SED 500 Issues In Education Discipline Journal #1

I. Incident #1 – Dress Code
A. August 31, 2008 / 8:40
B. 10th grade / World History
C. One of my male students walked into my classroom on the first day of school with obvious facial hair. I questioned him as to why he didn’t shave that morning. He argued that he did shave and that what I was seeing was my eyes playing tricks on me. I reminded him that the MISD policy stated that male students are supposed to shave and that when they don’t shave the consequences result in an office referral. He continued to disagree that he needed to shave. I then explained to him that I would write him up on a referral and if the office felt that he was in compliance then he would just come back with no harm done. I proceeded to my desk where I filled out an office referral for his violation of dress code and sent him to the office.
D. When I sent him to the office he was gone the remaining of the class period. It wasn’t until the following period on my conference that I checked on him. He has had a history of skipping the office when I sent him in the past so I asked the discipline secretary if the student come in. According to her records he did come in and he was given ISS. So he spent the remaining of the first day of school in ISS until 5:00. I feel that the consequence was appropriate and that, sadly, the consequence will not make a difference. This particular student has already been back in ISS and I have already had to send him back to the office for not shaving.
E. I believe that my relationship with this student is a good one. He and I have had situations where I have had to send him to the office on numerous occasions and he has understood each time that it was not that I was picking on him. He understood that when I sent him to the office it was because I was following procedures.

I. Incident #2 – Tardy
A. September 4, 2008 / 12:15
B. 11th Grade / US History
C. I had a young lady who walked into my classroom after the tardy bell rang. According to our campus tardy policy, she was to be assigned a 30 minute detention to be served before or after school on Tuesday or Thursday. I had 3 other students who came in late during the same period. I had each of the students sign the tardy sheet and choose one of the detentions. When I came to her, she became confrontational. She argued that she was not tardy because she was sitting in her seat when the tardy bell rang. I went on to explain to her that she did walk in after the bell. She then proceeded to tell me that I must have been blind to not see her sitting in her seat. I explained to her that she had two choices. One of the choices was for her to sign the tardy sheet and pick a detention and the other choice was to go to the office with a referral for insubordination. She told me that she didn’t care what I did, but there was no way she was tardy and she was not going to sign anything. She told me to do what I had to do. I got the class started on their bell ringer while I tried to calm myself down so I could be more rational. I decided to ask some other students to be sure that I didn’t mistakenly accuse her of being tardy. I pulled two of the other tardy students out into the hallway one at a time and asked them if she came in before or after her. They both stated, without hesitation, that she entered the room after they did. Their confidence in the answer confirmed my story. The only thing I can think of that might have prevented the confrontation was to have removed her from the audience. I think if the other students were not in the room, she might not have been so quick to argue. I could have pulled her out into the hallway to discuss her tardy rather than in the classroom.
D. When I walked back into the classroom, I filled out the referral and checked the boxes that stated “insubordination” and “disrespectful to adult.” I attached the tardy slip documenting her second tardy with the detention options and gave her the referral. Surprisingly, she took the referral and got up without arguing and walked out of my room. When she got back she was quiet and more willing to adhere to my requests. I received a copy of the referral from her administrator indicating that she was assigned morning detention. I feel that the consequence was appropriate since she was supposed to get the detention in the first place. I feel that the student will learn from this experience and I feel that she will now make it a point to get to class on time.
E. I feel that my relationship to the student is a good one. I have had her for two years and this was the first time I have ever had a confrontation with her that resulted in a referral. Usually when she got confrontational it would be because I questioned her attire to determine if she was in dress code or not. I don’t feel that this experience will hurt our relationship because in the past I have helped her with other situations and she knows that I am a fair teacher. I think she might be a little hesitant to speak to me due to the fact that I wrote her up, but I know as the class periods go on she will begin to respond to me in a positive nature.

