What constitutes an effective discipline plan

Reading Harry Wongs book has given me a great idea of an effective teacher. In his earlier chapter Wong states that you must establish your rules the first days of school. This way they learn it early on what is expected of them. To have an effective discipline plan you must establish your expectations whether they be written or verbal. As a teacher it is best you have your rules or expectations written and posted around the room here's why. Let's say you don't post your rules so when a student breaks a rule how will they know that they broke it? With that being said an effective discipline plan has 3 main components (Rules, Consequences, and Rewards). You must show students that you do abide by the rules so if someone breaks them then there must be a consequence. If not then students will misbehave since they see you don't enforce the rules or anything you said. The children will eventually not be afraid to break the rules as they will catch on to you not being consistent. This can also damage any trust or relationship with students as they will feel like their teacher doesn't stick to her promises. This is not what we want, we want the students to be successful and to come to you if they are struggling or need help. If students think you are not a person who sticks to what they say they may not have enough trust to tell you anything.  Now for the rewards part we don't just want to punish children we want to encourage them to be the best they can be. This is when you would reward children for excellent behavior. This also may encourage other students to abide by the rules if they know they will be rewarded. As much as this sucks it's true! Students are more likely to be involved and  do what they are suppose to if they know they will be rewarded. This all may seem like you are completely in charge and students have no say. That is not tru don't we want students to be involved a great suggestion would be to have some rules already made up and as a class you could make a set of rules.  Another important thing to remember is when making up your rules keep in mind the age and grade of your students. You can't have the same rules for kindergarten that you do for fifth graders. The biggest factor to having an effective discipline plan would be to actually use your discipline plan. Be committed don't just say you have a plan and then make up a new one as you go along. To have a successful year you must have some consistency throughout the year!