Many years ago I read The Adventures of Robin Hood aloud to my 5th grade class.
One day in the middle of teaching an unrelated lesson a student yelled out “Hey, when are we gonna read Peter Pan?”
It was funny.
The entire class laughed. However, the behavior was disruptive. The student called out in class. It was also disrespectful because he was purposely interrupting.
This is something that absolutely cannot happen. Otherwise, other students can become so embolden. The blatant nature of the act required more than a warning.
Remember, as part of the SCM classroom management plan we recommend, you have the option of skipping the warning step and going straight to a stiffer consequence.
Possible reasons might include:
- Dangerous behavior like standing on a chair.
- Playfighting in class.
- Yelling in anger at a classmate.
- Tantrums.
- Blatant disrespect.
You get the idea. Any behavior that requires you to send a clear message to the student in question, and the rest of the class, that the behavior is utterly unacceptable.
However, the nature of the consequence(s) you give is up to your sole discretion. This is something that must be explained during the first week of school.
I like to add an asterisk at the bottom of my classroom management plan poster that says simply “All consequences are subject to the teacher’s discretion.”
In the case of a class clown who has the gall to disrespectfully interrupt a lesson, a warning isn’t enough. Otherwise, again, the behavior will happen again and encourage others to do the same.
After the class settled down, I sent the student to time-out without a warning. I didn’t say anything to the student, which would only weaken the lesson of the consequence.
Remember, to curb future misbehavior, the student must reflect and decide of their own volition to improve their behavior.
I also kept the student in time-out for a long while. If I recall, about an hour. After allowing him to return to his desk, I never mentioned it again.
And it didn’t happen again.
I don’t believe a warning would have had the same result.
You’re the teacher and leader of the classroom and therefore must make the hard decisions for the benefit of learning and the right of every student to learn without interruption.
In some cases, like that of a blatant class clown, the right call is to jump straight to a stronger consequence.
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