This should be posted on the entrance to every teachers lounge across America. And at no time is it more crucial to be un-wimpy than the beginning of the school year.
Setting the tone right away is critical. As adviser, you must remember you are the leader of a group of people who need to come together to accomplish a goal. It’s a different model than teacher as dictator of assignments. (You may need to keep that hat handy for the class period before or after, but for your publication, it goes on the hat rack.) However, scoffing the concept of dictatorship is not the same as relinquishing power altogether.
The beginning of the school year requires itemization of rules (and immediate, strict enforcement of rules), but this does not necessitate a hostile or negative tone. Let the students know: “We must have high standards because what we do is so wonderfully important!”After you step in as the enforcer once or twice, you’ll find the mean you will most likely not be needed the rest of the year.
If someone plagiarizes, he or she WILL have definitive consequences. If someone lies to you or fellow staffers – yes, stiff consequences WILL be the result. You can’t just threaten without action. Say it, mean it, do it. New teachers in particular tend to want to come in as the friend-teacher, and it’s even more tempting in the less structured atmosphere of a publication class. But order must be established.
Whether they know it consciously or not, teens want their parents to act like parents and their teachers to act like teachers. It makes the world a secure place. And everyone pretty universally appreciates the concept of: FAIR. If one person compromises an important standard and nothing happens to that person, well, there go your standards, there goes your word, there goes your status as respected adviser. However, dish out the consequences on the very first offense, and you may never have to do it again.
(My students still gossip about an alleged plagiarist from three years ago. “And he was never seen again!” they whisper. I neither confirm nor deny anything.)
Think of it as creating a fair work environment. Isn’t that what we all want from our bosses? Good performance should be rewarded, and poor adherence to standards should have a negative effect on the perpetrator. It’s not personal; it’s equal treatment. The staff will be able to work with confidence and harbor no resentment toward anyone who unfairly got away with undermining the integrity of the newspaper or yearbook. Keeping the common goal of doing the right thing in the forefront will cause morale to be as high as your standards.
