All students are expected to follow two rules in the class. These rules are:
1. Be nice!
2. Work hard!
When students are working on classroom assignments or given work to do they are continually reminded of the following messages:
Students will also learn personal leadership with exposure to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey.
Students are taught four levels of social development that were adapted from a system developed by Dr. Marvin Marshall.
The four levels of development are the basis of discipline in this classroom. Even if I have a substitute teacher they do not have to be versed in the system to use it.
It is the responsibility of the class members to maintain their own discipline. Students know that they choose their own level of development.
If students behave and do the given assignments they are on Level 3 or Level 4 and should not present a problem. Level 2 students are the ones who defy authority. My students know they choose their levels of development and that they must accept the responsibility for their choice.
Students learn they are powerful when they are nice and work hard. The next day will always be a new start.
Thoughtfulness and The Refocus Opportunity, or asking the student to think about their behavior is the basis of the discipline model. I do not tell students what to do to improve their behavior. I ask them what level their behavior is at and ask them to think about what they need to do to move to a higher level of behavior. I try to speak to them about issues in the third person.
Students are encouraged to work out problems by following the SEAL steps developed by Rosalind Wiseman. Layered on top of this I attempt to build a community where students have the opportunity to generate and share mathematical ideas, either publicly or in small groups; the extent to which authorship is recognized and supported; and the extent to which student ideas are built upon as the classroom constructs its collective mathematical understandings. This is a dimension of the TRU math model (see page 17) called Dimension 4: Agency, Authority and Identity.
At times I have gone through a year and 4 months without having to write a referral for behavior issues. The first time a student gets in trouble I will move them to another table to have them witness students that are leaders because they are nice and work hard. If a student is not organized and does not remember their password or have essential items I will give them their password or a pencil after school. If a student does not know what we are working on I will tell them after school. I will repeat (I prefer to answer how ever many questions the students have upfront - could be 20 questions to make certain every student understands before moving on) what the assignment is and how to do it as many times as needed until all students no longer have questions. After all student's questions are answered I will repeat how to do the assignment after school is out.
The first time a student they will answer three questions about their behavior. The behavior issue will not be sent to parents/guardians.
The second time a student has behavior issues in my classroom they will be given the assignment no student wants, to fill out a Level of Development behavior form that will route automatically to parents via email.
The third time a student has behavior issues in my classroom they will fill out the restorative justice questions.
Any further incidents will result in a referral and a trip to the Main Office.
In a self contained classroom we use a Data Notebook to track academic and personal growth. In middle school students are asked to track academic growth.
Near the beginning of the school year we review what it means to be nice and work hard. The following will not be tolerated: