Discipline and Behavior

When a conflict between students escalated to a physical level, this teacher looked at all the factors involved, including the classroom space.

My third-period students rushed in at the start of class, wide-eyed and excited. Something had happened.

“Quentin hit Ms. Combs!”

Helen Combs was my friend. She taught language arts. “He knocked her down,” one student reported. “They took her to the hospital, and the police took him away in handcuffs!”

I don’t remember exactly what instigated it, but something had made Cashanda mad. She positioned herself—and her desk—right smack in front of the board. She was defiant. Her physical placement made it impossible to continue my lesson.

I hear it now and then. It invariably comes after a long day in an elementary school classroom, a day that seems like a year.

"If I didn't have [student’s name], I could teach my class!"

You know the children who fill in the blank. They're the ones who stand when you ask them to sit, talk when you ask for silence and play when you need them to work.

Marvin is one of those children. He is 9 years old.

Many times in my career, I have heard a colleague warn, “Watch out for that one! He’s trouble!”

Students quickly gain a reputation with the teachers. In an effort to help each other, teachers may offer a warning about a challenging student. I’ve learned not to believe everything I’m told.

I’ve been reading lately about the school-to-prison pipeline and reflecting on my work as an administrator. I think frequently about the toughest day of my career in education: the day I had one of our students arrested.

The year I taught art in the dysfunctional chaos of an overcrowded urban middle school with weak administrators, practically everyone in the school—both students and teachers—needed a "safe place."