Web site includes a Parent's Guide to Child Guidance and Discipline page.