I didn't expect to get many responses to last night's post because I knew many people would not read and respond by 8:45 this morning. Bipin, I do appreciate you leaving your comment. And Mom and Shannon, I appreciate your suggestions on the phone last night. I can completely agree with Bipin that punishing the whole class for a few students' mistakes is not the best approach. In my 8 years of teaching, I think I have only done a "whole class" punishment two or three times. The way it came across to me yesterday, literally the entire class was in an uproar, which made me begin thinking of a "whole class" punishment in the first place.
However, when I arrived to my classroom at 6:45 this morning, I found a note from the substitute stating that 12 of my 23 students were the main culprits. So I decided right then and there that it would be unfair and wrong of me to punish the entire class for the mistakes of half the class. So this is how I decided to punish 12 of my students: I gave them a half-sheet of paper with the following words typed on it:
Since you chose to not follow all of the directions with the substitute teacher while I was gone, you will serve a consequence. You will write "While I am with a substitute teacher, I will obey the same rules that I follow when Mrs. Colbert is with me" 100 times in your neatest handwriting. You must use your own notebook paper to do this. You must not work on this at school unless you have free time. If I catch you working on this when you are not supposed to, you will start over from the beginning. You must number each of the 100 lines you write. You must spell everything correctly. You must also have a parent sign your paper once you are finished. This is due tomorrow. Failure to turn this in tomorrow will result in a double consequence.
Do I even need to add that you could hear a pin drop in my classroom for the entire rest of the day??? And would you believe that I felt bad about doling out that consequence? I'm a softy, what can I say?
3 comments:
Well, I think you have a parent's heart. Any loving parent does not enjoy doing the disciplining but does it anyway for the ultimate benefit of the child. I'm proud of you. And, I totally agree with not punishing the whole for the misbehavior of a few.
Nicely done! I've had to write out a few 200 liners in my time, and they were NO fun. Glad you found out who the kids were. Good luck with the rest of the year!
Did I doubt that God would give you wisdom in how to handle this? NO!! Awesome approach; all glory to God. Isn't it wonderful to be able to lean on Him when we are uncertain how to handle situations? As like Shannon, I too, am proud of you. Moomy
Post a Comment