Teach English in Bantao Zhen - Ankang Shi

Discipline Procedures As educators as much as we don’t want to have to exercise disciplinary procedures they must be in place and students must understand expectations and what happens when those expectations are not met and the consequences of their actions. Expectations By setting clear expectations you are laying the ground work for a safe learning environment for all students. Student learning is reduced and can even be halted by a poor learning environment. Student expectations should fall in line very similar to a work environment between employer and employee creating a professional working relationship and learning environment. It is important to note however that though the expectations and disciplinary roles are teacher driven and enforced. The role as a teacher to the student is more in line with the teacher serving the student. Expectations are discussed at the first days of school and is kept clear throughout the year. The teacher should show the same level of respect as the students should and should expect the same level of professionalism. One such way to showing equal respect is to answer a student with yes sir or ma’am. Rules At initial start of a course only the core rules will be introduced. Additional rules can be added as needed or as a class. The following is a common list of core rules. 1. Respect your classmates and your Teacher 2. Keep hands, feet and objects to yourself 3. No eating and drinking in class 4. Do not plagiarize or cheat 5. Respect school and personal property As mentioned these rules are meant to create guidelines for the start of school. A good exercise for a class which will be meeting for the school year is to create custom rules after the first week or two of school. These custom rules should be created by the students based on what they feel creates a safe learning environment. The rules are to be specific and not vague, spelling out the approved behavior. The rules are created by students, vetted through the teacher and if approved will be posted. Enforcement Student made rules are easier to enforce as the teacher has given the students the opportunity to create rules and there has been discussion of why certain rules are established and why it is important to preserve the learning environment. The procedure if a rule is broken is clearly established and since students worked to establish the rules the student will be more likely to receive the stated consequence. Though the students will create the rules and have input on the enforcement the teacher with oversight will establish the enforcement. The enforcement of rules will be in a step process or discipline hierarchy. The hierarchy will have a clause where severe violations can skip steps depending on the severity. Allowing for students to redirect and become more self-accountable over time. The base step procedure will be as follows. 1. First Offense: Verbal, documented warning between student and teacher 2. Second Offense: Written, sent to administration 3. Third Offense: Written, parent conference, in school suspension 4. Fourth Offence: Written, parent conference, off school suspension 5. Fifth Offense: Expulsion Motivate Each student is different and their motivations and receptiveness differ. Some students only need to be told once and reviewing the rules at the start of the course is sufficient. For others rewards work best personal device/phone time and/or computer time will be awarded upon completion of assignment. Others are socially driven and rules created by the group hold more weight. The final group is those that simply just need to be reminded on a consistent base. Posting the rules and referring to them when students need reminding can help redirect a student.