SED 500 Discipline Journal #2

Incident #1 Cell Phone
A. October 6, 2008
B. During lunch
C. I was on my way to lunch when one of the custodians asked me to check the girls' bathroom. He said that there was a group of girls that had been in the bathroom for a long time and he needed to go in and clean up a leak. When I walked in I just saw one girl and she was texting on her cell phone at the counter. I walked in and asked her to give me her phone and she said, "I can't give you my phone." When I asked her why not she responded that she was texting her mom and that she needed the phone for after school. I told her that I still needed her phone or she will be receiving a referral for insubordination which will result in 2 days ISS. She continued to argue with me and since I knew the girl's name, I told her, "Okay, Jane Doe, I am going to write a referral for you." She was shocked that I knew her name and continued to argue that she wasn't going to give me her phone. Since I didn't have much time left in the lunch period, I decided to leave the restroom. I told her that she will be receiving a referral from me for refusing to give up her cell phone. I then told her that she needed to leave the restroom so the man could come in and clean it. Then I walked out of the restroom.
D. I wrote the referral and sent it to the office. I don't know what was her consequence, but I am sure it was 2 days ISS. If she did receive ISS then I feel that the consequence was appropriate.
E. Since I have not had this student in class there were no relationships affected. I only knew her name because she had come to content mastery to get help when I was in there.

Incident #2 Disruptive Behavior
A. October 8, 2008
B. 10th / World History
C. Class had just started when one of my students, "Billy" dropped his dollar coin from the vending machine. Another student, "Jon" rushed over and took the coin off the floor and kept it. "Billy" wanted his coin back so he took "Jon's" backpack. The two young men chased each other around the classroom and played tug-o-war with the backpack. "Jon" wouldn't give the coin back no matter how much I told him to. He claimed that he didn't have the coin, however, "Billy" never got it back either. After about 5 minutes of them running around the room I had had enough and could tell there was no way it was going to end. Then "Jon" decided to push a desk towards "Billy" to cut him off so he could get his backpack. This action resulted in "Billy" falling over the desk onto the floor. I sent them both out of the classroom with a referral for disruptive behavior. "Jon" came back with a detention, but "Billy" never did. I asked "Jon" if "Billy" had made it to the office and he said that he saw him walking another direction. I investigated and found out that "Jon" had signed in at the office, but was never seen by an administrator. He had signed in then left. Thankfully, I had saved a copy of the original referral which I attached to a new referral noting that he never showed up to the office.
D. "Jon" was given 2 days ISS for skipping the office. I believe that this was an appropriate consequence for "Jon." It was his first time in the office this year and he wasn't shown "mercy." Usually when students don't have a file they let them off with a warning or a detention. Since "Jon" didn't make it to the office his warning was waived and he was given the more severe consequence.
E. Even though this situation resulted in a bad one, I still feel that my relationship to this student was not affected. He came to class once he finished his ISS time and he demonstrated respect to me and did as I had asked of him.

Incident #3 - Tardy
A. October 9, 2008
B. 9th / World Geography
C. I have one female student who walks into my class late almost every week. As indicated on the tardy sheet she walked in late with her 7th tardy. When she came in late she begged that I didn't write her up. According to our campus tardy policy, the 7th tardy is Saturday School. She had already been given a 2 hour Saturday School for tardy #6 and now she would be given a 4 hour Saturday School. Since it was the day of six weeks exams, I decided that it would be best for her to finish her test and to send her to the office later in the period. Once she completed her test, I sent her down to the office with the referral documenting all her tardies.
D. She came back at the end of the period with a copy of the referral. I am not sure what her consequence was since she came back to my class in a bad mood and didn't show me the referral. I am sure that the consequence was appropriate since they had been appropriate the last few times.
E. I don't feel that any relationships with this student were affected. I had written her up several times for the same thing and she has never taken it out on me. She still comes to me for advice and says hi to me in the hallways.

Incident #4 Cell Phone
A. October 7, 2008
B. After 2nd period
C. I was on my way to the office when I saw a young lady walking by the cafeteria with her cell phone out. I asked the girl to give me her phone and she kept walking away. She at first ignored me, but then when I said it louder, she yelled back, "NO!" I proceeded to follow her around the outside of the building. I was about 10 steps behind her and the young lady never did turn around or stop to talk to me. The whole time I was following behind her and asking her to stop, she just kept walking and mouthing off. She informed me that she was walking to the front of the school so her mom can pick her up because she was leaving our school and will no longer be coming to MHS. I finally stopped following her when she walked around the band hall towards the front. I had somewhere else I needed to go and I didn't have time to chase her all over the building. I could have caught her if I had ran after her, but I didn't think it was too professional to chase a student around in circles.
D. Since I never did catch up to her, there were no consequences. To this day I have kept my eyes open for her. I have asked around to see if anyone knows her name and all I have come up with is Melissa. I pulled up Chancery to locate all "Melissa's" on our campus and none of the pictures matched up to her. So I am assuming she did withdrawal.
E. Since I hadn't seen this student until today, I hadn't established a relationship with her. Since I had no previous relationship in regards to her there were none affected.

Incident #5 Cell Phone
A. October 8, 2008
B. Before 1st period/after tardy bell
C. I was walking to the front office with another teacher when we noticed a young man walking towards us on his cell phone. He obviously didn't care about the school policy regarding cell phones since he continued to carry on a conversation even after he made eye contact with us. As we got closer he continued to talk on his cell phone. We asked him to give us his cell phone and he immediately began to argue with us. He informed us that he was NOT going to give us his cell phone and that he was talking to his momma. He said that he called his momma to pick him up because there was no way he was going to sit in ISS all day on stools due to a back problem that he had. We still asked that he give us the cell phone. He wouldn't stop talking or wlaking. When we walked one direction, he walked the other direction. After about 5 minutes of this, another teacher came into the hallway and noticed what was happening. So she put out her arms to block him from walking away from us again. By this time the student was trapped with all 3 of us surrounding him. We redirected him to the office since he was being insubordinate. We followed along behind him as he made his way to the discipline office.
D. Since the teacher I was walking with was an administrator intern she handled the situation so I could get to my hall duty. I do not know what the consequence of his insubordination was, but the teacher did tell me that his mother said that she was going to take his cell phone away from him.
E. Today was the first time I had seen this student so there was no prior relationship established that was affected

Incident #6 Stealing/Skipping Lunch
A. October 8, 2008
B. During 2nd lunch/3rd period
C. On one section of my classroom, I stapled Skeeter pride stuff. One thing in particular is a football towel that I received a couple of years ago from the Booster Club. I stapled this towel on the wall behind the door. I noticed when I got back into my room 2nd period that this towel was gone. I remember it being there before school so I knew that it had to be taken during 1st period when another teacher is in my classroom. The staples were still sticking out from the wall when the student pulled it off. It wasn't until 3rd period when I decided to ask a couple of my students if they knew who took the towel. Some of my students were in that class 1st period so I thought they would have seen something. It wasn't until after lunch I found out who had my towel. When I was going to lunch I noticed this young man in a pink shirt walking around the ISS room to leave campus for lunch. I tried to stop him, but by the time I walked around the building he was already past the car wash. I noticed him swinging something white around his head as he walked across the street. When I got back to class, one of my students came up to me and said, "Mrs. Lemons, I did some asking around and I know who has your towel." I asked him who it was and he said he didn't know his name but he was standing outside in the hallway. We walked out in the hallway and he pointed out the same student I saw crossing the street during lunch. Then it dawned on me that the white thing he was swining around his head was my towel. Now I can get the student who stole my towel and the student who skipped lunch. I saw which classroom he went into so I called the teacher. I asked her if she had a student in her class wearing a pink shirt with a shaved head. She said yes. I found out that his name was Josh, but I didn't have his last name. I then asked her what his last name was and then I explained to her what had happened. I then asked her if he had a white Skeeter towel with him when he walked into her classroom She immediately said that he did. I told her that I was on my way to write him up for skipping lunch and for stealing my towel. I walked down to her classroom and asked to speak to Josh. When he came out into the hallway, I explained to him that I had seen him walking across the street for lunch so I was going to write a referral for skipping. Then I told him that I also needed my towel back. He said he didn't have my towel. I informed him that I just saw him swinging it over his head. Then he told me that I could search him. We walked back into the classroom and he showed me there was nothing in his bag. I knew that he had to have hidden it so I told him that since I saw him with it I was going to include on the referral that he stole the towel and refused to give it back. As I was writing on the referral he immediately reached over to another student who handed him my towel. Josh layed it down on the desk I was writing on and he quickly apologized. I took him back out into the hallway where I counseled with him. I asked him why he lied to me about having it and why he took it in the first place. He said he didn't know. I then told him that I would take off the part about him stealing the towel since he returned it, but I still needed to write him up for skipping lunch. He understood. I then went on to tell him that I knew he wasn't a bad student, he just made a bad decision. I wrote him up and sent him to the office.
D. I received a copy of his referral in my box. The referral showed that he was given an hour detention. I also e-mailed the teacher in my room 1st period to tell him who had my towel. I had e-mailed him previously to see if he knew who might have taken it. Of course he apologized for his student, and promised me that he would pay more attention to what his students were doing during class.
E. My relationship with this student has always been a good one. I didn't have him as a student, but he had come to CMC a couple of times. When he saw me in the hallway he would ask how my day was going. Even this morning while he was out in the hallway (before the incident happened) I asked him how his day was going so far and we carried on a friendly conversation. I think that after this incidient he may be a little timid or embarassed, but I don't think it is going to affect our relationship. I think it is just going to uncomfortable for him until a couple of weekes passes by.

Incident #7 Cell Phone Again
A. October 9, 2008
B. After 2nd period
C. I was leaving to go on my conference when I saw the same male student from the day before giving more teachers issues with his cell phone. He was angry that they somehow got it away from him. He was yelling at them and cussing out the other teacher who had his cell phone. I stayed around to make sure that she was safe and that nothing happened between her and the other student. He kept screaming at her to give him his cel phone because he needed it. After about 10 minutes of him walking back and forth to get the phone back from the teacher, he finally walked out of the building. Then right when we thought it was over, he walked back into the building demanding we give him his phone back. She told him that he could get his phone back in 24 hours and after he paid $15.00 for it. By this time she was on her way up to the office so he followed her there.
D. I didn't stick around to see the end result, but apparently whatever he received the day before didn't hold up for the next day. So apparently the consequence didn't teach him a lesson or stop his behavior. We did find out later that this student was labeled ED which stands for Emotional Disturbed and was one of our own students.
E. From my experience with this student, he has no respect for authorities and therefore we wouldn't have been able to establish good rapport. I had never seen this student all year and then in two days I saw his worst side come out. I am sure we will not have a very positive relationship in the future so there were no relationships affected.

Incident #8 Dress Code/Insubordination
A. October 10, 2008
B. During 1st period
C. I was walking back to my classroom after 1st period and there was a kid with a Jack Daniels jacket arguing with one of our female administrators. I stopped to see if she needed any help. The student apparently was warned about wearing his black jacket with a huge Jack Daniels bottle and logo on the back of it. He argued with her that he was not warned and that he would put the jacket in his locker. She told him that he already had his chance to put the jacket up and now he had to give it to her. He started walking away from her so I blocked the exit to keep him from walking away. He turned back around and walked the other way. By this time another teacher, who was an administrator intern, came and helped escort the student to the office.
D. Since I was not directly involved in this situation I didn't follow up to find out what had happened. I just wanted to make sure that the female administrator had the help she needed. I am sure when they went to the office his jacket was probably taken up so that he wouldn't wear it again this semester.
E. Since I didn't know this student and had never seen him before today, relationships were not affected.

Incident #9 Altercation
A. October 15, 2008
B. During beginning of 2nd lunch
C. I was eating lunch in a fellow teacher's classroom when I heard some screaming coming from outside the window. At first I thought it was just the crowd of students going to the cafeteria. Then I heard a teacher telling someone to "knock it off." So I walked outside to where the noise was and I saw a group of 5 hispanic students standing on one side of the breezeway and 1 hispanic student standing on the other side of the breezeway. Another teacher had already called for an administrator and an SRO. I began questioning the girls about what happened. One of the girls had 2 scratches on the right side of her face with fresh blood coming from it. The other girl had scratches on her neck and chest. Her forehead and face also looked pretty swollen as if she had been hit. When we asked the girls what had happened they said that they weren't doing anything. One of the girls said that she got scratches because one of the girls in the group of 5 and her were "play fighting." From what it looked like to me and the other teacher was the the single girl was probably jumped by the group of 5 and was afraid to speak up. They both said that they weren't fighting. About that time the SRO's and an administrator showed up and they gave them the same story. They weren't fighting and they didn't even know each other. The SRO's mentioned the same scratches on their necks and faces and they again denied fighting. So Officer Krajca pointed out that they would look at the cameras to find out what really happened. Of course then the girls were a little hesitant to deny they were fighting. The SRO's ended up taking the whole group of them to the office.
D. Since I left the situation in the SRO's hands, I did not stay around to find out what happened or follow through with the incident.
E. I had never dealt with any of the girls before and I didn't know who they were. I only recognized one girl because she was in ISS numerous times last year so I did not have any sort of ties or relationships to the girls. Therefore the incident did not affect my relationships to any students.

Incident #10 Skipping
A. October 9, 2008
B. End of 4th period/bus stop
C. Our campus has a big problem with skippers this year. Every 4A I walk my CBVI students to their buses around 3:30 to make sure they get to their buses before other students get out so they don't get lost in the crowd or injured. While we stand at the bus stop waiting for the buses to arrive we always see a huge group of students walking back on campus. The procedures explained to us is to re-route the students around K hall so they do not step back on campus in the breezeway. I noticed this group of African American students of about 8 walking back to catch their buses. They were headed towards the breezeway during the school hours. I yelled across the parking lot for them to go around K hall because they were considered to be trespassing if they went back on campus. About 3 of the female students turned around and looked at me then kept walking. It was obvious they heard me and were just choosing to ignore me. I began to walk towards them and repeat myself while they kept walking. By the time I caught up to them, a teacher on duty in the breezeway stopped them. He told them that they were not allowed to walk in the breezeway if they were supposed to be out of school. So he redirected them the way I told them to go. Of course the whole time they were arguing that they were not trespassing because they were students at our school. It didn't matter to us what they were saying, we just wanted them off campus before the bell rang.
D. Since they eventually ended up doing as I requested, there were no discipline actions taken. As of right now the office is trying to come up with a way to prevent students from skipping 4th period then coming back to catch their buses. It makes it difficult when our campus is so open and close to fast food restaurants. Not to mention the number of students we have that affect the amount of man power to keep up with the skippers.
E. Although I run the same kids off almost every other day, I don't feel that any relationships have been affected. They still do not respect my authority or the policies of our school. To them I am just some lady who tells them what they cannot do and they do it anyway.

II. The Model I Implemented:

Fred Jones' Positive Disciple Strategy

Summary of the Model:

I am usually a Love & Logic teacher that loves every concept of the behavior strategy. I had to implement Positive Discipline which is a discipline strategy that places an emphasis on learner motivation and classroom behavior. Dr. Jones' model is based on four legs of discipline and management. All four of the legs are needed to make this strategy successful. These legs that Dr. Jones refers to are limit setting, responsibility training, omission training, and backup system.

Description of How I Implemented the Strategy:

All students get tired of doing the same routine assignments over and over again. I decided to implement a technique that was discussed from the positive reinforcement behavior strategy. I usually lecture on a section from the text book then I have my students discuss the questions or answer the questions. I decided to use the "BAM Boards." Since my US History class is my best class and I tend to enjoy the most, I decided to implement the strategy with them. Since I didn't have the shower board that Steve mentioned, I decided to just have my students write on their own paper. We were discussing the establishment of the United States, specifically the Pilgrims and Puritans that came and to set up the 13 colonies. I gave my students some paper and told them to write the word "PILGRIMS" and "PURITANS" on their paper. Pilgrims is on one side of the paper and Puritans is on the other side of the paper. At the end of the section, the text asks 5 questions. I explained to them that when the answer was Pilgrims they needed to flip their paper to that side and yell "BAM" as they showed me their answers. Then vice versa with Puritans. I couldn't believe the amount of classroom participation I had. Usually I have about 1 or 2 that don't speak up in class, but even those students were holding up papers. I even adjusted the strategy by telling them that if they thought their answer was wrong after a hint then they could change their answer by yelling "BAM, BAM." Some chose to use this when they changed their answer. We all had so much fun that I had to come up with more questions just so we could keep playing. It gave me a way to check for understanding without having to grade numerous amounts of paper.

What Worked and What Didn't:

The only thing I found that didn't work too well was the use of white notebook paper. Since the students wrote the words so huge when they held up their papers, I could see the other word bleeding through the side they were showing me. So I had trouble seeing what the students in the back chose. The BAM Boards worked wonderfully!! I have used it once more since the first time I used it. When I have time I am going to run by Home Depot and get the shower board that Steve suggested. I know my students will enjoy that much more than notebook paper.

Reflection of the Strategy:

This technique have a very good effect on my students. They were more engaged in the lesson and on me. Usually when we discuss the answers I have some students who will work on other things or never look directly at me. With the BAM Boards every single student's eyes were looking at me and I had 100% participation from the class. I feel that the implementation of this technique helped my students understand the sections that were taught and it helped them retain the information. When I did a brief recap of the previous days lesson before starting the new lesson, my students still remembered what we discussed because of the BAM Boards. BAM Board is a strategy that I will continue to implement in my classroom of juniors and plan on using it in my other classes.