WORKSHOP BY RONALD MORRISH

1.  Guide staff to see discipline as positive and productive, not negative and punitive.

2.  Help staff realize that discipline is 90% prevention and only 10% reaction.  “Discipline isn’t what you do when children misbehave; it’s what you do so they won=t.” 

3.  Staff need to recognize that discipline is not the same as “classroom management”.  Implementing school discipline actually allows the staff to manage specific school-based behaviors associated with being “students”, rather than managing the behaviors which the world creates in “kids”.

4.  Classroom management is a personal set of techniques. School discipline requires teamwork. Teachers need to see themselves as school teachers, not just classroom teachers. All staff members must make a commitment to teamwork, particularly regarding the enforcement of school rules and expectations.

5.  Have teachers establish clear expectations related to the school environment. 

6.  Design a structure of rules, procedures, and limits (restrictions) to support these expectations.

7.  Design a plan for teaching students how to behave in accordance with these expectations. This plan should focus primarily on the first two weeks of the school year when 80% of discipline is accomplished. Include:

A. Training Camp:   Routine procedures & compliance:

• Start small; Use short, to-the-point, directions; Keep procedures in same sequence.

• Follow through - mean what you say - insist 

B. Orientation:  Develop situational behaviors

• Teach them how to behave in school (regardless of how they behave elsewhere)

8. Design a program to run throughout the year which will focus on certain themes. This program is intended to review and extend the skills taught during the first two weeks of school.

9. Create any special programs needed to support this process. For instance, if the school expects all school assignments to be completed, the school will probably need to have a study hall.

10. Also, ensure that students are expected to behave better as they get older. Build in responsibilities and programs which build “maturity”.

11. Build support with parents by communicating expectations and “selling” the value of working on them in partnership.

12. Set up supports for predictably difficult students. These supports should focus on preventing predictable incidents, and protecting the learning environment. This plan should focus on how these students will learn to behave properly in school, not just what staff will do when they don’t.

13. Teachers need to improve their skills for taking charge of the school environment including:

 A.   Employing active, assertive supervision

B.   Building teacher authority - using administrators for support rather than transferring ownership:

• Take charge with authority, not power

• Be assertive and confident (business-like)

• Lower your voice and direct (don’t raise your voice and threaten)

• Follow through on your expectations - mean what you say.

• Maintain ownership - use administrators to support your authority in a productive way, not to replace your authority in a punitive way.

15. Teachers need to ensure that the design of classroom rules and procedures compliments school expectations. 

16. Effective classroom management compliments school discipline. Problems are primarily prevented by:

A.  Engineering the classroom environment

• Account for different learning styles. (Quiet places to work, CAP/ADD issues, etc.)

• Consider traffic patterns, etc.

• Work from more structure to less structure.

• Establish routines for getting materials, submitting work, sharpening pencils, etc. w/o disruption.

B.  Designing lessons to be engaging (active learning)

• (No student gets excited about learning something that the teacher is not excited about teaching)

C. Running the classroom smoothly:

• Changing the entry process into a transition

• Using routines to create efficiency and reduce resistance

D. Employing techniques which keep the focus on learning.

Maintain the integrity of the lesson	Use non-verbal cues & prompts
Remove seductive objects in advance	Pace lessons to keep interest high
Ensure directions are well-understood	Show personal interest in lessons
Use motivators (challenges & incentives)	Use humor where appropriate
Provide “sponge” activities	Proximity
Use questioning techniques which maintain engagement

 Remember that staff work hard on issues when they see their administrators also working hard on issues.

WORKSHOP BY RONALD MORRISH

1.  All staff should see discipline as positive and productive, not negative and punitive. It’s about teaching children to behave appropriately. School discipline creates a culture of the school which is distinct from the culture of “the street”, the students’ homes, and the media.

2.  Help staff realize that discipline is 90% prevention and only 10% reaction.  “Discipline isn’t what you do when children misbehave; it’s what you do so they won=t.”  Strategies are used to ensure students behave appropriately, and not because they have misbehaved. It’s important to anticipate - use insights, not incidents, to guide your actions.

3. Teaching staff need to recognize that discipline is not the same as “classroom management” which is the specialized set of techniques used to run the learning environment and maintain a high level of on-task behavior. School discipline allows the teachers to manage specific school-based behaviors associated with being “students”, rather than managing the behaviors which the world creates in “kids”.

4. Classroom management is a personal set of techniques. School discipline requires teamwork. Teachers need to see themselves as school teachers, not just classroom teachers. All staff members must make a commitment to teamwork, particularly regarding the enforcement of school rules and expectations.

5. All staff need to establish clear expectations related to the school environment. They then need to decide how these will be communicated to the students (including students who arrive mid-year), parents, substitute teachers, visitors, etc. The expectations should be communicated in signs, banners, the Code of Conduct, announcements, school assemblies, and daily interactions.

6. Design a structure of rules, procedures, and limits (restrictions) to support these expectations.

7. Design a plan for teaching students how to behave in accordance with these expectations. This plan should focus primarily on the first two weeks of the school year when 80% of discipline is accomplished. Includes:

 Training Camp:   Routine procedures & compliance:

• Start small; Use short, to-the-point, directions; Keep procedures in same sequence.

• Follow through - mean what you say - insist

Orientation:  Develop situational behaviors

• Teach them how to behave in school (regardless of how they behave elsewhere)

8. Design a program to run throughout the year which will focus on certain themes. This program is intended to review and extend the skills taught during the first two weeks of school.

9.  Create any special programs needed to support this process. For instance, if the school expects all school assignments to be completed, the school will probably need to have a study hall.

10.  Also, ensure that students are expected to behave better as they get older. Build in responsibilities and programs which build “maturity”.

11. Build support with parents by communicating expectations and “selling” the value of working on them in partnership.