Everybody wants "good discipline"; administrators, teachers, parents and students. Students function better, feel happier and learn more in an environment where good discipline is taught and enforced. Here's a list of 10 basic points of good discipline for anyone dealing with children that you may want to check out (just to make sure we are on the same page!): http://www.lfcc.on.ca/HCT_SWASM_pages60-61.pdf

Good discipline in a school is not the teachers' responsibility. It is everybody's responsibility. If you leave discipline to the teachers alone you'll end up with a mess! Different teachers will expect different things, establish different rules, enforce the rules in different ways, be more or less tolerant, forgiving, strict etc. 

Have you ever worked at the kind of school where students behave "like little angels" in Mrs. X's class but turn into "green eyed monsters" for Mr. Y? Well, I feel for Mr. Y. I don't think he is necessarily to blame for what's happening. Usually, when these kinds of things are happening at a school, it is because the school lacks a good discipline policy that everybody works hard to maintain and enforce.   

At my present school, I am happy to say, we have a very good discipline system. It is built on the principle that good discipline involves clear expectations, clear consequences and consistent enforcement.

1. Clear expectations

We only have three rules at my school. All expected behaviors fall under the three rules. The rules are "be respectful", "be ready to learn" and "follow the community rules". The three golden rules are posted everywhere. Whenever a student misbehaves s/he is asked to identify which of the three rules s/he has broken. "Speaking out of turn" for instance is disrespectful. Disrespectful to the teacher and disrespectful to the other students.

2. Clear consequences

There are two types of consequences at my school. Academic Consequences and Community Consequences. An Academic Consequence is for instance that if you don't do your homework (breaking rule #1 - you're not ready to learn) your homework grade will go down. A Community Consequence is when some of your school points are taken away. Academic Consequences are handled by the teachers. Community Consequences are handled by the Vice Principals. Teachers report whatever misbehavior has been observed to the VP and the VP deals with the rest. It would take too long to explain the points system in detail here (perhaps in another post if anyone's interested), suffice to say that there are ways that students can earn points as well have them taken away. There are many special events throughout the year to which only students who have a certain number of points are allowed to participate in. (Field trips, School Overnight Trips, a Picnic ... and many more). The students feel strongly motivated to keep up their school points.

3. Consistent enforcement

The points system is enforced consistently by the Vice Principals. They react in exactly the same way for the same offences committed by different students in different classes. The teachers also have a code they have to adhere to. The code involves everything from how class is started/ended to how specific misbehavior is to be handled in class and out. It makes things a lot easier both for students and teachers. Everyone knows what to expect.Whatever happens in Mrs. X's class will also happen in Mr. Y's class. No exceptions.

Final note:

I have worked at many different schools over the years. Believe me, when the school you work at works with you to establish good discipline it makes a world of difference. Everybody wins.