Contracts

Contracts are "statements of behaviours that will not be condoned and the consequences that will follow if the student chooses to engage in those behaviours" (Bennet & Smilanich, p. 295). So a contract is just a piece of paper with writing that must be followed or else there will be consequences, but involves teachers, parents, school administrators and counselors. Teachers, parents, counselors and school administrators play various roles in designing and implementing a formal contract, but I feel parents are the ones who can help enforce the contract and be supportive of the plan. Informal contracts (chats) is "cooperation between the teachers and students that clarifies and provides solutions to a reoccurring problem" (Bennet & Smilanich, p. 279). This shifts the responsibility from teachers developing a plan to students. The problem with this is that students may take advantage of this and not follow through with their agreement.

I haven't had much experience with misbehaviour and so I can't tell you if I agree with informal or formal contracts. But I feel it's easy to say that you agree or disagree with either informal or formal contracts, but when it comes down to actually implementing it, sometimes you have to do what is best for the student, yourself and the classroom. What I'm trying to say is that teachers can't always choose to implement the one they agree with (informal or formal contracts), it depends on how bad the situation or misbehaviour is. If the misbehaviour gets too out of hand teachers have to take action even if they don't agree with the "bump".