Discipline Journal # 2

I. Data Collection:

Situation #1:
A. 26 September 2008 (3A)
B. APUSH 11th grade
C. This is my first year to teach AP US History. I know I am a good teacher and I know that it is important to be organized and prepared for students. I have taught US History for the past 4 years, but we always start from Reconstruction. I briefly go over the American Revolution and Civil War, but not in detail. So its like I am a brand new teacher. On Friday, I had planned to finish our lesson over the American Revolution. I had the students get into group and outline the Revolution. I had given them a guide to use and they went to work. When we were reviewing the material, they were all over he place. Not listening to me or each other.
D. There really weren’t any consequences. Some of the kids could tell I was getting upset, so they used peer pressure to quite the others. I quickly finished reviewing the material, (I felt confident that the student had the material. I had been walking around during their group time), and we started to watch a video that tied everything together.
E. My relationship with this class started off really good. In fact it was my favorite class, but now there is tension. It’s mostly me. There is one student who I taught last year who does not like me at all; the feeling is mutual. I keep a good front up, grading him fairly, and treating him like the others; we just don’t sit and have talks like I do with other kids. I think they think that I don’t know the material and are now questing my capabilities as a teacher. That makes me insecure.

Situation #2
A. 26 September 2008 (4A)
B. All Grades… Invisible Children
C. All classes were invited to view the Invisible Children assembly put on my Amanda S. She put a lot of time and work into this assembly bringing to awareness the civil war that is occurring in Uganda right now. It was forth period on a Friday. The students in pervious assemblies acted respectfully and were moved by the presentation. These students, most of whom had seen the presentation in previous classes, were rude, loud, and very disrespectful. I noticed three girls talking continually during the video. I gave the “stink eye” to the girls, but they kept on.
D. After giving the “stink eye,” and it not working, I walked over to the girls, squatted down (to appear non-threatening), and said, “Would you like to stay in this assembly?” They replied with “yes ma’ma.” I said, “Then you need to show respect and be quite for those who are trying to listen.” After that, they were quite for the rest of the presentation.
E. I think that I handled this situation well. I did not know these girls and it may be possible that they know me. If I was to teach them next year, I didn’t want them to remember that mean teacher who yelled at us during the assembly the year before. By using a calm voice and just expressing my concerns, the girls responded with the appropriate response and hopefully do not think of me as being harsh.

Situation #3
A. 1 October 2008 (3B)
B. US History- 11th grade
C. I really do not have misbehaving students this year. The worst thing that they do is talk when I am trying to teach. They are usually pretty good about stopping when I ask, but today for some reason, they could not control themselves.
D. I stopped the lesson and said, “May I tell you what I am doing in class this semester?” My students know I am working on my Masters Degree and are curious to know what I am doing. So I told them about the discipline log. They wanted to know if they were personally in my journal and if they where, what had I written about them. I pulled up my blog and showed them my entries. They were surprised at what some kids had done. After I showed them the blog and explained that they are a really great group this year, they settled down and we got back to work.
E. I think that the situation was handled well. My kids and I have a great relationship. They read my reflections and stated that they didn’t think that I was doing anything wrong and that I showed that I cared for each discipline problem, including this one.

Situation #4
A. 1 October 2008 (4B)
B. English- 11th grade
C. Mrs. Hall had asked me to come into her 4th period class to observe a student we both share. I have him in first and Mrs. Hall has him at the end of the day. We are both worried that he may be using drugs during the school day. He often comes late to class and keeps his head up, but with Mrs. Hall he usually sleeps the entire period. His eyes are blood-shot and he is incoherent.
D. I noticed that this student was sleeping and so I walked over to him and patted his shoulder. His eyes were red and I asked, “are you feeling okay?” He said that he had a headache. I asked if he was taking anything for it and he said no.
E. I do not think that we need to take action quite yet. I think that the next step is for an administrator to talk with him. He is in and out of the office quite a bit and talks with our SRO. Mrs. Hall and I are not convinced that he is not doing drugs, nor are we convinced that he is.

