Shoot or Shute

We are busily checking out books for the summer, stamped with a due date of September 8, 2014. I

was gathering a stack of requests for a colleague, and as I went through the stacks I was talking to myself (as I often do). A student, one of our regulars, looked up with concern and asked "Is everything okay, Mrs. Cicchetti?" I smiled, and pulled the book I was looking for off the shelf. He laughed when I pointed to the cover and he saw the author's name.

I was muttering "Shute, Shute, Shute" and he heard  "Shoot, shoot, shoot...".

Even as we are checking out books for the summer, we are still chasing down students with overdue

books from the academic year. We have come up with an inexpensive and fun way to help students remember to bring in their books. We bought a packet of big, chunky, #84 rubber bands, and write OVERDUE BOOKS in red pen. Students are instructed not to remove the rubber band until they return their books. It is all done with a laugh, and it is working! Smiles all around.

Those Bad Kids!

Managing student behavior can be tough. What is a librarian to do? 

This is how we handle behavioral issues in our high school learning commons.

We keep it simple. The rules are kept to a bare minimum, but flexible enough to cover a lot of ground.

Our rules:

4 to a table during lunch blocks.

Have work out in front of you.

Enjoy your food and drinks in the cafeteria.

Be nice.

We have no signs. We do a lot of walking around and talking with students to explain our expectations. Consistency is key. If a group of six is working diligently they still need to get their numbers down to four, because that rowdy group of five is watching and they don’t like what they view as favoritism. Four means four, for everybody.

Reward the Good

Positive reinforcement earns better behavior than rules and signs. Praising a students’ work ethic, behavior choices, praising just about anything, builds trust. This is money in the bank when a student is making bad choices and needs to be corrected.

Escalation

When conflict arises I keep my emotions in check, and my voice low. When you yell you have lost the argument. If a situation is escalating I get very quiet and watch my body language. No hands on hips, no crossed arms. I stand at an angle to the student and validate his/her feelings of anger. “I can see you are upset with my decision. Let’s step outside so we can talk about it, because I want to settle this so we are both on the same page.”

Removing a student from the conflict helps decrease the chance of things turning into a spectacle. Head’s up, if you get into a power struggle with a student in in front of his/her friends, it will be a battle that you will lose. They will not lose face in front of their peers, and even if you do succeed in winning, you will lose that student forever. It is better to let it go and follow up later.

Occasionally I find myself saying “These kid…” and realize I am in a funk. It helps to remind myself that the overwhelming majority of our students are polite and incredibly hard working. It is a small minority who are consistently causing problems, and who require more drastic intervention. For these students our staff keeps a behavior log. We document when we have repeated problems with a student to see if there are patterns, and to make sure we are dealing with the issue. It also helps if we get questions from administration, faculty or parents.

Most importantly, I try to always remember that I have no idea what issues a student is carrying with him/herself when entering the learning commons. Stress at home, illness, anxiety over schoolwork, social problems, there are so many worries in a student’s life. Today as I write we have two teams about to compete in state championships. This is great, but it is also very stressful. Our staff understands that we could have some behavioral issues and this will impact how we deal with problems.

Lowering the Boom

When talking and reminding fails to bring about improved behavior we revoke privileges. Anywhere from a day to a week without access to the learning commons, the technology and resources and most important, their friends, usually brings them in line with our very basic expectations. We document whenever a student has privileges revoked.

The Goal

If a student is disciplined and never returns, I have failed. The goal is to have the student comfortable to return, and successfully meeting his/her goals in the learning commons. In dealing with some of my most challenging students I have been able to forge new respect and friendship. It is a great feeling.

Saving Grace

Laughter. Reminding myself that I have the best job in the world and that dealing with student behavior is part of that job, helps me maintain balance.

This 2.25 minute video on rules and business has a lot to offer school librarians. Work a look.

Don't punish everyone for one person's mistake from Derek Sivers on Vimeo.

Thanks to Free Technology for Teachers: Don't Punish Everyone: for the source of this video.

'via Blog this'

Challenging Freshmen

Aah, freshmen!

A couple of years ago we had a freshman with an exuberant interest in one particular girl. She was studious. He was not. He would follow her to the individual, silent study carrels on our third floor. This area is for students who seriously decide they need to concentrate. This boy drove us nuts up there, in his earnest attempts to gain favor with the apple of his eye. The day he was found climbing under the carrels to grab her ankle, a line was crossed.

I wasn't there at the time, but one of our library assistants wrote the incident up in our cleverly named "Incident Book". In it, she documented the numerous attempts to quiet the boy down, move him (unsuccessfully) to another area of the facility, and the push back at having his attentions thwarted. In fact, he was pretty rude.

When I arrived at school the next day and read the account, I called his house. Yup. I got his number and his Mom answered. I explained the situation and she was really, really quiet. I started to read the report and then paused, asking if an email explanation would be more helpful. She said "No, keep going. I'm writing it all down." To tell you the truth I was pretty worried at this point. Mom was so quiet, so intense, and I was thinking this whole intervention might backfire.

Then she asked the name of the library assistant. I certainly didn't want a member of staff taking any heat, so I asked "Why?" She replied "So I can tell him who he needs to apologize to." I thanked her for her understanding, explained that because of her son's insubordination he would lose privileges for a week. She replied "Of course! His behavior was totally unacceptable!"

Twenty minutes later I could see, through our front windows, a car pull up to the main door. The car door opens and Romeo himself comes charging through the doors, into the Learning Commons. He screeches to a halt in front of the circulation desk and asks me where he can find the assistant librarian who reported the incident. It turns out he was home, sick as a dog and sound asleep in bed. His mother woke him up and drove him to school to apologize.

He graduated last year. A library regular. A great kid. I really miss him and hope he stops in for a visit when he is on break from college.

The "Incident Book" has served us well. Anytime there are interactions with students that are troublesome, concerning, or indicate patterns of behavior, we date them and jot them down. A simple thing and even a little cathartic at times, this is our document of behaviors we need to pat attention to and also, potentially, present to parents in an effort to address.

In the meantime, I have a freshman student with a serious coffee addiction. She also seems to think passes to the learning commons and appropriate behavior are optional. Cups are left everywhere, she floats all over and distracts everyone, and she is seriously driving us crazy. Maybe it is time for a call home...


Photo Credit:

R. Cicchetti
CCHS LC Carrels


Flickr Creative Commons
Coffee to go