‘Through the rainstorm came sanctuary, and I felt my spirit fly’ ~Seal, Love’s Divine

If you’re like most teachers, you don’t keep your students in time-out long enough. For a majority of students, regardless of grade level, five or ten minutes won’t cut it.

They need at least fifteen minutes in order to…

• Calm their emotions.

• Reflect on their misbehavior.

• Feel remorseful.

• Accept responsibility.

Unless these conditions are met, time-out is a waste of time; behavior won’t change and the same students will break the same rules time and again.

Teachers often forget that time-out is meant to discourage future misbehavior. It’s not a formality. It’s not a hoop your students jump through. And it’s not a way to get them out of your hair.

It’s a tool to motivate students to improve.

If time-out doesn’t have meaning for them, if they don’t feel something as a result, then it’s worth nothing. You might as well not even use it.

The Three Requirements Of Time-Out

For real, behavior-changing time-out, fifteen minutes is minimum. The maximum depends on the student and is based on their fulfillment of three clear-cut requirements:

Requirement #1: Do what is asked.

The student must sit quietly in time-out while doing the work you’ve assigned—even if it’s simply paying attention to your lesson. If he (or she) does what you ask during those first fifteen minutes, then stroll by and whisper, “Let me know when you’re ready to return to your seat.”

Requirement #2: Take initiative.

When the student feels he has learned his lesson and is ready to accept responsibility for his misbehavior, then he must raise his hand and wait patiently. When you have a moment, approach him with a simple, “Yes?” (As in, “Can I help you with something?”)

Requirement #3: Take responsibility.

In his own words, the student must then take responsibility for misbehaving by showing remorse and resolving not to make the same mistake again. If you’re satisfied with what he has to say, then welcome him back with a smile. If not, then let him marinate in time-out a while longer.

Note: You must teach and model how to fulfill each requirement before expecting them from your students.

From The Heart

If the student is truly repentant, if it’s clear his words are coming from the heart, then the time-out will prove effective. If he is simply going through the motions to appease you, however, then he isn’t ready to return to class.

He must convince you he is ready.

The onus is on the student, not you. This is where the power of time-out comes from–that is, with the burden of responsibility resting solely on his shoulders.

When you use the three requirements, misbehaving students must choose to be agreeable to your rules or remain in time-out.

It’s up to them. But having this choice makes all the difference and leads to true accountability.

Strength & Tenderness

Time-out means nothing and does nothing unless your students are affected by the experience. They have to care. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time. And your students will see time-out as a not-so-unpleasant punishment that, as long as they sit through, provides them a ticket to the free and clear.

This is yet another reason why it’s critical that you continually work toward creating a classroom that your students like–even love–being a part of.

If your students are bored and unhappy being in your classroom, if you have poor classroom management skills and your students are disruptive and bothersome, then time-out will have little if any effect.

Because they just won’t care.

One of the core principles of Smart Classroom Management is that non-negotiable boundary lines of behavior, when coupled with a classroom your students like being part of, makes for extraordinarily effective classroom management.

Knowing that there is real, weight-bearing accountability on the other side of your boundary lines will give your students the freedom to explore, to grow, and to soar within them.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

Photo by Chrystal Woroniuk

Time-out is an important part of any effective classroom management plan.

But how is it best enforced?

There is much confusion over where time-out should take place, how long it should last, and what students should be doing while they’re there.

It’s a rare week I don’t get an email asking one of these questions.

Here are ten steps that will ensure you’re using time-out as effectively as possible

Step 1: Have a time-out desk.

Time-out should take place at a desk separated from classmates. It’s best to have one or two strictly for this purpose. Try to keep them as far from the rest of the students as your classroom allows.

Step 2: Follow your classroom management plan.

Only send students to time-out if their behavior triggers such a consequence (as is stated in your classroom management plan). Time-out should never be a choice you make. Students choose to break rules knowing full well what the consequences are.

Step 3: Send them immediately.

As soon as a student breaks a rule that calls for time-out, send him or her immediately. If the rule is broken at an assembly or outside of class, then send the student as soon as you return to class.

Step 4: Tell them why.

Most of the time, it’s obvious. The student knows why he or she must go to time-out. But if you’re not sure they know why, tell them. But be quick and direct. And never add a lecture, a scolding, or your two cents worth. Let time-out be the only consequence.

Step 5: They do whatever the class does.

Students in time-out are responsible for the same work as everyone else. Only, they will not be allowed to participate like a regular member of the class. This means no working in groups and no sharing thoughts or answers.

Step 6: Move on quickly.

Don’t escort students to time-out. Simply inform them and then move on with whatever you were doing. Time-out should never be an interruption. Otherwise, some students will try to go to time-out just to get under your skin.

Step 7: Ignore them.

Students placed in time-out are no longer part of the class, and they need to feel excluded. Not as a punishment per se, but as a message that anyone who interferes with learning is not welcome. In a class that students love being part of, this is a devastatingly effective consequence.

Step 8: Approach after fifteen minutes.

If a student in time-out is attentive to your lesson, working as he or she should be, and/or taking notes as expected, walk over and say, “Let me know when you’re ready to be part of the class again.” Then walk away.

Step 9: Release only when contrite.

When a student in time-out decides they’re ready to follow rules and be part of the class again, they must raise their hand and wait for you. When it’s convenient for you, walk over and listen to what they have to say. If satisfied with their level of contrition, let them return. If not, let them marinate a while longer.

Step 10: Welcome them back.

When a student is ready to return from time-out, welcome them back. A simple “Good to have you back” will do. Never hold a grudge, give a cold shoulder, or be short with them. They did their time. They were held accountable. Now they deserve to be back in your good graces.

Teach Time-Out

You can’t just jump in and start following these steps straightaway. Like all classroom management procedures, time-out must be taught thoroughly.

Before implementation, your students must know the whys and hows of each step–which are best taught through detailed modeling, role-play, and practice, practice, practice.

Note: Smart Classroom Management will be taking one week off for the holidays and will resume with a rockin’ new article on January 1st.

Happy Holidays to each of you!

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

A typical time-out consists of 5 to 10 minutes of sitting at a desk separated from classmates. But for many students, this isn’t a strong enough consequence.

For time-out to be most effective, your students need to feel the full weight of accountability. They need to feel excluded from the class they like being part of.

In other words, time-out needs to be about as much fun as dropping a dumbbell on your toes.

Follow the steps below to give time-out the strength it needs to dissuade even the most difficult students from misbehaving.

1. Teach it.

Your students must know exactly how to go to time-out, what they’re required to do once they’re there, and what they must do to rejoin their classmates. These should be taught and modeled thoroughly during the first few days of school.

2. Make it public.

When a student breaks a rule that calls for time-out—according to your classroom management plan—stop what you’re doing and pause before sending the student to time-out. It’s important that the rest of your students see you following through and enforcing rules.

3. Tell them why.

Every student you send to time-out should understand why. Briefly tell them what rule they broke and exactly why they’re going to time-out. This awareness is the first step to taking responsibility for their behavior.

4. Hide your displeasure.

Let time-out be your consequence. Don’t add to it by lecturing, scolding, or showing displeasure. These methods weaken time-out by lifting the weight of accountability off of your students’ shoulders and replacing it with dislike and resentment toward you.

5. Be matter-of-fact.

Enforce your rules as if you don’t have a care in the world. Student breaks rule, teacher enforces consequence. Make it as simple as that. This helps ensure that the responsibility for being in time-out lies with the student, and no one else.

6. Ignore them.

A student in time-out is responsible to listen and do the same work as everyone else, but is not allowed to participate. Therefore, you and the rest of your students should ignore them. This cements the realization that misbehavior results in being excluded from the class.

Note: This does not mean ignoring the need for legitimate academic help.

7. Let them reflect.

Most teachers remove students from time-out too soon. For most students, five or ten minutes won’t have the desired effect. How long they remain in time-out is up to them (see below), but 20 to 30 minutes or more is not out of the question.

8. They decide when they’re ready.

When a student decides they’ve learned their lesson, they must raise their hand and tell you they’re ready to rejoin their classmates. (You’ll teach them how to do this during those first few days of school.) It’s a good idea to wait 20 minutes before even looking in the student’s direction.

9. Let Them Do The Talking.

When a student says they’re ready to leave time-out, let them do the talking. If you’re satisfied with their level of contrition, smile and invite them back. If not, tell them so. Tell them you don’t think they’re ready and then walk away.

10. Don’t hold a grudge.

After completing time-out, allow the student to return to being a regular member of your classroom—in good standing. Don’t hold a grudge. Don’t treat them any differently. Give them an opportunity to make a fresh start. Trust that they’ve learned their lesson and won’t repeat their mistake.

11. Make it a physical and emotional separation.

Finally, and most important, time-out is at its most effective when students feel like they’re missing something. If you have enough leverage, your students will always feel this way. But there is nothing wrong with reminding them how lucky they are to be in your class.

So when you send a student to time-out, and it’s convenient for you, break out a learning game, laugh a little more, tell some stories. For time-out to be a strong consequence, it must be an emotional, as well as physical, separation.

Note: I wrote an article this week for a website called LearnBoost. They offer teachers an online gradebook for managing and creating lesson plans, tracking attendance, maintaining schedules, and more. The article is called The Real Secret To Effective Teaching. I hope you’ll check it out.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.

- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

A reader posted a question this week asking what to do if a student, in this case a kindergartner, crawled on the floor and under tables after being sent to time-out. Playing, straying, and not sitting quietly in time-out can happen regardless of grade level.

And this problem can be especially frustrating. It pulls the teacher away from his or her responsibilities and diverts the attention of the class away from the lesson and toward the misbehaving student.

To make matters worse, how you handle a situation like this can negatively affect the behavior of the rest of the class. More specifically, if the student in time-out gets away with behaving poorly, or is able to get under your skin, then others will follow.

So in that moment, what are your choices? How do you respond without demanding, lecturing, or yelling? Do you have another recourse?

These are important questions because they go straight to the heart of a teacher’s job satisfaction. The worst position to be in as a teacher is one where you feel you have no leverage, no recourse, and no options other than responding out of anger and going home stressed and discouraged.

Many teachers leave the profession because of it. And I don’t blame them. If I felt that students controlled my fate, that they decided whether I enjoyed my day or not, I’d consider another line of work too.

When a student misbehaves in time-out, it’s a blinking sign that your time-out isn’t working and won’t effectively curb misbehavior. Furthermore, it’s an act of defiance and shows a lack of concern over your consequences.

What To Do

In response to students who don’t sit quietly in time-out, there are six things you can do to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

1. Show your students a complete picture, from start to finish, of what they’re expected to do if told to go to time out. Use detailed modeling. Demonstrate how to walk to time-out, where to sit, and precisely how you expect them to spend their time there.

2. Use the “how not” strategy and be sure to include any unwanted behaviors you’ve seen from your students (i.e., crawling under tables, making loud noises, leaving the time-out chair).

3. Have them practice. Choose students “randomly,” one at a time, to show the class how to do it.  Make them prove to you they understand the ins and outs of going to time-out.

4. When a particularly difficult student is sent to time-out, if at all possible, ratchet up the fun. Have a learning game or activity in your back pocket for such moments. Time-out is only effective if the student feels he or she is missing something.

5. Back up your time-out with a consequence. Think of the one thing you do as a class repeatedly, every day or every week, that your students love the most. It can be a certain lesson, game, song, story, or anything you wish. Whatever it is, missing that activity should be your consequence for not sitting quietly in time-out.

If you’re thinking, “I hate that they have to miss such a great activity. They love it so much and I feel bad taking it away from them,” then you know you’ve chosen the right one.

