I believe that the idea of discipline and guidance go hand-in-hand.

For me, discipline

means any guidance or punishment required to assist a student in following classroom rules, and
guidance means any environmental, visual, physical, or verbal cues that is/are required to assist
each child experience a positive learning environment. Environmental cues could be a limit
placed on the number of children allowed to work within an area or the number of materials
available within an area to use. Visual cues to support classroom rules could be visual schedules,
picture labels, or social stories with images. Physical cues could be the proximity to the teacher,
a hand on the shoulder, or a simple hand gesture. Verbal cues could be spoken redirection, signlanguage, or body language (such as a pointed look).
The role of discipline/guidance within the classroom is to provide a safe, nurturing
learning environment for every student. A part of this means that the staff needs to understand
that fair does not always mean equal. What works for one student does not necessarily work for
another student, so just like learning styles, the methods used to assist students in adjusting to the
classroom environment must also vary. Also, knowing and understanding what is
developmentally appropriate for the age group that I am working with allows me to distinguish
the difference between undesirable or mistaken behaviors and typical behavior for this age
group.
Understanding the difference between mistaken behavior and typical behavior is the first
step in managing classroom behavior. The next step is setting and maintaining reasonable
guidelines. Third is to use visual, environmental, physical, and verbal cues to guide students
through the classroom and other methods meant to prevent mistaken behavior. Next is to look
for a source of the mistaken behavior. Finally, through working and communicating with the
family and charting mistaken behavior, a behavior intervention plan can be designed and
implemented to further assist the ultimate goal of providing a safe, nurturing learning
environment for each student within the classroom.
My role as a teacher is to guide students towards ensuring that they respect themselves,
respect others, respect the materials, and respect their environment. These guidelines are taught
through explicit instruction, modeling, and scaffolding. Attempts should be proactive when it
comes to guiding children so that behavior consequences are not necessary. If you see that a
student is becoming overwhelmed, remove that student from the situation. Similarly, if you
know that a student utilizes a particular coping method during a specified time throughout the
day, make sure that that coping method is available for that student. Additionally, I need to make
sure that I seek for the source behind any mistaken behavior that occurs within the classroom.
Knowing the reason behind the behavior can assist in developing methods and procedures for the
classroom to prevent the same behavior from happening again.
Additionally, I must monitor and document student behavior. If severe behavior occurs,
families of both the aggressor and the target must be contacted. Behavior is charted to see if
there is a trend in mistaken behavior. By charting and staying in close contact with the families,
a behavior intervention plan can be designed and implemented in a further attempt to prevent
mistaken behaviors within the classroom.