Principal for a Day My role as principal for a day was to address any student discipline concerns that arose

in the absence of my building principal. These concerns ranged from bus safety violations to fighting. Having sat in with my principal on several discipline referral meetings this year, I followed the same basic procedures for each referral. I started by gathering some information about the student. I used our student information system which contains information about past discipline concerns. I spoke with the teachers about each concern to ensure that our building discipline plan was being followed. For example in the case of a minor discipline concern, such as not being prepared for class or off task and disruptive classroom behaviors, there is a school-wide discipline policy that includes sequential consequences for students that are not meeting expectations. An office discipline referral is the last consequence that a student should receive in the case of minor discipline concerns. I think that this is important information for a principal to gather because while I understand that disruptive behaviors hinder the learning process not only for that student but for other students in the classroom; I think that is very important for teachers to be responsible and take charge of discipline in their own classrooms. Classroom behaviors should receive classroom consequences when at all possible and effective in receiving the desired behavior. Once that behavior is so severe that it reaches the office, I think that we really run out of options of reaching that student and ensuring their success in the classroom because we are not taking them out of the classroom and taking that power away from the teacher. I think that it is important to

support teachers in this process and provide them with the resources and strategies that they need to work with those difficult students. Once I had an idea of how the students current and past behaviors and discipline consequences both inside the classroom and outside, I also ask the teachers to give me insight into the students the personality, temperament, work ethic, and/or home life. Both new and experienced principals may find a need to do this. I am not all that familiar with students outside of my team and so I found taking this extra step help me to prepare for my conference with the student as well as made me more comfortable in making the ultimate decision of what consequences to assign the student and then finally in making that parent contact. Our district issues each student, family, and teacher a handbook at the beginning of the year. This handbook includes a section on discipline that list possible offenses and descriptions of behaviors along with the consequence for each behavior. I made sure that prior to speaking with the student and the parent that I consulted the handbook and had an idea of what the consequence was going to be before allowing the student to tell their side of the story. Speaking with the student was the part of the process that was most difficult for me. While classroom management has always come fairly easy to me, investigating major offenses and speaking with students about their poor behavior choices is something that I find more difficult. I have learned a lot about how to make these conversations with students more effective and meaningful because in the end I know that what I want is for the desired behavior to occur. There are times when I think that the consequence in the

handbook doesnt always mean that in the future the student is going to behave appropriately but I also realize that even though discipline consequences are confidential certain situations send a message to other students about what behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable. While discipline is certainly not the only thing that a principal has to work on during a school day, there were several days where handling discipline referrals was all I did. I learned that handling discipline referrals is not a black and white process; there are many things to consider when assigning a student to ISS or suspending the student from the bus. In situations where OSS was called for in the handbook, I had to call another building principal over to examine the situation and issue the suspension. In this case, we involved the school resource officer, teacher, and building administrator to ensure that all of our bases were covered. In addition to handling discipline, I tried to make myself visible in and around the building as much as possible. I learned that I could gather a lot of information about the tone of the building from just moving from room to room, observing what teachers and students were doing, and talking to staff members and students. While doing this, I learned a lot about my co-workers both personally and professionally. I learned the importance of building relationships with faculty and staff so that when a problem did arise, we were able to work through it together as well as I felt like the staff was very accepting of my presence as an administrator on these days. I also learned the importance of empowering teachers and students to resolve issues when possible on their own.