How do you discipline a particularly troublesome student?

Question

I'm just researching methods of discipline for when I become a teacher.

Detentions don't work because they don't show up for them, verbal warnings definitely don't work, and letters home to parents are just amusing for them.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

well...  first i tie them to a chair and then i get my shot gun and make them worry and beg and plead for forgiveness for like three hours...  then i think they learn their lesson and i let them go...  :)

Answer 2

Referal to the dean and suspension/expulsion.  If they don't want to learn, they don't deserve to.

Answer 3

Im a troublesome student and i now suspension, putting them in front of the classroom or sending them to the principals office dont work, but can you warn them about failing the grade cuz i know no one wants to spend an extra year in school....... >.>

Answer 4

Maybe show them up in front of the whole class - as in embarrass them in front of everyone? Make them stand at the front of the class or something or make them explain something that has just been said etc. when they haven't been listening.

Or send them to the headteacher?

Good Luck

Answer 5

Peer pressure might work.  Assuming the students are old enough,  could you engage them in a debate about disruptive behaviour, how it affects the group and what could/should be done about it?

Looking back on my education, what I didn't appreciate at the time was that it is your ONE TIME golden opportunity to get the skills and knowledge you need to provide the tool-kit to get you through the rest of your life. If you learn well, you will have the freedom to make choices about what you do and where you do it.  If you don't learn (either because you choose not to or because someone else is being disruptive) you are denied that freedom.  Instead you go through life doing what you have to do to get by and have few choices about how you do it.

Disruptive students are not just squandering their own life opportunities, they are stealing opportunities and future freedom of choice from their fellow students by denying them the education they deserve.

At least I only screwed it up for myself and then spent most of my life, up until my mid-forties, trying to recover lost ground.  I eventually succeeded but at a high personal price.  I would urge any young person in education to give it their best shot.

An obstacle to the success of my suggestion (peer pressure through debate) is that it assumes a perspective that young people may not have.  They won't take the word of an old f**t like me, which is a shame because it means they will make to same stupid, painful mistakes I made.

Answer 6

Well, we are told not to discipline our class but to manage it.  If you manage your class correctly then you should not need to discipline.  With all that being said there is always at least one child who is a particular problem.  Take something away that they enjoy, if young enough recess is good.  If not, allow the students some time to get on the computer, or something else fun, but the do not allow the students who are cause trouble.  If they see their peers doing something they want to do, they will hopefully change their behavior so that they get to do it next time.  If you have a good principal, then he/she can help you determine a classroom management plan

Answer 7

For some students, I have given them a choice between two consequences for their behavior.  For example, detention OR referral to the principal's office.  When they come to detention, they don't just get to sit there and hang out, but again I give them a choice like scrape gum from under the desks or write a paper saying why what you did was wrong.  They can't complain too much about their punishment because they are the ones that chose it.

Sometimes giving a verbal warning in front of the class is counterproductive because they want to look cool in front of their friends.  It usually works better to ask them to step out into the hall, give the rest of the class some little activity, then go out and talk to them and make the consequences for continuing their behavior clear.  It also gives you a minute to think about what you want to say to that student instead of reacting in anger in front of everyone in the class.

Of course if the offense is serious, you should send the student straight to the principal's office (and notify the office that you are sending them so the student can't just wander the halls).