omg. that is so illegal in my state. [to make a child go sit in a corner..humiliating them]

i should know my mom got my teacher in trouble for it :)

one thing one of my teachers did was do a card system. There was a chart of all of our names and there were card slots. Each slot had three cards yellow, green and red. Everyday you started out with a green card. If you misbehaved they gave you a yellow card. it was a warning. If you misbehaved again you'd get a yellow card and have to sit out for recess. worked pretty good.

Are they learning the difference between 'there', 'they're' and 'their' in 2nd grade?

I think you should say it clamly, and don't let the kids think thay have power over you.Because soon as you start to scream thay know thay have the power to get you bent out of shape.

tell them calmy y they have to sit there then once its time to let them back up congradulate them for bein good in the corner

Calm is always better. Perhaps you can tell them that their behavior is not acceptable and they need to go sit in a time-out. You could also check with the other teachers and see what they tell their students. Just make sure whatever you say doesn't violate any school rules and can't be misconstrued. Parents are sue-happy these days and kids are the first ones to blame someone else for their own bad behavior. Good luck.

You DON'T!!! If you need to use a time-out chair then you need to re-evaluate your teaching techniques. That would DEFINITELY be illegal in my state also. It is considered a form of corporal punishment and you should definitely look-up your state laws before anyone finds out. Yelling at students is never a good thing. Just say to the child sternly "...Why is it wrong for you to act that way when I'm teaching?" ...challenge the student, involve him or her. Is this a special needs student?

I was on second-grade last year and had the same problem with my time-out chair. These were some of the ways I did it:

1. Pointed at the chair, looked the student in the eyes and said (in an angry voice), "Chair!".
PROS: Didn't cut in to teaching time, students knew where to go, vocal expression showed that their behaviour had upset me
CONS: Very embarrassing for the child, you have nowhere to go if the child refuses (ie, you're already angry, what comes next?)

2. Calmly tell the child that their behaviour is unacceptable and that they are going to miss out on some learning/play time as a result.
PROS: The child learns there are consequences for their actions, the child won't mimick your agressive behaviour (as you're calm throughout)
CONS: Cuts into teaching time

3. Every time the student does the wrong thing, they get a cross next to their name on the board. Three crosses means time-out. Once the third cross is added, indicate to the child where to go.
PROS: The students know the consequences ahead of time, it doesn't cause disruption to the class or embarrassment to the student.
CONS: It assumes the kid doing the wrong thing is actually paying attention to the fact that his name/crosses are on the board.

Nothing is perfect. There will be pros and cons to any method.


Other time-out considerations I tried (with great success) were:

* Placing a kitchen timer on the time-out chair. When a kid was sent to time out, he/she would have to set it for five minutes. This gave the student responsibility over his/her consequence (although you may have to watch carefully with some kids).
* Ignoring the child. Once a child was in time-out, I would not make eye contact or address the child. Naturally, I gave the child lots of attention for the rest of the day once the time-out was over.
* After the five minutes, the child would have to come to me with the still-beeping timer (so I could check that he/she had done five minutes). I would never simply allow the child to rejoin the class. I would always say something along the lines of, "If you think you can [positive behaviour], then you may rejoin the class". This helps the child feel like he/she has a "mission" to please you, and also lets him/her know that you're watching and that they have a choice.

I hope all of this helps. Time-out is such an easy and effective disciplinary measure. It's also good to have a "chill-out zone" as a preventative measure, so that if a child is upset/angry they can go there to relax BEFORE it escalates into a displinary issue.

I would also take the time-out chair out of the corner and put it somewhere where the child can see his/her classmates (and the fun he's missing out on). I had mine to the side of the room about halfway along the wall. A child could watch the students learn/play, but he/she was too far away to interact with them.

You should never yell at students. First, it makes you sound out of control, second. Second, it's pretty questionable (try explaining to an angry parent why you blew up at an antsy second grader).

I agree with time outs only when students are being chronically disruptive and you have tried other means of stopping their behavior. I'm a third grade teacher, and I always give my students a warning (I use the stop-light system), and then the second time, I take away recess, send a note home, etc.

For things like drawing on desks, stealing, etc. it's pretty easy to give a punishment that fits the crime (washing all the desks, replacing the item stolen and writing an apology).

I've only had to give students time outs when they've had a bad day and are crying uncontrollably. It happens rarely in third grade, but things happening at home (new baby, moving, parents fighting) combined with something small at school can sometimes set them off. If I give a time out, it's usually in the hallway (where I can see them) or in the back of the room (not facing the wall). And I let the students know that once they've composed themselves they can come back in.

Before you hand out any punishment, you need to clearly state what the student did wrong, and why you're giving the punishment. Once the punishment is complete, talk with the students about what they can do better next time, and clearly state your expectations about their future behavior.

Honestly, I'm a little worried that you seem confused about how to discipline your students. I suggest you take a classroom management class.

oooh, don't yell! that makes it so much worse. one thing you don't want to do is create a power struggle between you and the kids. if you are the "mean" teacher who yells, they will automatically turn against you!

i don't think time out has to be humiliating. the point of time out is not to make everyone else in the class see the child on the chair - the point is to remove the child exhibiting an unacceptable behavior from a situation for a short amount of time.

i would quietly direct the misbehaving child to the chair (as quietly as possible), without making a big deal about it. yelling at a child before punishing him with time out gives him the attention of the whole class, which is something he will learn quickly - if i misbehave, i get attention. sometimes kids don't care if the attention is good or bad! putting him on the chair should effectively make him "disappear" for a little while so he can calm down and you can talk to him.

a child is not going to be magically "better" after sitting on a chair for 5 minutes. i hope part of putting the child in the chair is getting him back out again by explaining to him what he did, why he shouldn't do that, and having him repeat it back to you, coming up with two or three OTHER things he could have done in the given situation. remove him for a few minutes, but bring him back on a positive note with a new skill - how to deal with a new situation in an acceptable way.

i think 5 minutes is a bit long also. 3 minutes is enough to get the point across without making it seem like an eternity. i'm always amazed at my students' concepts of what a minute is. if i tell them they have 3 minutes of free time - wow! it might as well be a year, they are so excited.

it's a delicate balance being a teacher! hang in there, and always stay calm. you're the leader. you have to be cool and collected so they learn they can trust you, and they can't phase you.

best of luck to you.

I would not have them sit in the corner but have them sit in a seperate area. Humiliating them is not going to get you anywhere on this. i am all for disciplining children but this will make them rebell in a classroom. You should get down to their level and calmly tell them they have doen something unacceptable and they need to go and think about this and how to stop it from happening. Let them use their brains and conscious. Let them help you make a discipline chart of what to do next, when they help make the punishment, they usually act better.

You don't do time-out with 2nd graders. You definitely don't call it that because that's something they do in preschool. Focus on positive reinforcement, for one. I can't stand it when teacher's get so wrapped up in how to properly punish children. They aren't dogs! My dad taught 2nd grade for over 25 years and while his focus wasn't so much on discipline he had great classroom control. At that age, it has a lot to do still with making things seem like a game. Making learning fun. If you spend too much time disciplining, the kids don't know how to manage themselves because everything is dependent on whether the teacher thinks they are "good" or "bad". Focus on the positive and they'll follow your lead. you need to communicate with them by saying things like, "we don't do...in this classroom" "That's not Okay", etc.