Don′t Suspend Me!: An Alternative Discipline Toolkit

Excellent book on understanding what is and how to apply alternative discipline! As we all now know based on data and much research traditional forms of discipline have only led student on to the path to "school to prison pipeline" with such rules as zero tolerance policies. It is no wonder that schools are now forced to seek alternatives forms of discipline that actually work. As a parent of 3 and a grad-students, I found this book very helpful. It supports the truth that as parents, teachers, counselors, school staff, etc., part of our job is to prepare children for adulthood. To learn from their mistakes and teach them to make good choices in the future. Children are not bad, what they chose to do are sometimes bad, and it's our job to guide them grow from that. When we give them an opportunity to explain themselves and involve them in their own discipline, not only do we allow them to keep their self-worth, we are modeling honor and respect. Because they are allowed to explain themselves they can come up with the understanding of what they did wrong and how they can make it right again. Thus, taking ownership of their actions and are less likely to do that unwanted behavior again. This book walks you on how to do exactly that. It provides many examples of alternative discipline for different types of miss-behaviors. One thing to keep in mind is that as mentioned by the authors, these are ideas and may be used as guides, every child is different and again not one thing or list of ideas will work for everyone, therefore consequences need to be tailored to the student. Some may require more consequences than others, the goal is for the student to learn from the event and make better choices.In addition, I wanted to mention my favorite part of this book, the "Discipline Belief Self-Inventory" (P.9) I believe every administrator, teacher, school staff should take it. When you take this it will give you a "reality check" on your belief system. You may just find that what you say you believe in may not align with your actions. Or as administrator, you may just find why alternative discipline, PBIS, RJ, has not been working in your school.

I just completed my first year as an elementary school principal. As I reflect on my performance, I cannot get past the thoughts of the three elementary students that I asked to leave my school. Specifically, I realize that in my haste to provide justice for the victims, I did not think about meeting the needs of the offending students. So, I have resolved to take an approach next year that focuses on the needs of every student. This means so much to me that I have chosen the topic of discipline for my final project in the Ed.S. program that I am enrolled in.My research led me to "Don't suspend me: An alternative discipline toolkit" and I am so thankful that I found this book. I purchased it on my Kindle last night (as I waited to pick up a new teacher from the airport) and I read it in one sitting. The authors advocate the need to meet the needs of all students by reflecting on research that shows suspension is not only ineffective, but downright destructive e.g. students that have been suspended from school are more likely to drop out of school. They then provide practical information on how to implement this approach in schools. The book ends with specific examples to address the most common discipline problems teachers and administrators encounter. There are even responses to the likely push-back an administrator will encounter when attempting to create buy-in.I am excited about this approach and I plan to implement it in my school next year. I am confident that I will be able to turn a bad situation into a valid learning opportunity.

I liked most of the ideas and they would work for most general education settings. Tweaking the same ideas they could be used in a more difficult setting.

The ideas and tools presented in this book are applicable and practical. I love that it incorporates social justice practices, but adds so much more. I also love that I can integrate these in at my own pace, rather than trying to make such a huge change at once. I would love to see a forum or social media group where we can all share our "toolkit" ideas. Anyone using these in their school? I would love to see a school using the alternative discipline idea for dealing with students misbehaving for subs!

I enjoyed the ideas and suggestions in this book. I would recommend it to any person who works with students and discipline.

The book has some good ideas for assignments to learn from mistakes and reflect.

As a dean at a high school I have really enjoyed this book. This has become my go-to book especially when I have run out of ideas on how to supports different students and ensure that we are implementing restorative practices. The book has cases to read and learn from. It also has worksheets, next steps and ideas on next steps that can be used as-is or that can be modified to fit your school and student needs. I wish there was more like this book!

Excellent book with practical and ready to use resources for dealing with discipline incidents! I love that is has lots of real-life scenarios to help see how to apply alternative discipline measures to common discipline issues. I am using the resources from the book to creative an alternative discipline toolkit that we can pull from quickly and easily in our school and be able to make lasting and significant changes with our students.