tattling

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tattling
By j

Our school has a "Use your words" policy too...not written, just kind of accepted as the way to deal with it. We encourage students to "Use your words. Tell him how you felt when he did that. " The two look at each other
and the first one might say"I dids not like it when you stuck your tongue out at me. Please stop. " We encourage the dialogue to include how it made them feel and what they want to happen, ie. the behavior to stop. The second one sometimes doesn't even realize how his actions have hurt someone and once they are told , it stops. The exception is.. If someone is hurting someone or something..

Tell an adult right away. Also, Many on our campus have been known to say to a child who has tattled... " You have a choice. You can use your words to tell him how that made you feel, you may choose to ignore his behavior altogether or you may remove yourself from the situation. " Often, all the tattler may want is the permission to move to another spot in line to avoid being further annoyed. If you think about it, these are the same positive kinds of options we use as adults so we are teaching them to be problem solvers at an early age. These have worked on our campus.... However, I have to add that I have seen some teachers make them wear tattle tales or tattle to the mirror and tell them that a tattling face looks ugly... etc... I think these are demeaning ways to handle this and I cringe when I think of those types of humiliation punishments! Praise to all who wrote in for the great positive solutions!