Random quick teacher tip: How to Stop an Interrupting Clown. An interrupting class clown, that is. Especially one that is clownin’ on other kids. That’s not nice.
Sometimes I’ll have a student who likes to joke around in class. That’s cool. Except when it’s mean, or when it’s inappropriately disrupting a lesson. Sure, as a first step, I will directly address the student’s inappropriate behavior. But if that’s not enough to stop it, I also pair it with a subtle second step: I give the rest of the class a warning look. A cocked head, a slow blink, and a raised eyebrow that says, What, you think that’s funny? Really? Are you gonna laugh about it? Are you?
It slices laughter in an instant.
A few months ago, I started a series on How to Shape Children’s Behavior, including posts on:
- preventing undesirable behavior in the first place/priming kids to behave well
- focusing your goals to maximize improvement
- using rewards effectively
- using consequences effectively
- the importance of being consistent
- teaching your children a better way to apologize
This was years of experience and teaching wisdom boiled down to seven posts. I had started off writing these with both teachers and parents in mind, and I think most of the things I shared can be effectively used in the classroom or at home. The rest of this post is written with teachers in mind, but anyone who is looking for a simple poster to use for consequences can just edit this one that I made and use it with clothespins! Just write the child’s name on a clothespin, stick it in the green section, and move it to yellow or red as needed.
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