I believe that if given incentive, children are very capable of monitoring their own behavior.  To this end, your child will be placed on one of three teams, and each week these teams compete in a weekly contest for a prize by earning points based upon behavior, work completion, neatness and organization of desks, and their ability to listen, work cooperatively, and follow directions.  In previous years my students have absolutely loved these contests (because many of the tasks often involve an element of fun), and they have done an excellent job of monitoring their own behavior and the behavior of teammates, making my job a lot easier.

The students will also be working toward a class wide goal at the same time.  On Friday afternoon I will add up all the points from all the teams, and if they meet or exceed the weekly goal, they will be rewarded.  If they fail to meet the goal, I will be rewarded.  This way teams in last place with little hope of winning still have incentive to do well and earn points, since these points will work toward the common class goal.    

I began using this system 6 years ago and have had very few problems with discipline as a result of it, and expect similar results this year.    

However, if discipline problems do arise, I will do the following:

Normally my first step in correcting a child’s behavior is a one-on-one conference with the child, which generally has excellent results.  I speak to the child privately and determine the cause of the inappropriate behavior, and together we brainstorm solutions to correct the problem.  Occasionally this conference involves other students if the situation warrants it or if other students are directly involved.     

If this does not work, I have several options.  They include: 

• Your child may simply lose privileges until his or her behavior is corrected.  You will see that over time, the classroom becomes a place of opportunity, freedom, and fun for the kids as long as they demonstrate responsibility and a solid work ethic.  Activities such as chess, webpage creation, digital video productions, and many more are available to all students unless they demonstrate that they are not mature or responsible enough for them.  As a result, poor behavior can result in restriction from one or more of these activities until the behavior has been corrected.  Rather than participating with the class, an alternate assignment will be provided.   
   

• A few years ago I began a program of community service, in which students who misbehave (particularly those who have gotten into trouble by arguing with one another) are forced to work together to complete a service project during a time in which the rest of the class is having fun.  Washing the walls of a hallway, cleaning up in the cafeteria for custodians, and assisting in kindergarten classrooms are examples of some of the community service projects that I imposed last year.  This consequence worked well.  Students who couldn’t stand one another at the beginning of the day returned to the classroom after their community service was complete with a common and interesting story to tell the class.  The anger that they had for one another was quickly replaced by the teamwork required in cleaning up after kindergartners during lunch or figuring out how to teach a first grader about the silent E.  A few years ago, after a pair of boys excitedly shared their story of cleaning up the cafeteria during 5^th grade lunch with their classmates, a girl looked at the boys who had been punished with a puzzled expression and said, “I thought you hated each other?"

• If a child chronically misbehaves in the classroom, consistently interferes with the learning of other students, or is in need of a wake-up call, he or she will be told to leave the classroom.  If you’ve ever really listened to the words of the “Mr. Dicks Song,” there is a line that says, “If you misbehave, he’ll send you out the door.”  This is actually true.   The child in question will be told to leave, to go to another third grade classroom or the office, depending on the severity and frequency of the behavior problem, where a miserable assignment and a mean teacher will be waiting.  Time outside the classroom can range from 10 minutes to an hour, depending on the situation and frequency.  Again, this will be used if a child is being extremely difficult or is disrupting the learning of other children, and you will be notified if such action has taken place.  I do not expect this to happen often.   

My ultimate goal is to ensure each child and each parent that our classroom will be a safe and friendly environment that is conducive to learning, and I will work extremely hard to guarantee this assurance to you.