Craig Seganti by Amber Brink

Background He began teaching in 1990. He has spent most of his career teaching middle school and high school. He wrote Classroom Discipline 101: How to get Control of Any Classroom.

Teacher Attitude There are four messages that he says to convey to students: A student who disrupts the class is interfering with other students’ constitutional rights to a good education. A teacher and students are not equals in the classroom. The classroom is for academic learning. Self-esteem does not come from messing around in the classroom. It comes from hard work and learning.

Teacher Attitude He has four operating principles that improve a teacher’s ability to work with students: Emphasize actions. Do not give warnings. Do not offer rewards for learning. Talk effectively with students. (Do not argue with students.)

Tactics for Teachers Seganti has several tactics he believes teachers should use: Organize the room arrangement. Cultivate quiet. Be at the ready. Dress professionally. Make eye contact. Give something back to the students. Organize procedures.

Tactics for Teachers Listen to students. Speak in statements. Educate students. Hold students accountable for proper behavior. Prepare. Hold the line. Keep ‘em busy. Review the rules. Assess yourself. Take care of things. Don’t be manipulated.

Student Accountability Seganti believes that students need to be held accountable for their actions. The basis for this is to have class rules. He has 11 rules that he uses in his classroom. He believes that teacher should write the rules, not the students. He uses the first day of class to go over the rules. This is considered their only warning.

Rules Rule 1: You are to enter the classroom calmly and quietly and go immediately to your assigned seat. You are to sit at a 90-degree angle to your desk with your feet on the floor and good posture (spine straight).

Rules Rule 2: Students are to show respect at all times and in all manners toward staff, others, and themselves. This includes all verbal and nonverbal forms of communication, including body language, facial expression, and tone of voice.

Rules Additional topics for rules: Work on task. Distractions. Beginning the period. Readiness for work. Miscellaneous behavior. Permissions and procedures. Teacher requests and directions. End of class. System of Consequences.

Leverage He believes a teacher needs to have some kind of leverage to make students follow the rules. Seganti uses 15-minute detentions as a consequence. He may also suspend a student from his class. They may come back to class after serving a detention and copying the rules.

Suspending Students from Class There are only 3 reasons to suspend a student from class: Defiance. The student does not follow rules after being given a 15-minute detention. Repeated Disruption. The student continues to interrupt the class after a detention is given. Gross Disrespect. This includes swearing, insulting, or other highly offensive behavior.