Situation #5
A. 2 October 2008
B. APUSH- 11th grade (2B)
C. During the announcements, two girls; who are currently failing for their lack of work ethic, were throwing gummy bear at each other. They were trying to catch the gummy bears in their mouths.
D. I looked at the girls several times and figured they would stop when I started class. As I walked by, they threw a bear right in front of me. I said, “Do I really need to ask you to stop throwing gummy bears?” They said, no and I reminded them of our rule about NO FOOD in the class. I saw four bears on the ground and told me about the mice and ants that come into the class when food is on the floor. I asked them to say behind after class and they picked up everything off my floor.
E. I feel that I need to talk with these two girls separately. They are not passing and I need to find why they are not. They do well on the tests and so I know they are getting the content, but I need to see what is keeping them from doing homework.

Situation # 6
A. 2 October 2008 (3B)
B. US History- 11th grade
C. While grading homework papers, I noticed that two students’ answers on their papers were identical. Each made an 80% on the homework.
D. So I simply divided the grade, so each got a 40%. I figured that if they share answers, then they should share the grade. The students asked me why the received what the got and I explained just as I did. They said that they did not copy but had worked together. I said, “in the syllabus, that you and your parents signed, it states that if you copy (had the same answers) then you will spilt the grade.” They said, “oh okay.”
E. I think I handled the situation well and I was happy that the two girls were easy going about the situation. They were respectful. At first they confronted me in a unfriendly manner, but I remained calm and we worked it all out.

Situation # 7
A. 2 October 2008 (3A)
B. APUSH- 11th grade
C. I have had several students ask me to come in for morning tutorials. My tutorials are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoon and in the morning by appointment. I was asked by a student if he could come in for tutoring at 7:45am. I said, I will be more than happy to come for tutoring, but he had to show up. Well, when I showed, he did not. The time wasn’t wasted, I did get grading done, etc.
D. This student came up to me during class, after we took our 6 weeks exam, and he said in a sincere way, that he was sorry for not showing up for tutorials. I said, well where were you? He had been with another teacher taking a test. I said, well, since this is the second time I have shown up for tutoring and you have not, we will never have morning tutorials. You are welcome to come to tutorials after school. He agreed.
E. I am so tired of showing up for tutorials and students who do not. I think that his consequence is far. I have both dates documented that he did not show, so if there is a problem in the future, I have backup. The student thought that the consequence was fair as well.

Situation # 8
A. 8 October 2008 (3A)
B. APUSH- 11th grade
C. The teacher who had used my classroom before me had not cleaned up the mess he had left. He did not log out of the computer, did not put the desks back in order, etc. I was in the library during 2A with students, so I had to haul back to my portable classroom. I was late arriving. When I arrived and saw that my classroom was a mess, it stressed me out. I wasted a lot of time getting things in order. Not my fault. I was trying to entertain the kids while the PowerPoint was loading and a student said, “can we get to the point of this class?”
D. There was not a consequence to her remark. I said, “I would love to get started; however I had to clean up after the teacher who is in the room before me. That is why we are behind. “
E. I was offended by her comment. I think that I handled it well. I could have used some love and logic on her, but I was so stressed, that I blamed the other teacher. For some reason her comment has been with me for days. I can’t stop thinking about it. I am already self-conscious about her class. Its my first year teaching AP and I am way behind. I have a lot on my plate. I see so disorganized, but its because I am new at the AP thing and the person with whom I share my class is a pig.

Situation # 9
A. 9 October 2008 (before school)
B. US History- 11th grade
C. I have a 12th grade student in my 11th grade US History class. She is repeating due to her lack of attendance from last year. She is smart, but has a very bad attitude. We started off the year on a bad note. She walked past me toward the portable while I was heading to the office. (I had to run to get an attendance form, so I was in a rush). As she walked past me, she said, “Ms. Massey, are you going to be in class today?” I said, “yes.” She said, “ah man, I was hoping you wouldn’t be in class today.”
D. Her consequence was a quick, hot-headed, in a hurry reaction. I stopped dead in my tracks and said, “Wow. That makes me feel so good about myself. Your comment is just what I needed to start off my day. I sure appreciate you brightening it up.” When I got back to class, we never spoke. We did not make eye contact.
E. I am sure I could have handled this better. But I was so upset with they way she treated me. I have never said anything like that to her. I am unsure as to why she does not like me. I mean, everyone likes me  I need to sit down with her and find out, but I just don’t want to. I grade her fairly, but I do not give her any breaks nor do I do her any favors. I haven’t written her off completely, but its close.

