I read the several emails resulting from the retreat I missed on June 22, 2007, and I am sorry I missed it. I was at Wrightsville Beach, frolicking with family on the ocean. The retreat seemed to emphasize the student code of conduct. We have the discussion constantly in the halls of Southern. We teachers are astounded at the capacity for our student population to misbehave. The discussion on what to do about many students' abject dismissal of the "rules of public engagement" is an essential part of changing the culture at Southern.
So I read the document, the student code of conduct. It struck me as being a mostly outdated document. There are too many rules in it that are never enforced, so many in fact, that I wonder if these offenses should be totally ignored altogether. Or we proclaim some good rules, but the infrastructure is simply not in place to accomplish the behavior. For instance, no bookbags in the classrooms or hallways. Fine, I am all for this rule. But it cannot work if we wait until four weeks into the school year to grapple with assigning lockers, and we allow the students to carry them around until the adults get it together with this rule. Why can't lockers be assigned BEFORE the school year begins, and then allow the students, no, DEMAND that the students arrive before school begins to claim the locker, sign an agreement at the front office, and then go put their own lock on the locker. Southern was obsessed with maintaining a rule that only SHS LOCKS were to be used on the locker. What is the point of that rule? If administrators or police need to get into a locked locker, they can do it with bolt cutters, big deal. And if a mistake has been made, a new lock can be furnished to student.
Another example is the issue with cell phones and mp3 players. We should ban them from use in the classroom during instructinal time, and in the hallway we should ignore it. Minimally, ban cell phone usage in the hallways also, but so what if a kid zones out in his music while trotting to his next class? Maybe we can institute curriculum wide podcasts of instructional materials and encourage mp3 player owners downlaod and listen to lectures, notes, etc on their players.
Tardiness is a vexing, interminable problem. We have a schoolwide policy, but it is so sporadically enforced, and too many teachers half-heartedly manage the bookeeping details of the massive number of tardies they encounter. Teachers need to simply mark tardies on the X-2 attendance system, and then our SIMS operator can tally up on a twice a week basis everyone tardy that week a certain number of times during the week. Make the tardy tally for the entire day for a student. For example, if a student is tardy that week 6 times, the student is called to the office and assigned an immediate 2 days of OSS. One day can be waived if a parent comes in for an administrative conference. The next 6 tardies, results in three days OSS, one being waived for another conference. And thereafter, after every 6 tardies, three days of mandatory OSS will be assigned for the child. The essential piece to this plan is that every teacher do X-2 within the first 15 minutes of class, and possibly update it later in the period, if necessary, and that the SIMS operator create the reports every Thursday, so that on Friday suspension assignments can be administered for the following week. Teachers who fail to do X-2 in a consistent timely manner should be reprimanded. Teachers will also keep a written tardy/attendance log for each class.
The rest of the student code of conduct should focus on social behaviors that have a direct negative impact on the instructional program. Tardiness is one element, and the other piece of the puzzle is classroom misbehavior. Excessive talking while teachers instruct, excessive laughing and joking and generally rambunctious vocal behavior needs to be seriously addressed. Only so much of this ridiculous behavior can be ascribed to generalized teenage squirreliness. Students need to be held accountable for classroom disruption. They need to adapt better to teachers' styles of instructional delivery. We cannot simply constantly blame teachers for their students' misbehavior.
Of course there are teacher responsibilities in managing classroom behavior. We should plan well in advance, assign tasks in which students can both find success and find a decent level of interest. Teachers need to treat students with respect and consistency. Expectations need to be clear and high. If students still behave like idiots even if these essential piece to the teaching puzzle are in place, then it's time to enact punitive measures.
More on this topic later!!
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