I. Incident #3 – Confrontation
A. September 5, 2008 / 10:30
B. Hallway Duty
C. Between classes our campus policy is for teachers to watch students as they walk to class. By doing this our goal is to eliminate student confrontations and behavior problems. While I was standing with others teachers, we observed a couple arguing with each other after the tardy bell. The boy took something from the girl and ran off. The girl chased after him and finally got back the object taken from her. When the girl came back into our building one of the teachers asked that she tell her friend to come back. She opened the door and yelled for him to come here. She came back in and said that he told her he wasn’t coming back. So another teacher and I walked out into the breezeway to get the boy to come back. He immediately became confrontational. I asked him to come to me and he disrespectfully asked why. We finally started getting him to come closer to us, however, not peacefully. By the time he got close enough to us an administrator walked by and heard him being insubordinate and disrespectful to us. He asked the student to meet him in the office. The already irate student became even more irate. He began screaming obscenities. He didn’t care who he said it in front of because there were 3 teachers and an administrator present. The administrator asked if we were offended and we informed him that we were. He told us that we needed to see one of the Student Resource Officers to issue a citation for shouting obscenities. This whole situation could have just been an easy conversation, but it quickly escalated into a confrontation. The reason we even asked him to come back was to talk to him. One of the teachers had witnessed the same couple fighting the day before and she was going to try to defuse what relationship issues they were having so they would stop fighting. I feel that the other teachers could have asked him to come back a little more calmly and explain to him that we just wanted to talk to him. I think he would have been less confrontational and less likely to react so aggressively.
D. Since the student was sent to the office and was escorted by the other teacher, I am uncertain about what happened to the student once he was in the office. I did see that his name appeared on the ISS list the next day. If that was the consequence, I do feel that it was an appropriate consequence.
E. I had never seen this student until the day of the confrontation. Since I didn’t know who he was and I had never had a relationship with him I feel that no relationships were ruined

I. Incident #4 – Cell Phone
A. September 3, 2008 / 12:25
B. Hallway
C. I was on my way to lunch and while I was walking alongside the students I noticed one particular student with a cell phone. The young lady had her cell phone out in plan view and was oblivious that I was walking right next to her. Once she noticed I was there, she immediately closed her phone and looked the opposite direction from me. When I asked her to hand me her phone she kept walking. When I requested her phone again she informed me, with a major attitude, that she would not give me her cell phone. Then she proceeded to tell her friends that I was crazy if I thought she would give me her phone. Since I was crunched for time I decided to go eat my lunch and catch up to her later in the cafeteria. Towards the end of the lunch period I walked into the cafeteria and I noticed her sitting at a table. When she saw me walking towards her table she immediately started ducking so I wouldn’t see her. I walked up to her and said, “Since you are finished eating we can now go to the office.”
D. When we got to the office she asked if it was too late to give me her phone and apologized for her behavior. I thanked her for the apology and I told her that I had given her the option of giving up the phone with no discipline referrals the first time. Since she passed up the first opportunity to forfeit the phone she now had to deal with the consequences. She ended up with 2 days ISS for insubordination and refusing to give up her cell phone. I feel that the consequences for this action were appropriate since it followed MISD policies.
E. Since I had never seen the student before the confrontational day and didn’t know her name the relationship didn’t suffer. I have since seen the student in the hallway and she smiles at me.

I. Incident #5 – Cell Phone
A. September 17, 2008 / 8:45
B. 10th Grade / World History
C. I walked into my classroom from hall duty and I noticed that one of my students had his cell phone out. As soon as I got into the classroom, he shoved his phone back into his side pocket. I asked him to hand me his phone and he declined. I informed him that refusal to forfeit his phone is an automatic 2 days ISS. He asked me if that was supposed to scare him and I told him no, but that would be the consequence. He then let me know that he didn’t care and that he was still not going to give me his phone. He let me know that there was no discipline action that was going to make him give up his phone or that was going to scare him.
D. I wrote him up on a referral and sent him to the office. He received 2 days ISS from the office for refusing to forfeit his phone. I do feel that this consequence was appropriate.
E. This particular student is usually one of my best students and this was the only time I had ever had trouble with him. During the rest of the class he showed that he had no hard feelings towards me. He still answered questions about what we were studying and he still completed his assignments. He would even respond to my requests when I asked him to do something and he completed it without complaining.

I. Incident #6 – Disruptive Behavior
A. September 17, 2008 / 9:00
B. 10th Grade / World History
C. One of my students decided that instead of doing his work he was going to aggravate the other students. He got up out of his seat and started walking around. I asked him at least 3 times to sit down. When he would head back to his seat he would knock papers off someone’s desk or he would purposely brush his arm against them as though he was hitting them. Each student’s belongings were also taken and playfully hidden. Once I finally got him to sit down he then began making fun of the other students. If someone asked me a question, he would make fun of the way they talked. If someone couldn’t read a word well, he would make fun of them for not being able to read. At one point he would ball up his paper and start throwing it towards the trashcan to make a basket, missing each time he threw it. Instead of dropping the trash in the trashcan next to him he would walk across the room to another trashcan just to irritate the students on his way. I finally decided that the class and I had had enough so I sent him down to the office with a referral for disruptive behavior.
D. The student was assigned a detention from one of the administrators. I didn’t feel that a 30 minute detention was severe enough of a punishment for this particular student. He has been to the office for every teacher that I know of for disruptive behavior. I don’t know at what point the administrators decide to give him an ISS, but it seems that he has had too many chances.
E. When I think back on the situation, I wasted an approximately 35 minutes of class time redirecting his behavior. I feel that I should have removed him from the classroom before wasting all that time. It was not fair to the other students in the class that had to deal with him. He took away too much time that could have been spent on my other students. I feel that my relationship with this student is still a good one even though I send him to the office almost every other class period. Apparently he is not nearly the disturbance in my class as he is in others.

