Chapter 3 – Classroom Management Techniques

 

School Safety Is Everybody’s Business

Seven steps for schools to take to ensure positive school climate and a safer learning environment for all (from the NYSED):

  1. Develop and equitably enforce a Code of Conduct for the district and building. (Education Law– Chapter 16, Title ll, Article 55 § 2801. Codes of conduct on school property)
  2. Develop district safety plans and building emergency response plans to deal with serious situations and conduct drills, tabletops and functional exercises to increase the level of preparedness.
  3. Personalize the school environment.
  4. Analyze Violent And Disruptive Incident Reports (VADIR) and other student conduct data to provide information regarding pockets of concern that require attention and program strengths that could be replicated.
  5. Implement programs and activities that have a proven record of achieving positive results; Evaluate programs periodically for their effectiveness and potential improvement.
  6. Actively involve and engage parents and other community members in addressing issues and concerns.
  7. Make sure students, teachers, parents, administrators, and other school staff are aware of warning signs of violence and the need to communicate to others.

 

Violence Prevention Strategies

These strategies may be helpful in mediating the risk factors for violence.

 

Encourage “protective” factors

•Individual characteristics
–High IQ, resilient temperament, good natured, enjoys social interactions. With similar risk factors girls are less likely than boys to become violent.
•Bonding
–Strong, positive relationships with family members, teachers or other adults can make a youth feel that someone takes an interest in them and cares about them.
•Adults with healthy beliefs and clear standards
–Adults can act as role models and demonstrate to youths that people can succeed in life without being violent.

Interventions at the individual level

•Reach out to students and take a positive interest in them.
•Provide tutors or mentors from within the school or from local businesses, service organizations, colleges, or churches.
•Provide part time employment or volunteer work.
•Encourage students to get involved in school or community sponsored youth recreation activities or anti-violence youth collaborations.

School-wide strategies

Safe school environments require an atmosphere that demonstrates respect for, communication with, and responsibility to one another on a day-to-day basis. A positive school environment provides youths with tools to handle conflict in nonviolent ways. Here are some ways to facilitate such an environment:

•Anger management and counseling programs.
•Mediation and conflict resolution programs.
•A confidential reporting system for youth to alert school personnel with concerns regarding peers. Stress the differences between “ratting” and being safe.
•Alcohol and drug interventions for youths and their families.
•Links with youth serving and law enforcement agencies in the community.
•Extended school hours for organized recreation activities, childcare, etc.
•Classes for parenting skills.
•In-school crisis centers, staffed by professionals to work with violent youths and to be used as a “cooling off” space.
•A crisis team consisting of teachers, administration, and other school personnel.
•Training on managing violent youths for all school personnel.
•Monitoring by staff and guards.
•Parents as monitors or teachers aids.
•Discipline and dress codes.
•Zero tolerance policies
•A Post Incident Response Plan as part of the Incident Management Plan.
–Mental Health staff available to provide consultation and counseling to students, school personnel, and the community immediately after a crisis and on its anniversary dates.
–Self-help networks for students and their families who have survived a crisis.

District-wide strategies

Discipline codes should be reviewed periodically and comply with federal, state, and local education laws. Be sure consequences are commensurate with the violation, for example, employ a “graduated sanctions” approach to discipline. Detention, suspension, and expulsion policies should be reviewed and clearly defined so that the discipline code can be enforced consistently, firmly, and fairly.

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Positive Incentives

Instead of focusing only on punishment of negative behaviors, find ways to encourage positive behaviors.

  1. Create rewards for students who perform acts of good citizenship.
  2. Invite community leaders to tell students about different ways they can achieve success.
  3. Consider the potential value of school-wide assemblies in which effective motivational speakers deliver anti-drug, -alcohol, and -violence messages.
  4. Invite responsible adults to mentor and serve as positive role models for students.
  5. Promote press coverage of all types of students who have done well.
  6. Create programs that promote positive values, incorporate building blocks for developing character, and recognize students who exhibit positive traits.
  7. Promote partnerships between schools and law enforcement, community businesses, and service organizations to recognize and reward positive student behavior.

 

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