Edclicking Keyword Cloud
By Dr. Harry Tennant
Saturday, September 22, 2012 Education Ride 365: Another Tool In An Education Discipline Toolbox Desperately In Need There were plenty of times as a school administrator when I had to assign a disciplinary consequence to a young person who was rarely in trouble. As mentioned in a previous post on this topic, many students only get in trouble once or twice a semester...if that. Nonetheless, for consistency sake and to maintain the perceived "fairness" of the school's discipline system generally speaking, even the "good" kids occasionally get a detention or more serious consequence for one reason or another. I always thought it would be so nice to have an alternative consequence for these students. More than a few times I assigned a young person to a consequence even as minor as a lunch detention only to hear from their parent how I was "exposing them to the bad kids," "damaging their psychology," "branding them with a scarlet letter," or otherwise scarring them for life. Besides all the justifications they often posed for why a traditional discipline consequence was "unfair" or wouldn't work, there were plenty of reasons from the school's perspective why I'd rather have an alternative to inconveniencing them by having the student surrender time to a traditional discipline setting such as detention, extra school, or in-school suspension. My previous three posts introduced several of these reasons. Managing a school discipline program effectively can be a rather daunting process. Depending upon the existing discipline climate of the school, as well as the assertiveness of the office in promoting improvement from that baseline, front office discipline can become a numbers game. There are limits to how many referrals can be addressed and in what manner. Are students "called in to the office" for each and every referral? Are their "cases" heard and investigated fully? Are parents contacted each time they are called in...or at least each time they are assigned a consequence? Limitations of time become a real factor. Beyond those limitations, arranging for and organizing traditional discipline consequences such as detention, extra school, and in-school suspension requires a significant amount of coordination of staff, facilities, and supporting processes. The number of seats available and personnel for supervision are limited, as can be facility space. Accurate lists must be maintained, follow-up on those who don't show up is essential, and often new discipline referrals are created in the discipline settings themselves! As mentioned in my last post, these traditional discipline settings are primarily designed to inconvenience or discomfort a child into compliance, but quite often produce just as much inconvenience and discomfort for the adults involved. They don't tend to be very constructive either. In fact, there are so many reasons including---and beyond---those that I've introduced in this and the past three posts that encouraged me to come up with an alternative consequence and, importantly, a way to readily manage that consequence option. There are two related yet distinct components of this alternative consequence. In this post I will introduce "Discipline Questionnaires" and in an upcoming post "Character Builder Questionnaires." While they are similar and can be used somewhat interchangeably, each has unique aspects and was designed with a slightly different vision for implementation.  "Discipline Questionnaires" are a collection of question sets designed around common school misbehaviors (specifically those pictured above). Students in trouble are provided with a URL, login, and password to access an assigned DQ from any computer that has internet connectivity. By the due date the student must access a computer, complete the DQ, and submit it online to the school designee (typically an assistant principal). It is then added to a pending list to be approved and credited, disapproved and reassigned, or disapproved and escalated to a more serious consequence. The web-based interface designed by Edclick makes these questionnaires easy to assign, monitor, assess, share with staff having a "need to know," and attach to a student's discipline history for future reference. Once students log in, they are asked to respond to a collection of questions targeted to their particular offense. These are called "Incident Evaluations." These question sets are presented in "accordion" style, organized into three main sections: Past & Perspective, Present & Aftermath, Future & Resolution. Each of these main sections include a number of questions, most of which are open-ended and probing. Furthermore, a more lengthy "Discipline Evaluation" can be used for more serious offenses or persistent misbehavior.
Advantages to using these questionnaires are many, for the school and the child. They are more diagnostic than many traditional consequences. They are written to encourage introspection by the young person, as well as to encourage them to look at the matter from perspectives beyond their own. They can be completed in the comfort and privacy of the student's home, as their schedule permits. In cases where the student can't access a computer at home, DQs can be completed on any computer with internet access or even printed off to be completed with pencil and paper. From my perspective as an administrator, one very compelling advantage to this discipline alternative beyond that I've previously introduced is the ability to sift out the less frequent offenders without overburdening the overall discipline system of the school so I could then really identify and hone in on those students I refer to as "frequent flyers," my more persistent behavior cases. This is a huge step towards establishing a healthier discipline climate in any school with a significant discipline case load. These question sets were written by a professional educator and are powered by computer programming designed by Edclick. The question sets are customizable by any school for their use. Questions can be edited and new questionnaires can be easily developed and implemented. In an upcoming post I'll introduce "Character Building Questionnaires." Each of these two types of question sets offer yet another tool in an education discipline toolbox desperately in need of expansion and specialization. Posted at 7:02 PM Keywords: Education Ride 365 , EdClick , Cycle Of Education , Discipline 0 Comments |