I. Incident #7-Disruptive Behavior
A. September 17, 2008 / 9:30
B. 10th Grade / World History
C. When I was dealing with the above student, in the hallway, another student yelled an obscenity. When I walked back into the classroom, he was standing up in front of another student about to throw a book at him. I informed the student that since he made the choice of using his particular word that I would be sending him to the office. He immediately became angry. In another obscenity he told the other student that he should have basically “kicked his rear.” Then the student threw his folder up into the air and stormed out of the room.
D. I sent a referral down with another student since he left without it. The student received one day of ISS. I feel that this consequence was sufficient since he basically skipped my class. I haven’t heard what they did regarding the obscenities. I did, however, recently discover that the student has withdrawn from our district.
E. I have always considered my relationship with this student a good one. He has told me in the past that I was his favorite teacher and that he tells all the administrators that I should get a huge raise. This particular student has been having trouble at home and has been bringing it to school with him. The week before this incident he informed me that his mom was moving him to Wills Point. He told me that he didn’t want to leave his friends and move to the country. It was after that conversation that he began disruptive behavior. He started having discipline issues in all of his classes and that one class period seemed to have been the last straw. I just hope that everything will work out for him.

I. Incident #8-Dress Code
A. September 18, 2008 / 8:35
B. Before school in hallway
C. I was standing out in the hallway monitoring students before school when I noticed that a student walked in with cut off khaki pants. I asked her to stop so that we could decide as a group if her pants were in compliance with dress code. She kept walking and ignored my requests and the other teachers’ requests in the hallway. One of the teachers is an administrative intern so she told the student to meet her in the office. The student continued to walk past us. We were in such of a shock that the student didn’t stop for any of our requests that the girl walked right out of the door. She did turn around and come back through the hallway. We were relieved that she decided to comply with our requests and come back. The administrative intern then escorted the student to the office.
D. Once they both reached the office, the student got lost in the morning crowd and was not in the office when the teacher walked into the doors. Unfortunately there was no way of telling who the girl was or even her name. All we can do is keep our eyes out for her if she walks past our hallway again.
E. Since I didn’t have this student and no one even knew her name there was no relationships impacted. To this day I haven’t seen the student on campus.

