What to Do with Classroom Rule Breakers?

this week we're talking about another question that came from the Facebook group which was how do you deal with classroom rule Breakers and I will say that the comments that this post got in our Facebook group if you're not on our Facebook group it's real rap with Reynolds at teacher real rapid Reynolds teacher talk on Facebook and it's a space that's only for teachers so the Educators that answered I thought did an incredible job so if you want to check that out you can go over and as a matter of fact if you just go

to the top of the uh Facebook group there's like a little magnifying glass up there and you can look for anything like just type in you know rule Breakers or or something of that nature and the post will actually pop up it auto pop in so you can search the whole book for anything that you're kind of looking for and these sleeves are going to make this keep writing on itself so what do we do with classroom rule Breakers I think you know no matter if kids are very little right you're dealing with kindergarten first

grade second grade or High School I think that no one is like I will say this very few kids I think are born as these sort of like like I'm gonna push against the grain no matter what and that just happened naturally I think there is some of that but ultimately I think all kids want to belong they want to be loved they want to be able to show love and and I so I think that is like in my educational you know experience that is where kids would like to be and when you get

behind the story you always find out that something else is actually going on however and I think that that deals with like that is building relationships and I have talked uh you know a ton about that and you can just look it up on the YouTube channel but um I don't want to necessarily go into that piece today because I think that that is actually going to be your number one way to resolve issues but in the moment what do you do in the moment when a kid is acting up when they are challenging you

in front of the class when you're kind of like don't know what to do what do you do then and I think the first thing you do is this is this is far easier said than done but I'm going to talk you through it real quick so the first thing I think is oh my gosh this is really this is really gonna this is what we do when we don't do edits anymore we're trying to do trying to do this like it's a seminar um but it's going to keep writing on top um do not

take it personally sometimes words are too long and I'm just going to go like that and there you go that's what it says personally uh it's like it's like Jeopardy writing so I realize that that is easier said than done but the reason I bring that up is because once you know there's a there's something I think that a lot of students get out of um make it's this sense of control right it is this sense of I have a sense of power and when you look at young people oftentimes they don't have power right

and in my uh this is not there's no science behind this that I know of but maybe there is because I I think it's right that you know when we look at like teenagers or even younger than teenagers now it is why do kids dye their hair purple or pink or wear you know like my friends like weird punk rock kids I grew up with who have like safety pins in their ears or whatever right it is this thing where this is what I control this is where I can have a sense of power and

kids will challenge you and when they see that you are that you're shook that is that that's a little bit of a light up right oh all right I'm getting to them and and so as a kid that did this in high school I'm telling you that this is like where some of this can come from so it is trying not to take it personal and how do you do that even if it does hurt your feelings or you are feeling like you're taking it personally you have to just act like it's not that's my

best piece of advice I once was told by a mentor of mine uh when I was coming up as a teacher that 90 of teaching is acting sometimes we have to act like things are important sometimes we have to act like we're angry sometimes we have to act like something didn't matter sometimes we have to act like I love this book I love teaching Merchant of Venice every year it's the best I don't I don't like Metron events but if I tell kids I don't like it I have tried that level of Truth and I've

seen it have the opposite effect like kids aren't seeing that as being real they're seeing it as like well then why do we have to do this and then they just hate it so now I don't tell them I love it I just tell them this is what we're doing and I try and make it the best that I can possibly be and then when we're done I actually tell them that I that's not my favorite work of Shakespeare there's like 50 other things I'd rather do so that being said um you are trying to

act through that I think the second thing you do is you simply talk to kids remember you're going to hear your mom or the person that brought you up coming out of me right now because I'm going to tell you that it's not what you say it's how you set it so it is telling students and I I report things like I'm reporting the news I'm not getting my feelings in it I'm not going to yell at you to sit down I'm not going to tell you twice they're like act like stop acting a fool

I'm gonna say Aaron because every every kid that I've had enough Aarons that were issues in class and so everyone I always go to is either named Tim or Aaron Aaron do me a favor please sit down right now I know there's teachers that have an issue with like asking kids like that but that I don't know I don't know what to tell you about that one this is how I roll it is Aaron do me a favor please sit down and that is keep moving I'm not waiting for Aaron I'm not gonna stare at

him I'm not gonna have a power struggle I'm just like keep rolling with claps like this was a hiccup like Aaron could you please sit down and then just keep moving right that is not giving that student any more attention than this specific behavior warrants then if it happens again Aaron I'm sorry uh no I I tend to use humor and sarcasm in class you can Choose Your Own Adventure on this one but Aaron I'm sorry uh just please sit down I thought I asked that already right but are we cool everything go all right

all right do you need anything okay could you do please do me a favor and sit down it's distracting the other class and I have to teach everyone um cool and so what you're doing is it's a really quick it's like not making it too serious you are almost kind of joking about it you are then telling the student why this is important because I'm teaching a class and it's distracting and someone can't see and whatever else is going on but it's a real quick thing and then I just move on I'm not waiting for

