Most of the problems that occur in your class can be corrected within your classroom, by you, using the strategies that you read about and develop to suit your own style. On occasion, you will find that some students present a problem that can't be resolved by traditional techniques. At this point you will have to involve your principal or the vice-principal.
You do not want to do this for minor infractions. You want the administration in your school to be mildly shocked when you have to bring a student to them. You want them to say "A student from (your) room? Boy, you really must have screwed up big, kid. (You) never sends students to the office. What on earth did you do?"
There are teachers out there that will send students to the office for small problems like missing homework or talking in class. If you throw kids under the bus for the smallest errors, you will lose respect in your student's eyes and look like someone that can't solve their own problems. Plus, the principal will stop taking the infractions seriously, and will start to question why you don't have better control of your class.
You should do the following things before you send a student to the principal's office:
Get one-on-one with the student outside of class and see if you can reach an understanding with them. It's important not to have these discussions in the middle of the lesson with the class full of students. You don't want the situation to escalate with an audience and say or do things that will only hurt your case.
Talk with the parents by telephone and explain what is happening in your class. This way if the student does end up in the principals office, it won't come out of the blue.
Meet with parents and a guidance counselor in a conference to try to change the behavior. Often times this helps get to the root of the problem, which is always helpful in fixing the symptoms.
Give at least one detention. If detentions are having no effect, you might not be able to solve the problem on your own.
If you have exhausted all of these strategies and have they have had little effect, it is time to send them to the head office. Be sure to include a laundry list of reasons why they are being sent. Give them the rope and let them hang themselves. Let them pile up a good amount of infractions, document each one, and provide that as a foundation. Also, document the steps you've taken to rectify the problem. Once your principal sees all the effort you've already put into the problem, they will bring swift and harsh justice to the student and you should see a turnaround in the days and weeks that follow.
You do not want to do this for minor infractions. You want the administration in your school to be mildly shocked when you have to bring a student to them. You want them to say "A student from (your) room? Boy, you really must have screwed up big, kid. (You) never sends students to the office. What on earth did you do?"
There are teachers out there that will send students to the office for small problems like missing homework or talking in class. If you throw kids under the bus for the smallest errors, you will lose respect in your student's eyes and look like someone that can't solve their own problems. Plus, the principal will stop taking the infractions seriously, and will start to question why you don't have better control of your class.
You should do the following things before you send a student to the principal's office:
Get one-on-one with the student outside of class and see if you can reach an understanding with them. It's important not to have these discussions in the middle of the lesson with the class full of students. You don't want the situation to escalate with an audience and say or do things that will only hurt your case.
Talk with the parents by telephone and explain what is happening in your class. This way if the student does end up in the principals office, it won't come out of the blue.
Meet with parents and a guidance counselor in a conference to try to change the behavior. Often times this helps get to the root of the problem, which is always helpful in fixing the symptoms.
Give at least one detention. If detentions are having no effect, you might not be able to solve the problem on your own.
If you have exhausted all of these strategies and have they have had little effect, it is time to send them to the head office. Be sure to include a laundry list of reasons why they are being sent. Give them the rope and let them hang themselves. Let them pile up a good amount of infractions, document each one, and provide that as a foundation. Also, document the steps you've taken to rectify the problem. Once your principal sees all the effort you've already put into the problem, they will bring swift and harsh justice to the student and you should see a turnaround in the days and weeks that follow.
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