I. Incident #9-Altercation
A. September 18, 2008 / 2:40
B. Hallway during 4B
C. I had just finished speaking to a teacher regarding one of my students’ accommodations when I turned the corner by CMC. I noticed that my student and another student were exchanging hits. At first when I walked up I thought they were play fighting. It was when I got closer that I realized that the other student was hitting my student. I immediately demanded that they stop fighting. I noted that my student wasn’t hostile or trying to fight, but that he was more or less being attacked. I noticed that when the other student was hitting my student, he kept being hostile. My student was actually defending himself with his hands up and his fists balled up protecting his face. I was the only teacher in the hallway with the two students and I had no time to call for backup. My student finally came to me and as he was walking the other student kept swinging. I stepped between them and I grabbed the other students arm to keep him from taking swings at my student. It was then that I noticed this student was definitely under the influence of some controlled substance. His eyes were glazed over and I could tell he was obviously not all there. I walked in front of my student as I escorted him to CMC where I slammed the door shut to keep the other student out. I was all the stood between the door and the other student. I then walked up to the other student who started walking away from me. He began taking his shirts off and paced back and forth in the breezeway. I decided that he would not be very willing to follow me to the office so I went back into CMC and asked the teacher in there to call an SRO for assistance. She looked the number up for me and I called the SRO’s office. I explained to the officer what had happened and that the student fled into the hallway next to their office. When I hung up the phone I immediately went to their office to see if I could identify the student on cameras so we could catch him. I told Officer McNarrey that the altercation had happened about 2:40 so we watched the video closest to that time. We watched as the student walked back and forth down the hallway. Officer McNarrey recognized the student from the video and knew who to look for. I went back to CMC to check on my student who was peacefully sitting at his desk completing his test. I usually wouldn’t leave a student involved in an altercation unattended or around a classroom of other students, but he showed no signs of aggressive behavior and was calm and collect after the altercation occurred. I pulled him aside to get his side of the story. He said that the student involved in the altercation stumbled out of C hall and immediately started shoving my student. He said that he began hitting him and then pushed him up against the wall. I asked if he might have said something that made the student hit him and he told me that he was just walking to CMC. He said there were no words exchanged or even looks. The student just attacked him. He then told me that he thought that the student was high on drugs or something. I told him to go ahead and finish his test and one of the SROs will be in CMC to ask him some questions later. It wasn’t 10 minutes later when Officer Krajca walked into CMC and asked that my student and I go to the office to fill out a statement. He told us that the student was arrested for being under the influence of alcohol. He had caught up to him at the tennis courts where the student was handcuffed and taken to jail. Officer Krajca told us that the student probably had no idea where he was or who he was fighting. He just came across someone and wanted to start a fight.
D. My student and I filled out a discipline statement in the office that explained what we saw and what had happened. Since it was handled by the SROs, I have no way of knowing what happened to the student. My student, although he punched the other student, did not receive a punishment since I testified that he was only defending himself.
E. My relationship to my student is a really good one. I have had this student for the past 3 years and I have enjoyed watching him mature. I continuously let him know how proud I was of him that he restrained from knocking the other student out. I also told him how proud I was of him that he immediately came to me when I asked him to so the altercation would end. If he was the same kid he was last year, he definitely would have become hostile and took it personally. I think that he realized that the student was under the influence and was not hostile during the fight and was more just keeping the student from hitting him. I sent the student a “Skeeter Shout Out” home in the mail. Skeeter Shout Outs are ways that our campus recognizes students for good behavior, grades or anything else that needed to be given praises. I wrote on the card that I was proud of him and that I had never been more proud of a student as I was of him in that situation at that particular time. I then called his mother and left her a message praising her son for his respect to authority and for his maturity in the decision he made not to turn the altercation into a full blown fight. This student has always been one of my favorites, but after this incident I have a higher respect for him than I had before. When I reflect on the situation as a whole, I might not have made the best decision in stepping between two male students who were fighting, especially since I was alone in the hallway. I think I felt safer to break them up due to the fact that I knew one of the students involved and felt that he would not do anything that would have injured me. When I grabbed the other student’s arm, I didn’t even think about what was safe. I acted on instinct and thankfully I wasn’t attacked. I have taken many classes where they advise us not to get in the middle of a fight, but as a sincere teacher it is a hard task to sit back and watch two students beat each other and not do anything about it.

I. Incident #10 – Cell Phone
A. September 23, 2008 / 9:00
B. Hall Duty around H and K Hall (outside)
C. When I was on duty outside of H and K hall, I noticed a student walking towards me with her neck bent over to her left shoulder. I could tell that the student was talking to someone and I wondered if she was talking to herself or on a cell phone. It wasn’t until she got closer that her head popped up. Then she bent it back down towards her shoulder. Her mannerism revealed to me that she was obviously on a cell phone. I asked her to bring me her cell phone and she asked what I was talking about. She then told me that she didn’t have a cell phone. I then pointed to her shoulder and the student pulled out a cell phone that was tucked into her bra strap. She begged that I not take her cell phone up because she desperately needed it. While I was talking to her she had the nerve to put her phone back up to her ear. She begin telling the person on the other end that there was a teacher in front of her who was going to take her phone up and it was going to cost her $15 to get it back. Then she closed the phone and begged that I didn’t take it up again. After about 8 minutes, she finally forfeited her phone and I got her name so that I could turn the phone into the office.
D. I took her phone to the discipline office where I filled out the form and closed her phone into one of the white envelopes. The student then walked into the office to speak to someone about getting her phone back later that afternoon instead of waiting until 24 hours. I told her that the policy would not change and she would have to wait 24 hours. She kept insisting that she speak to an administrator and I told her that she was welcomed to sit and wait, but it would be a waste of her time. I was glad that I caught her with the phone because I was positive that she had it out several times and was never caught.
E. I had never met the student before the incident so I didn’t have a relationship established with her so therefore no relationships were affected.

II. I would say that the situation I handled well was the altercation between one of my students and another student. I feel that I remained calm and that I diffused the problem before it escalated into a bigger problem.