6. Follow through. Do what you say you will do, and do it every time.

If you discover that a student you sent to time-out isn’t sitting properly, or is otherwise not following the time-out directives, don’t overreact. Better yet, don’t react at all.

I know this is difficult to do at times, especially if the student is disrupting your class. But, at this point, it’s too late. If you try to “win the battle” by yelling, demanding, or lecturing, you’ll lose the war (so to speak).

Wait until the time-out is over and the student has settled down, and then calmly approach. Lean in and say, “Evette, because you didn’t sit quietly in time-out, you will have to miss the Jeopardy vocabulary game this afternoon.”

Don’t wait for a response. Turn and walk away.

When the time for the game or enjoyable activity arrives, show your enthusiasm for the event and allow your students to get excited. But just seconds before the start, when the room is silent, walk over to the offending student and remind her that she won’t be allowed to participate.

As you increase the interest, excitement, and enjoyment in your classroom, as well as your likability, classroom management becomes an easier proposition. Add to it an unbending commitment to accountability, and you have an unbeatable combination.

Everything you do—how you speak, the classroom environment you create, your relationship with students, and much more—affects classroom management. The entirety of how you can use these to your advantage can be found in the book Dream Class.

- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

Your classroom management plan doesn’t have to be complex to be effective. Four rules and three consequences will usually do the trick. Indeed, there is no magic in the plan itself.

It’s the stuff in between, the strategery (see Will Ferrell), that determines whether classroom management is successful or not.

Time-out is an excellent example. Undoubtedly the most commonly used consequence, time-out can be incredibly effective or a waste of time depending on how it’s carried out. As teachers, we’re often overly focused on what to do rather than on how to do it.

The power is in the how.

How your students fulfill time-out decides its effectiveness. With that in mind, here are 10 ways to make time-out more effective.

1. Model it. Detailed modeling is a powerful teaching strategy and is especially effective for teaching classroom management procedures. Model your time-out procedure by playing the part of a misbehaving student. Show your students exactly what is expected of them if they’re sent to time-out. Understanding the realities of your classroom management plan will reinforce the importance of following rules.

2. Never waver. Resolve that you will follow through every time and for every rule violation, regardless of what is happening at the time. You might be in the middle of a superb lesson, but if a student breaks a rule and your plan calls for a time-out, send them immediately.

3. Tell them why. Whenever you enforce a classroom rule that requires a time-out, it’s important to tell the student why he or she is being separated from the rest of the class. Be brief and to the point. It’s not a two-way conversation. Simply state the rule that was broken and what the student did to violate the rule.

4. Don’t lecture students on the way to, or while they’re in, time-out. Let the time-out be the only consequence. Otherwise, you run the risk of breaking your agreement (i.e., your classroom management plan) in the eyes of your students, thereby causing resentment. Creating friction between you and your students is counterproductive and will hurt your classroom management effectiveness.

5. Don’t give them anything to do. If the time-out is in your classroom, they should be required to follow along with your lessons and complete any work the rest of the students are doing. But if you send them for a recess time-out, they should sit silently with nothing to do. Not only is this easier for you, but it works better.

6. Supervise. Time-out doesn’t work well unless you’re supervising your students yourself. I realize this can be tough to do during a recess time-out. But it’s worth it. It sends the message that your rules are important enough for you to make sacrifices. And students appreciate it. It’s meaningful to them. Children are perceptive and will pick up on how much you care.

7. Ignore. When students are sent to time-out, they’re not part of your classroom until they return. Don’t speak to them, even if you’re supervising them during recess. The rest of your class should ignore them as well, but know that after the time-out is over, any returning student is once again a valued member of the class.

8. Let the student decide when he or she is ready to come back (note: only for in-class time-out). For students who have a proclivity for misbehavior, this can be especially effective. Simply say, “Let me know when you’re ready to be part of the class again.” After twenty minutes, if the student did what he or she was supposed to—as defined by the time-out procedures—and is sitting quietly with his or her hand raised, walk over and say, “Yes?” If the student is remorseful, then invite him or her to return.

