Does In School Suspension work ? Maintain it or terminate it? What do you think?
Sunday, November 14, 2010
In School Suspension: Maintain or Eliminate?
In school suspension has been a consistent duty for me annually. Its a great duty because you get to meet kids (not the best circumstances) that you normally would not meet. I realize that some districts do without ISS. Never-the-less students are sent to this classroom by their teacher as a result of a variety of student infractions. They remain there for the remainder of class period depending on the infraction and also seen by an administrator who then decides on the consequences. Comments welcome.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I prefer the in-school suspension to the external because there are in a quiet work space, without their friends (usually), where they are expected to do work. This responsibility is not allowed to be a teacher's supervision according to our collective agreement; we have two part-time monitors who supervise the room, when required, throughout the day. There are times when there aren't any students in the room.
ReplyDeleteOne difference, though, in the way it operates at our school...a teacher can send a student to the office for VP discipline; it's the VP who decides whether that student will have an in-school suspension in the 'study room'. A teacher cannot assign 'study room' him/herself.
Also, if a student has been suspended and is quite behind in the work, the VP often assigns 'study room' for that student to get caught up faster on the work. Once they get caught up, they are permitted to return to class. Most students, if there are at school, would prefer to be in the classroom with their peers, rather than to be in the study room in isolation; thus, typically they tend to get down to the work much better.
I find when students are suspended outside the school, they rarely get the work done. We are required by law in Ontario to provide the work that they will be missing as a result of the suspension (and evaluate it); however, I've found that since that law change there hasn't been any improvement in how much work actually gets done and submitted by an externally suspended student.
For those smaller infractions, I would prefer to see students in a 'study room' with an expectation to get some work completed before they are permitted to return to class.
Thanks for the comment. There are similiarities here, however, in my situation teachers are assigned to monitor the room each class period. I've had this assignment for the past 10 years high school grades 9-12. One positive it that as a teacher you maintain a sense of discipline therefore getting the respect of students other than those on your roster.
ReplyDelete