Education Week - October 4, 2017 - 27

MULTIPLE

TOP SCHOOL JOBS's CAREER CORNER BLOG

Classroom Management and Discipline
JOHN F. KENNEDY
SCHOOL BERLIN,
Germany seeks

American Elementary School
Assistant Principal
Teachers K-12 for Various Subjects/
Grades Effective August 1, 2018

The John F. Kennedy School was founded in 1960, as a bilingual and bi-cultural, German - American public school.
It offers a recognized American high school diploma as well
as the German Abitur.
The school serves 1700 students in two buildings. The
elementary school is made up of grades K - 6 and the high
school contains grades 7 - 12. The student body is comprised
of 57% Germans, 40% Americans and 3% international
students. The school has a faculty of more than 150
teachers, including 75 Americans and 83 Germans. The high
school has an American principal and a German principal
as well as corresponding assistant principals.
The city of Berlin offers unsurpassed cultural and
recreational opportunities, making it one of the most
vibrant and livable capitals in the world.
General Requirements: U.S. citizen, certification from
one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia, three years
recent teaching experience in the U.S. Additionally, for high
school teachers, a Masters Degree and for principals, recent
experience as an administrator in the U.S. Knowledge of the
German language is a plus but not a requirement. The
willingness to learn German is essential.
For further information, and to download an application,
consult our website www.jfks.de under "Jobs". Applications
and credentials should be sent electronically to:
Recruitment Coordinator
John F. Kennedy School · Teltower Damm 87-93
14167 Berlin, Germany
Tel. +49 30 902 99 5758 · Fax +49 30 902 99 6868
Email: recruitment@jfksberlin.org

Application Deadlines:
Assistant Principal November 1, 2017
Teachers
December 15, 2017

Positions Available
INSTRUCTIONAL COORDINATOR:
St. Mary's School of Medford, Inc.
seeks to hire an Instructional
Coordinator to work in Medford, OR, to
develop instructional material for the
Confucius Classroom (Chinese
language and culture) program for

grades 7-12; coordinate educational
content and instructional materials; and
coordinate Chinese language proficiency
testing for grades 7-12. If interested, mail
résumé to: St. Mary's School of Medford,
Inc., 816 Black Oak Dr., Medford, OR
97504, Attn: Frank Phillips.

Get
Career

Advice

Classroom discipline varies by teacher. Some
forms of discipline are more serious than others
and some are not as effective as they may seem.
Teachers need to be aware of this when taking action in the classroom. Developing your classroom
and discipline plans is an important part of preparation for the upcoming school year. Meeting with
other teachers and staff to di scuss w hat has
worked for them, as well as what has not, is a great
way to ensure you're using the best methods of
classroom management.
-Assigned seats
Assigned seating is an easy and immediate way to
start off classroom structure and expectations. Unless you are familiar with all of your news students
already, you'll need to give a day or so to learn
each child's classroom habits. Chatty kids can be
separated. Those who require redirection often can
be placed near the front. Any children who need to
stand up more often can be seated toward the back
of the room.
A teacher could leave assigned seats for the whole
school year or perhaps make it open seating during
the second half of the year. This does give more
control back to the students so it's important to be
careful with this and it's best to this when the
teacher has been able to recognize their students'
work ethic. Open seating can be used as a goal
that can be earned with excellent behavior.
This form of classroom management requires constant attention. Watching for changes over the
course of the year and making sure that every student's needs are met are a top priority when rearranging seating.
The group tables vs individual desks discussion
resonates with experienced and new teachers
alike. Remember, what is good for one group, may
not be best for another. Tables can open up more
of a community feel but also invite more conversation during lessons and testing. Desks are great for
individual student organization, but take up a lot of
room and don't promote sharing as well.
-Detention
Detention is a form of discipline where the student
is required to stay at a specific place in school for a
certain amount of time outside of school hours.
Typically, detention is after school but can also be
in the morning before school, during lunch or even
on a Saturday.
Instead of going home at the end of the day, the student reports to a designated classroom where he or
she must sit in a desk for a predetermined time, ranging from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours,
and sit in silence while working on an assignment.
Is it effective?
Students who typically misbehave and are frequently being referred to the office tend to find
their way in detention a lot. A study done by the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln found that students
who keep going to detention do not see improvement in behavior.
This may be because they don't see detention as
a form of discipline anymore but instead as a routine and that becomes the norm for them. For
these students, it's important to consider another
form of discipline.
However, studies show that detention can be an effective form of discipline to those students that
rarely misbehave or cause trouble. Since these students are not used to being disciplined by staying
after hours, it'll have more of an effect on these students instead of the students who grow accustomed.
-Suspension
When the most extreme of discipline, expulsion, is
not warranted, but detention has not worked, some
schools will impose an in or out of school suspension. Suspension is when a student is not allowed

