Sometimes you need to be more direct

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Home : 2004 : October : 8

Sometimes you need to be more direct
By Cathy-Dee

Trust me I know exactly where you are and how you are feeling. This is my 10th year and I have a similar group this year.

While the marbles in a jar and other "neat" ideas work for many children and to modify some behaviours
sometimes you just have to be more direct and nip certain behaviours in the bud so to speak.
So, if necessary spend a full week on this one issue. Everytime the talking gets out of hand - have a time-out. Keep track of the minutes wasted and have the students make up that time during recess, gym, centers. If you do have 4 or 5 quiet students who are not the problem - don't punish

them, instead let them enjoy recess, etc., and make sure everyone else sees them as role models to copy.

If they were allowed to be chatty last year then they have simply learned a bad habit that needs to be changed.

I always find it amazing that during a test they can be silent sometimes up to 40 minutes, but in "unstructured" time the noise level is unbearable. I also discovered that "unstructured" time can be our own worse downfall.

After a week you would hopefully see a difference because they would know you mean business and they are missing out on their "fun and social time" because they are not following the class rules.