Classroom Management: Bounce 'Em

Ever have a kid show up in your class who's too wound up and distracted to learn? Maybe they're upset and angry about something, and their energy is starting to infect the rest of the room. You tell they really need a "break", but you don't really have a "break room" for students. Try this instead: Rurik Nackerud (another Portland teacher) says, "One of my favorite interventions to use with a single student is to 'Bounce' them." (I never had a name for this intervention, so I will happily steal his). This is a great little technique to use when you have one student in the room that you can see is "heading for trouble" (even if they haven't done anything yet, you know the best thing for everyone is to remove them from class for a little while). "When this happens I send students on an errand. If you set up agreements with people in the building ahead of time and do it often (even if un-needed) students get used to it and do not realize they are being removed from a "sticky" situation." There's a lot of things you can potentially have a student do for you. A few ideas I have are: deliver messages to the office, return a book to another teacher (or the library, or book room), get you food/beverages (if you trust them), pick up AV equipment, put in a maintenance request to the custodian (for instance, if your light has been flickering badly for a few days), drop off or retrieve a copy job (or do the copying), take the trash or recycling out (if the cans are full), and so forth. Aside from giving the student a break (and a chance to reset), this is also a good way to plan movement breaks into the schedule when you have a student who has ADHD (who really can't handle sitting still in class all the time). Unbeknownst to many teacher, many students with ADHD have this tendency to want to be "helpful" and channeling this urge into something positive and productive reduces the need for these students to engage in other less desirable behaviors.