9. Don’t hold a grudge. After the time-out is over, it’s over. The student has paid the fine and is therefore a class member in good standing. Holding grudges and taking behavior personally will result in more bad behavior.

10. Have fun. For time-out to be effective, your students must feel like they’re missing something. If your classroom is an exciting and interesting place to be, they will always feel like they’re missing something. However, there is nothing wrong with reminding them. Placing a student in time-out is the perfect time to start a learning game or a fun activity.

There you have it. Ten ways I’m certain will result in a stronger and more effective time-out consequence. Try one or more and then let me know what you think. Leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.

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- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.

I’ve watched the same students at recess every day for years. They emerge from their classrooms a minute or two after their sprinting classmates. They shuffle slowly toward a lunch table or an empty bench carrying a fluttering sheet of paper or a book with no bookmark. They often get a drink of water or use the restroom along the way, killing as much time as they can get away with.

Perhaps a teacher from another classroom is assigned to watch the large group, or maybe it’s a teacher’s aide. At some schools, it’s no one at all. Occasionally, a library or an empty classroom serves as a repository for ill-behaved students sent to time-out. Whatever the circumstance, the students are passively supervised at best and rarely by their own teacher.

Many, if not most, teachers use recess time-out as a consequence for poor behavior or missed homework, but does it really work? Do students improve their behavior or bring their homework more consistently as a result of sitting in time-out while their classmates are at recess?

This is a key question because if a particular consequence doesn’t do the job of curbing unwanted behavior, then it’s not worth doing. The consequence then becomes merely a weak punishment doled out by the teacher. If you find that a consequence is not changing behavior for the better, then you should drop it and find one that does.

I know that using recess time-out is convenient for the teacher and doesn’t interrupt class time, but for most students, it just doesn’t work very well. Missing recess isn’t a big deal for many students. The consequence isn’t strong enough. And over time, if they’re sent to time-out often enough, they will begin to associate themselves with the kind of student who makes a habit of not doing the right thing. It becomes part of who they are.

Using the same consequence with the same students over and over again during the course of a school year without notable improvement can be detrimental. Sadly, when you take a close look at who is on recess time-out week in and week out, it’s usually the same students. They look around and think, “Yep, this is my crew. This is who we are. We’re the bad ones.”

Ask the students you send to recess time-out most often to name the students they typically see there. They won’t hesitate.

So what is the solution? Is there a way to use time-out effectively during recess? Like so much of classroom management, a little work in the beginning goes a long way. Recess time-out can be extremely effective if done in a certain way, a way that also happens to be quite simple.

You supervise them.

I know, I know. It’s inconvenient. You need to use the restroom, have a snack, and get away from your students for a few minutes. But part of what makes it work is that it is inconvenient for you. By staying with them during recess, you are communicating to your students that they’re a priority for you and that you care about them and their behavior. You can keep your students in the classroom if you prefer, but I’ve found it to be particularly effective to walk them to the school’s time-out area and supervise them there.

By supervising your students yourself, you can make sure that they’re actually accomplishing something during time-out or, if you choose, that they’re truly doing nothing at all.

You don’t have to give any lectures or ask for assurances from them. In fact, you shouldn’t say anything to them once recess begins. You want to impress upon your students that time-out is such an important consequence-sacred even-that no one is allowed to speak, not even the teacher.

Yes, you may have to do this a couple of times a week or more in the beginning of the school year, and there will be times when you dread it. But the payoff is great and well worth it in the end.

Use the time to get some work done or eat a snack if you like. And if you need to use the restroom, have your students walk with you and wait outside holding your books and materials. Many times I’ve heard students from other classrooms say to my students. “You’re so lucky. Your teacher goes with you to time-out.”

My students look at them like they’re crazy but deep down share their sentiment. You’re showing that you care, that you’re not going to let them fail. And this makes all the difference.

- Smart Classroom Management - Copyright 2009-2011, All Rights Reserved.