March 2019 - Supporting Students Who Make Mistakes
By Kadee Anstadt, Ed.D., Assistant Superintendent, Perrysburg Schools
When I walked into school as a young student, there was a list of school rules posted on the wall. Later, when I was a teacher, this process had become more collaborative and, as a class, we would come up with rules for our class. Every teacher in every classroom had their own individual set of rules that were similar, but did not share a common language. At Perrysburg Schools, we have evolved from that practice to a shared vision of expectations for students and adults from preschool to grade 12 called The Jacket Way.
Students are learning the three R’s of The Jacket Way: Respectful, Responsible and Ready. It reflects the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, the work of our school district’s diversity committee, called the CQ CommUNITY, and is based upon the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports model, which defines student and adult expectations to create a culture that is safe and welcoming and is best suited for students to be academically, emotionally and socially successful.
Teachers no longer just post rules; they instead show examples of what The Jacket Way looks like with common language and also what it does not look like. Because students are constantly moving in and out of our school district, we cannot assume that just by hanging up a Jacket Way poster that everyone understands Jacket Way expectations. It is about recognizing and rewarding good behavior rather than simply punishing undesirable behavior.
When students do make mistakes, we do not want to just react and punish. We want to restore positive relationships and appropriate behaviors. If two students have a conflict in a classroom, just taking the student who started it out, wagging our finger at them and then sending them back into the classroom is not solving the conflict, nor does it help the victim feel safe again. We now work to find out what both students need. We may, in this example, ask the victim what they need to feel safe when the other student returns. Maybe all that is needed is for one student to sit in a different location. We want to diffuse the situation before it escalates. We want to restore peace and safety.
Another example might be when a high school student gets into trouble and misses a lot of school. When they come back, there may be no way they can graduate on time. Our charge is to determine how can we provide support to this student to “Return to Learn” to ensure they still are on track to graduate. The “Return to Learn” concept can be applied to medical leave, mental health challenges or disciplinary matters. In spite of our school district’s rapid growth – because of the great counselors, teachers and administrators here – we do everything we can to create custom solutions for each student who needs this support.
When I officiate expulsion hearings, I often tell students and parents/guardians that there are rarely any mistakes at this age that are not recoverable. It might be uncomfortable—you’re out ten days and then you come back and have to face your friends and teachers. We used to think of these students only as a perpetrator, but now we also think about how are we going to return them to a safe environment. The consequences are still tough— the Alternative Discipline Program, which is our version of in-school suspension, is more rigorous than out-of-school suspension. We use the in-school Alternative Discipline Program much more than in the past. With out-of-school suspension, students could potentially be at home playing video games for five days while falling behind in their classes. In the Alternative Discipline Program, students are monitored and counseled while keeping up with work and they are also provided with a safe place to talk about their mistakes. The Alternative Discipline Program relies on counseling on how to recover from their mistakes. Sometimes it is one-on-one counseling about anger management or it may be a group book study.
We use the Alternative Discipline Program for grades 5-12, and it is hosted at Perrysburg Junior High School. Students in the program are together all day, including lunch. Our goal is to provide space and resources for reflection, and to keep these behaviors from getting traction.
Using these tools, our goal is to make sure when a student comes back from a mistake, we show them a path to responsibility and recovery. We cannot assume that students already have those tools.
Often I am asked what is different from when we were kids? When a student made a mistake in the past, it was contained within the school or our community. Now, in a matter of seconds, the world often sees their mistakes because of social media. None of us would want our worst day broadcast to the universe. The advent of social media has changed the way we need to respond and support students. Students often need more support and guidance now in order to ensure ALL students achieve their greatest potential.
Posted: Tuesday, March 19, 2019