Thank you all for your ideas and support! Just to tell you a little
moreabout my situation. In my school district in Charlotte, NC, most
elementary schools no longer have library assistants. The classroom teachers
use library time (and music, art, gym and computer) as prep time, so they do
NOT want to give those times up. My particular principal does not want
students sent to her. She says it takes away from our authority. But as at
one person pointed out, it is hard to have the same kind of authority as a
classroom teacher when you only have a class once a week. Also, my assistant
principal does not like the idea of an all-class point system because she
says that one kid can spoil it for the whole class and that is wrong. Of
course, she has an all-school homework contest in which the class with a
100% homework return gets a party... By the way, word searches are strictly
outlawed! Oh well.
Thank you again and here is a summary of your ideas!
Summary of Discipline
- Take no prisoners. One warning and that is all. Then send them out.
- Have a Barry the Good Behavior Bear that comes in the kid's class room
every week to award that class for good behavior.
- Have special areas for especially good kids can go. Or let them line up
first to check out.
- Work with classroom teachers on discipline ideas.
- Have teacher sit in for a while to see what is happening.
- Have the student sent to ISS (In-School Suspension) for a few weeks
instead of coming to the library.
- I have some activities/centers for children to do when the
check out process is complete. This eliminates roaming and uproars.
Choices: create a bookmark, hidden word puzzles, find waldo pages, map
skills activities etc.
- As for stopping the class to send a student to the office. That is just
what I would do. You need to get that student out of the room immediately.
For this we have a form already made, all I need to do is fill it in and
send the student to the office. There is a place on the form for the
principal to communicate back to the teacher about the action taken, I find
this helpful because I will not see this class for a week.
- Another good way to show people there are real problems is to set up a
video camera. I have been working on my national boards and that requires
videotaping lessons. When the video camera is on I have much better
behavior. Showing student what they have done wrong is also good. If it is
possible to do this it may help the students and you.
- An immediate call to parent. Yes, it stopped the class but once kids knew
that I was going to be consistent in doing it, I had far fewer problems. At
least from those kids who had parents who could be reached during the day.
You can bet that the working mother who has gotten called at work will take
verbal action then and further action when she and the child are home.
- After calling parents, immediate referral to Principal. Have a few of the
mandated slips filled in minus Name, Date and Time. Let the Principal know
that you will provide exact details as soon as you are free. I was
fortunate enough to have the VP's office close enough to my library to be
able to talk during passing time.
- I have a "personal, brought from home" digital camera. I try to catch them
being good as they check out books or work at the tables or being helpful at
the OPAC. I then download the pic at night into the computer. I will print
out two copies of the pic. One I give to the teacher to give to the student
to go home in the Friday folder. The other one goes on a blank wall like a
poster. It is a wall of honor. Every kid wants to have their picture taken.I
also place it on the lap top and have it scroll in as my screen saver. This
is a big thrill for them too.
- So the first step in discipline is time out in the library.
Second is time out in another classroom
Third is loss of recess
Fourth is the student making the phone call home (I have a cell phone and it
works wonders even though the call costs me money)
Fifth is Principal
- For a really difficult child: Give the child a special job, like helping
me turn
the pages. Sometimes he would help pass out browsing sticks. We also
gave him a "special X" to sit on in library. His job was to stay on the
x. He did wonderful! All he needed was a little encouragement that he
was doing something right, and acknowledgement for his efforts.
- Harry Wong has a book called the first day of school (I think) that
discusses procedures (we walk calmly) vs. rules (keep hands to self).
I used to have a rule about talking/raising hands, but think i'm going to
change it to Pay attention. I'd rather do a reminder than a consequence
every time this happens.
It' s best to arrange the room and your procedures (go over it slowly a
million times) in order to prevent misbehavior in the first place.
- With really disruptive students I will park them in a chair for the
remainder of their visit. I also have a form for them to fill out
describing what they did. I will not sign it until it depicts what really
happened. The student is required to have a parent signature and a plan for
better behavior for the next day. I am fortunate that we have pretty good
parent backing at our school and I have not had to call parents about
discipline problems--just overdue books.
- when I have kids acting up in the
library I can just send them back to class (being in the Media Center seems
to be a reward). I also remind them about the security cameras overhead when
the class first visits (even though the pictures cycle every 5 seconds, it
seems to be a deterrent because the kids don't know that). I will
occasionally park someone in time-out away from the class. For really bad
offenses (like hitting another student) I pick up the phone and call the
office, or push the emergency button which gets a prompt intercom call from
the office.
- 3 yellow cards = 1 red
card (You may know that in soccer, you're thrown out of the game when you
get a red card.) Instead of speaking/correcting I'll just hand the offender
a yellow card w/his name on it. There's some "shock value" with just being
handed a card - and it gets other kids' attention. Of course, the cards go
back to the teacher (and assistant principal if necessary) for "further
attention."
- I approached classroom discipline, or rather management, from an
'academic' or classroom point of view. We talked about how this was a
classroom, just like their teacher's, the music, and PE rooms.
- Our school had basic rules (be safe, be kind,
be responsible) and I did short review of how that looks in library
(does running=be safe?, bookcare=be responsible, helping others find
books, bring books back on time=be kind).
And that is it!
Janet Gross
Pinewood Elementary School
Charlotte, NC
jgross2@carolina.rr.com
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