source: poster.4teachers.org

To suspend or not to suspend? That is the question. As we learn about the 21st century learning opportunities, and how interconnected our classrooms can be, what happens when it all goes wrong? What happens when kids fight? Harass? Bring weapons to school? Should we still suspend kids? Is that too 20th century?

I posed this question to my PrincipalPLN Voxer group because… I struggle with it! No matter how far our school has progressed, we still have students who violate our norms and expectations… So what do we do? In a Voxer thread that is now over 50 messages long, educators from Alaska to Delaware, from St. Louis to British Columbia have all weighed in on this topic. Guess what? They all still struggle with it as well. There seems to be no definitive stance. The refreshing insight is that we are not giving up on learning more, sharing and growing!

Here are questions I would like to expand further to my PLN:

• What are your thoughts on suspension?
• Do you think that suspensions (internal or external) have a place in the 21st Century School?
• Do you think your administration suspends too much? Not enough?
• What are some best practices you have found successful with suspensions?

Let’s keep learning together!