Employee Code of Conduct

Employee Code of Conduct

Employee Interactions with Students

The following is a compilation of all the written policies regarding employee interaction with students from the Staff Handbook. These are being provided for parents to be in compliance with CAB 500.

Classroom Environment

1. Encourage friendliness
   • Take an interest in the children’s outside interests
   • Tell of some experience you have had that might interest them
   • Share confidence – indicate that you might have had the same experience, that you have felt the same way at times and might have behaved in the same manner
   • However, be careful not to continually burden your students or their parents with the stresses or burdens of your life
2. Be friendly to the children
   • Welcome them in the morning and acknowledge their leaving
   • Ask them what they did over the weekend…what their ambitions are. Be interested in their personal lives
   • Chat during recess and after school with the child who needs special attention. Talk about things of interest to him/her
3. Help children to make friends if they don’t know how
   • Encourage them to become expert in some skill valued by the group – academic, manual, artistic, sports, etc.
4. Notice the appearance of children
   • Comment on a nice color scheme, a new dress, a new hairdo, an outstanding necktie, new socks, clean hands, hair neatly combed, etc. Let them know that you notice their appearance
5. Remember the absent child
   • If a child is absent for several days, call his home or send an attractive get-well card to him
   • Welcome the child back when he returns. Indicate in as many ways as possible that he is needed and is missed when he is absent
   • If the absence is due to illness of some member of the family, supply comfort
6. Take an interest in the apparent isolate
   • Make him a helper, not just one who performs manual duties but one with responsibilities, which show him that you have confidence in him
   • Find an interesting book for him to read or a worthwhile project for him to pursue
   • Help him join in games and parties, to become a member of various committees
   • Change the seating occasionally so that the favorite seats may be shared
7. Welcome newcomers to the class
   • Ask someone to be a “big brother/big sister” to the new child
   • Have someone show him/her around the school, introduce him/her to the other children, explain school routines, help him/her become acquainted
8. Be careful of the pronouns that indict. Avoid such statements as:
   • YOU are the ONLY ONE to hand in a paper late
   • YOU are the ONLY ONE with dirty hands
   • YOU are the ONLY ONE who is always noisy
   • YOU NEVER try to do things right
9. Handle pupil suggestions carefully
   • Listen to them. Respect their point of view. Make something of their contribution, no matter how small
10. Recognize questions and give careful answers
    • Provide an atmosphere where children may raise questions that bother them
    • Never minimize or ridicule any sincere question
    • Do not be afraid to say “I don’t know.” Say it and then assure the pupil that a serious effort will be made to find the answer
11. Exchange of gifts
    • There is to be no student-to-student gift exchange during Christmas, nor should students of the opposite sex exchange or give gifts at any time

Discipline

Teachers are expected to submit to the administrator a detailed discipline policy sheet outlining your classroom’s rules as well as the positive reinforcers and negative consequences your plan to use.

1. The ultimate goal of all discipline is self-control or self-discipline. Children are not naturally capable of self-discipline; therefore, all teachers should continuously strive to develop it in their pupils.
2. The keynote of disciple is effective teacher planning which keeps pupils so wholesomely occupied that no time for unwholesome activities can enter the day’s program.
3. To discipline well, be yourself, for disciplining is an individual thing. Try other teachers’ techniques but use only what best fits your own unique personality.
4. Be friendly but do not play for popularity.
5. Establish firm limits. They are absolutely necessary for the security and efficient functioning of a group. Don’t feel guilty about them.
6. Be consistent in all aspects of classroom activity. This is essential if proper order conducive to learning is to exist and growth in self-control is to be evidenced in the pupils.
7. Look for causes of undesirable behavior.
   • Is the work too easy?
   • Is the work too hard?
   • Is the child accepted or rejected by the group?
   • Is the problem basically a home problem?
   • Do I need more information about the child?
   • Am I tired, tense, rushed, upset?
   • Do I talk too much?
8. If the behavior of a child is undesirable:
   • Ignore it at the time, if it is unimportant
   • Go quietly to the child and speak to him
   • Give him a job or errand to do that diverts his interest
   • Give the child the idea that HE is accepted even though his BEHAVIOR may not be accepted

   Important: be careful not to overdo:

   • Sending the children from the room as punishment
   • Sending them to the principal’s office
   • Making them take a special seat
   • Sending them to another teacher’s room
   • Refusing to talk to them for a period of time
   • Requesting other children not to talk to them for a time
9. Remember that behavior is caused. Seek to work through the problem with the pupil. An understanding rather than a punitive attitude on the part of the teacher will go a long way toward solving the difficulty.
10. Do not spank or in any other way physically punish a child (pinch, slap, pull ears, etc.). Physical contact must be limited to hugs and handshakes!
11. If reasonable efforts to secure cooperation from a pupil fail, arrange a conference with the principal, after which the home may be contacted. If parents cannot provide a solution to the problems or if no other suitable solution can be reached, the principal may recommend that the child be withdrawn from the school.

Email and Texting

Staff members should have limited email contact with current Stoneybrooke students. If possible, that contact should be done through FACTS (available for grades 4-8). This will ensure parents have an opportunity to set FACTS parameters and be aware of all teacher-student communication. The subject of those emails should center around schoolwork.

If Stoneybrooke staff needs to respond to a student’s email outside of the FACTS program, they must copy parents with each email. Staff members are advised to use caution when emailing children who are not currently Stoneybrooke students; particularly those under the age of 18. Staff members are urged to have expressed permission from parents in order to communicate via email with underaged children.

Staff members are not to text Stoneybrooke students. Staff members are advised to use great caution when texting any children who are under the age of 18. Staff members are urged to have expressed permission from parents in order to communicate via text with underaged children.

Social Media Policy and Use of School Owned Computers

Staff members should have very limited email contact with Stoneybrooke students and should not have students on their social media accounts as friends. Any emails from or to students directly must be copied to one of their parents concurrently.

Regarding Facebook and Other Social Media Contacts

Staff members are advised to not have students (under the age of 18) on their social media without the expressed permission of that child’s parents. No Stoneybrooke staff member should ever be communicating on social media with anyone under the age of 13, regardless of their parent’s permission.