Keeping Students in the Game: A Reflection on Discipline

It is sometimes difficult to be the disciplinarian when your heart is in instructional leadership. Nonetheless, my job requires me to try to balance the two. In my daily work, I have discovered that how we manage discipline in schools may have the greatest impact on student success.  I am fortunate to have a team of dedicated professionals, guidance counselors, a resource officer, a social worker, teachers, and my fellow administrator who work side by side with me in the effort to change behavior and support students and parents.

We focus our efforts on providing interventions and strategies to help students reflect and change behaviors rather than label and remove them from the educational environment. We engage students in reflection. We implement strategies to support good decision making. We role play, question, suggest, and listen. We continue to give students the opportunity to hit the reset button.  Whenever possible, we hold students in our building rather than suspending them outside of school.

We separate behavioral intervention and consequences from academics.  Yes, they get credit for the work and learning. No,we don't believe that we can "teach them a lesson by giving them an "F".  Usually the students sitting outside my door are already a part of the school of hard knocks. In many cases, a tough approach from me pales in comparison to the tough lives they live outside of school. So perhaps my heart is here in this role after all...it's just that most of the time it's hurting for the kids who sit in front of me. Kids who have made a bad decision, on a bad day, caught in a bad situation. There is no doubt that it is exhausting when the learning process takes longer than we would like, but we wrap our arms around them, rethink our strategy, and keep moving forward.

Perhaps the important work that those of us who are responsible for student discipline have to offer is to help close the achievement gap not widen it, which can only be accomplished if we keep our kids, every kid,  in the game.

Take care & encourage the heart,
Darla Grace