The specific steps I took were to separate the students and pull my student out of the situation. Then I contacted who I needed to and then followed through by filling out the statement. I then made sure that the SROs had everything that they needed to tie up any loose ends so that a discipline consequence could take place.

When I reflect back on the situation, I realize that getting in the middle of two
male students weren’t the best decision I made. I could have been attacked in
the middle of the altercation or the drunken student could have turned on me as easily as he did on the other student. From this experience I will now call for help before trying to diffuse a problem on my own especially when it was as serious as this one.

III. I would say that the situation that I did not handle well or that I could’ve handled better was the situation with my disruptive student. I could have implemented some of the behavior techniques and strategies that I have learned to help make his disturbance decrease. If I had taken the time to come up with a plan instead of sending him out I think it would have made for a better solution for the student.

A specific step I could have taken to try to get rid of his behavior was to implement love and logic. I could have given him choices between going to the office or sitting in a seat next to me. I could have made a deal with him that if he would behave then I would have given him a couple of extra credit points on his lowest class grade.

If I could do it over again, I would have contacted his mother at the first disruptive behavior a couple of days before the actual day I had trouble with him. I would have had him call his mother right there in my classroom so that he could explain to his mom how he was behaving so she would hear his explanation. I think that would have been more effective and then he might have settled down long enough to make it through the remaining of the period. Then he wouldn’t have been sent to the office and he wouldn’t have missed the instructional part of the class.

ETEC 597 Journaling Assignment #1

Who Am I:

I am a native born Arkansan that moved to Texas in 1997. I graduated from Eastfield College with an Associates of Arts Degree and I graduated from Ouachita Baptist University with a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Sociology. Through the years of living in Texas I find that I am less homesick for Arkansas and more grounded in Texas. My parents both were born and raised in Arkansas and both received their Bachelors degree in Arkansas. They were never able to go back to work on their Masters so I will be the first one in my family to get a Masters. Receiving a Masters degree has always been a dream of mine that I never thought would come true. When I was hired in Mesquite ISD, I remember sitting with one of the personnel directors while he explained to me that all Mesquite ISD teachers must receive their Masters in 10 years. I remember thinking to myself that I would probably not get my Masters so I can work in Mesquite ISD for 10 years and then move on to another district. It wasn't until I heard about the Cohort Program that my dream became closer to a reality. I decided that the Cohort Program was too good of an offer to pass up. It has allowed me to work on my Masters without having to meet every other night and give up with my schedule at home. By receiving my Masters I hope to become a better teacher. A teacher that can almost solve every problem ranging from academics to discipline. A teacher that will have a classroom that is ever changing with the world to keep up with the latest technology and the trends of my students.

What Is Educational Technology:

Integrating technological tools and resources for students to learn using a more hands on approach. It can also be defined as a way to facilitate learning in a way that improves performance of students by encouraging imagination and the use of more hands on technological resources. Technology is also a way to use tools to help students stretch their minds and advance their learning in a way that will prepare them for what lies ahead of them once they step out of our school doors.

My Expectations:

My expectations for this class is to learn and implement new computer skills that will bring my classroom into the 21st century.

Technological Skills I Want to Learn:

Excel
Powerpoints (embed videos, sound, etc.)
Wiki's
Podcasting
Classroom website that my students and parents can use
Online gradebooks for parents
Publisher (to create brochures for student projects)
Photostory


Informator of Technology:

One of my main goals is to maintain a fun and interactive classroom. To have a classroom that shows evidence of students engaged into lessons through the use of technology. As an informator of technology my goal is to make sure my students are engaged through the use of technology.

Barriers:

Price of technology
Not enough funds for the SPED Dept to purchase many technological devices
Availability of a computer lab when I need it for my students
Work orders not being filled fast enough to fix computers
Lack of knowledge, on my part, of what technology is out there
Unavailability of students access to computers at home

Reflection of the Videos:

After viewing the videos in class I realized that this generation is way more advanced in technology than my generation was 11 years ago when I was a student. The worksheets and book work that I did as a student was appropriate for that time, but now those things just aren't appropriate for our growing technological generation. They are able to do things as teenagers that I am still trying to figure out as an adult and an educator. I have to incorporate technology in the classroom more often so my students don't lose interest. As the technological world discovers ways to get my students' attention, I have to compete to keep that attention in my classroom. They are always up to speed with the latest technological equipment and what was new then is old by the time I figure it out. I need to allow my students to teach me new things just like I need to teach them new things.

My First Blog

This is officially my first blog.....yay!! Once I get the hang of this blogging thing I think I will enjoy it.