to go to school and remain at home for a certain
number of days. This is another common form of
discipline and is more serious than detention.
Is it effective?
A Texas study titled, Breaking Schools' Rules,
tracked all seventh-graders in Texas for six years
(1 million). This study found that 60 percent of
those students were suspended or expelled at
least once between seventh and 12th grade. This
number has increased over the years and more
student suspensions mean other forms of discipline should be considered.
When a student is suspended, they are being removed from the current issue at school but at the
same time they are losing class days. When the student returns, they could be behind in classwork and
possibly even continue to disrupt the classroom.
Suspending someone who is constantly jeopardizing the classroom and breaking the rules can be the
right thing to do, but how the teacher deals with it
afterwards is just as important.
In-school suspension may be a better route because this way the student is still in class and can
be working on classwork while being removed from
the situation/problem.
-Calling Parents
The relationship a teacher builds with parents
plays an important part in the classroom. The
teacher makes sure the student is on top of their
work while in class and the parents can make sure
the student is on top of their work at home. It's
crucial that a teacher builds a relationship with
parents early in the school year. This way they are
aware of the teacher's policies and how they tend
to run the classroom.
This is important because the teacher doesn't want
the first conversion with a student's parent to be
about how their child is frequently interrupting
class. If the relationship is already there, there is
more trust and the conversations tend to be more
open and productive.
It is effective?
When a situation becomes serious enough for the
teacher or principal to get the parents directly involved, the hope is that a child realizes how their
actions affect everyone on a much larger scale. Not
all discipline can be handled inside of the school.
There are many times when it will become necessary to get parents involved to ensure that such behavior does not continue, and a student's parents
should be kept in the loop for all major issues. This
can be effective for students who have a healthy
relationship with their parents because the parents
will take the necessary action at home.
Disciplinary actions taken on a larger scale should
be a team effort from both the school and parents.
Relying only on regularly scheduled conferences
leaves too much time for poor behavior choices to
become habit instead of corrected.
Children require structure and support to flourish.
Some teachers have found that greeting each child,
individually, every morning establishes mutually
beneficial respect and an environment of consistency. Some classes function better with a little less
structure and can utilize an open seating and honor
system for bathroom visits. Do what's best for you
and your class while following guidelines of your
school and discussing with other education professionals who can offer tips and best practices, especially if you are a first time teacher or new to a
school or district.
To read more blog posts, visit http://blogs.edweek.
org/topschooljobs/careers/.
The opinions expressed are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement
of Editorial Projects in Education.

Are you looking for insights on how to
better navigate your education career?

Submit your questions online.

visit
www.TopSchoolJobs.org
under Career Resources click Get
K-12 Career Advice
EDUCATION WEEK | October 4, 2017 | www.topschooljobs.org

http://www.blogs.edweek.org/topschooljobs/careers http://www.jfks.de http://www.TopSchoolJobs.org http://www.blogs.edweek.org/topschooljobs/careers http://www.blogs.edweek.org/topschooljobs/careers http://www.edweek.org/claim http://www.topschooljobs.org

Education Week - October 4, 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - October 4, 2017