Situation # 10
A. 13 October 2008 (Reflection 17th October)
B. US History- 11th grade
C. I am not sure why, but my 1B class is the only class where students have a low homework passing rate. I had FIVE students fail the first six weeks due to missing homework. These students are bright, respectful, and work hard in class, but they refuse to do homework.
D. I stood up on my soapbox and explained how 11th grade is the important grade. This is the year they have to pass TAKS, their class rank depends on junior year, they have PSATS and SATS, etc. I felt that I was not getting anywhere with them, so I brought it down to their level. I said, if you do not want to be here; if you are tired of school; I want to get you out. I want to get you out with a degree. So focus, get through school, do the required work and you’ll be out of school before you know it. If the Academy is the place for you, then I will help you get there, but I need to have something to work with.
E. Wow, so my little speech worked. I had only two kids not turn in their homework this week. I refuse to stop giving homework. They have also learned the faster we get through a lesson, the more time they have in class to do homework. I just hope they keep this up. 

II. Model to implement in my class: Positive Discipline

Summary of Model: Positive Discipline describes a way to reduce undesirable behavior, and increase desirable behavior, by rewarding the positive rather than punishing the negative.

Positive Discipline describes an action that is introduced after a desirable behavior so that the behavior will be repeated in the future. Positive Discipline is based on the premise that behavior that is rewarded is behavior that will be repeated.

Positive Discipline is a four-step process that recognizes and rewards appropriate behavior:

The appropriate behavior is described:
"Good job raising your hand before asking your question."

Clear rationales are provided:
"Raising your hand before asking a question shows respect for others. It is a good example of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Acknowledgment is requested:
"Do you see why raising your hand is so important?

The behavior is rewarded: eye contact; a smile; thumbs up; touch on the shoulder; having a success in front of the class (social recognition is the greatest reward).

Rewards should always be immediate and small.

Positive Discipline is commonly sabotaged in three ways:

1. The child is not rewarded quickly enough.
2. The emphasis is put on tasks rather than behaviors.
3. The emphasis continues to be on what the child is doing incorrectly, rather than correctly.

The problem with nearly all discipline systems is that they focus on what is being done incorrectly, while ignoring behavior that is correct.

Consistency is the key. Effective Positive Discipline must be used in a four to one ratio. Children must be shown that you really are serious about catching them doing something correctly and rewarding them immediately.

Dr. Jones’ model is based on four legs of discipline and management. All four of these are needed to make the Positive Discipline model successful. These are, Limit Setting, Responsibility Training, Omission Training, and the Backup System.

Description of Incident: My students are not studying for their tests. They are doing well in class and are doing their homework, but they are not processing the material in a way that they can “regurgitate” the information back on a test. So for the first time this year, I have decided to review for chapter tests. I have used three games to review; Jeopardy, Bam Boards, and Vocabulary Baseball.

Steps: For Jeopardy, I found an online format where I can plug in the information I want to cover myself. I bought shower board from Home Depot with our $60 reimbursement money and as part of my supply list, I required student to but dry erase markers. And finally, for Vocabulary Baseball, I am able to see some of my student’s artistic talents.

What I noticed for all three games, is that those kids who normally do not participate during class, PARTICIAPTED! Even when they got the question wrong, they still kept going.

Test scores stayed about the same with a few improvements on the multiple choice, identification part of the test. They have a hard time with the short answers and essay portions. How I have tackled that is by posting the essay questions on my class website with answers. That way, the kids are set and should do well on the test. Some have already caught on. Its more work for me, but I think its worth the goods grades, positive attitude, and pride I see in my student when they do well on a test.