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Describe your discipline philosophy. Do you think you are disciplining in a way that nurtures your students?
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My discipline philosophy sits on the idea of logical consequences. At the beginning of each year, my students and I take time aside to establish what kinds of things they will be reward for and what things they will be disciplined for. Then we discuss what logical consequences are. For example, if the course is talking while waiting in line for the bathrooms and they’re supposed to be silent, then the logical consequence would be they have to be silent for a little while when they would normally be allowed to talk. Many times I allow the course to pick their own consequence. This teaches them to look at the severity of their actions, reflect on that, and analyze what they should have been doing instead and what a logical consequence would be.
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I reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. I use various technics that work. If I told the course to sit down after singing a song but only a few follow instructions, I give out stickers to the ones how followed instruction. If we are playing instruments and a student does something they shouldn’t, I get a warning. If it continues, I take the instrument from that student. I will pick one student who followed the instructs the best to play a “special” instrument. I nurture good behaviors and attitudes and discourage negative.
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My discipline policy is reflective of the restorative practices that are encouraged by our administration. I have already described and given examples in my previous paragraphs that were written in this chapter and in a previous chapter. We want to teach children to be responsible for their actions, we want them to know that there is a proper way to deal with conflict, and to resolve conflict. We strive to bring children back into the fellowship of the group, but also be real with how their actions or words effected not only the people around them, but also caused harm to themselves. There is a time for sharing feelings and thoughts in a safe zone, where everyone has a chance to talk when they are holding the “talking piece” and there is a time given for the one causing harm to apologize and ask for forgiveness. We can pray together as a group, make an action plan for any similar situations and work together to bring peace to our classroom.
Then there is the consequence for the sad choice. There are consequences for sin, it costs the student one token per offence. If there are 3 offences in a row, they have to walk laps during recess instead of playing what they want to. They chose to do what they wanted to do when they were being unkind or disrupting the learning environment, so they loose part of their fun time. They still get sunshine and exercise, but not their choice of activity. One minute per year of their age. If there are additional offences, additional minutes are added. We also have a student life team that works to counsel students that may need to be removed from the classroom for a period of time.