Aaron to answer me right I am just simply moving on to the next thing so if this happens a third time and I'm not putting checks on the board I'm not writing people's names under that stuff if it happens a third time and I have it in my head that this is happening again I will simply ask the student to step outside right and so here's how I do this this is one that kind of gets people a little bit mixed up uh when I asked a kid to step outside my I say this so

often that my students laugh at me when I do it so I always say Aaron can you step outside you're not in trouble I just need to talk to you for a second right so right there not the whole I'm not in you're not in trouble what you are getting around by doing that is not having a student say back to you for what I didn't even do anything they were talking you didn't do anything then I didn't say anything about talking or anything I I didn't I didn't mention your behavior I didn't say that

you I actually said you weren't in trouble and then I kindly asked you to step outside so could you just step outside for a second it's not a big deal you're making something that it's not and so right then you're trying to de-escalate the situation you're talking in a very normal voice where it doesn't go too high and it doesn't go too low and it doesn't like show your emotion it is making that student look like they are making a big deal out of it but I'll tell you as you do this during the year

I often have students that I'll say hey Aaron can you step outside and then the kids like in unison will go you're not in trouble and I'm like everybody shut up uh so Aaron steps outside and then here's how I I try and roll this let me see if I can let me see if I can uh I'm a horrible drawer but you will all benefit from my lack of drawing so um if this is the classroom door uh open and then so these are these are my little students in here right what I try

to do is I have Aaron stands here right so he is standing or he is not an eye shot of anyone in the class they cannot see him he cannot see them I am then standing right here so I can see right in the door right but by simply turning my head or using a certain tone those students because I'm looking at Aaron so I'm looking this way cannot see me talking to him they also can't see his emotion his reactions whether he's getting in trouble whether he's not getting in trouble whether he gets upset

whether he stays cool they are simply still doing work and I can still talk to them I do not like to multitask but this is a time in my life that I cannot find an alternative to multitasking so this is what I do the next thing I say is Aaron this is what I'm think I'm seeing in class right yeah the key word there is this is what I think I'm seeing in class and then I tell them next part ready um I let them say like is this what I'm seeing in class they get

to answer me my next question is I take the ownership for this right is there something I said or did that would cause you to do that in class and so right there I am taking that student from defense to offense and so the importance there is kids are expecting right if a kid's acting up in class not like nine times out of ten this isn't new for this kid uh that they've been through this kind of whole game before and they get pulled into the hallway and it's like listen listen I am not going

to take this sort of behavior in class I am not going to put up with this you're not going to act like this in my class you're in fifth grade now or 10th grade now and you need to learn how to grow up this is in fourth grade anymore all right this is a whole conversation teachers have all the time and all that kid is hearing is it becomes um Charlie Brown it's like Instead This is what I think I'm seeing that I do or say anything that might cause you to be to for this

to happen in class and what you will find is that again I'd say about nine out of ten times the kid's gonna say no but every one out of ten times you're gonna have a student that says yes actually it pissed me off when you didn't call on me or I keep raising my hand or I asked to go to the bathroom 15 minutes ago and you told me to wait and now I really have to go to the bathroom or you know I'm aggravated that something happened in my last class and I was trying

to talk to that kid or that kid took my airpod or whatever it is there is sometimes a thing that you did that is going to come out now I realize that not all things that is listed are things that I did but it might be something that came to me try to get my attention and I was not giving them my attention I then apologize I'm so sorry I really I didn't even notice that you had your hand up I'm now aware and look you know all I want for you to do is be

successful in my class right so in the going forward if something like this happens please feel like you can come just say it to me yo Reynolds why aren't you calling on me I've had my hand in the air for this amount of time and then I can address it right there right this is our class but it's about you so let's have that conversation next time instead of you doing all this other nonsense that makes us have to come in the hallway thing so everyone thinks you're in trouble now like let's just roll back

and and be and we're good right so that's part of it the other part of it is a kid says no you didn't do anything um so I was just throwing paper or refusing the work or have my head down or sleeping again or was sneaking games on my computer and then I break it down the same way for them I need you to know Aaron that we are here for one reason and that is for you to be successful not this in this class I want you to be successful in your life I want

everything you dream of to come as a result of being in my class I want this to be a part of where you're going but right now we're not doing that right now we're not finding success right now we're actually finding the opposite of success and I need you to know that you are the reason I'm here that you guys in this classroom to teach all boys you guys in this classroom are the reason that I teach and so I need you to pay attention not for me I need you to pay attention for you

future you is asking me to help you out right now so I'm going to keep bothering you but I'm not going to keep bothering I don't want you to get twisted I'm not going to keep bothering you because I'm taking offense to this because it matters to me bro I'm going home to my family that loves me no matter what right but I want you to have what you dream of can you show up for future you a conversation that sounds something like that is not faulting a kid it's not blaming a kid it's not

shaming a kid it's not making a kid feel bad is actually doing the opposite it is affirming a student that is loving them so much that I think it wears kids down and they go yeah I can do that um and so that's what we do so in those situations because a kid did needs a moment to process sometimes Aaron let me tell you about before you come back in the class do you get a drink or go to the bathroom or anything like that I just want to make sure they have a moment or

you can just stand here for a moment take a breath when you're ready come back in the class and we just get started and jump right into where we went are we good awesome man I care about you deeply I want you to win the day come back in and we're going to win the day together that's how we shift now I'll tell you that most of the time that sort of conversation has to happen many times during the year sometimes but guess what leaders are repeaters the other thing is sometimes that doesn't work sometimes

this is beyond you and so what happens when you go back into class you're going to do two things right so if this does not work you're going to go back in the club now my wedding ring is off um you're gonna go back in the class and you're gonna to you're teaching the class kids doing something again you walk over to them and first you're going to tell them tell all the kind of a nice spell um the call right you're going to tell them what the phone call is right or actually no actually

we're gonna do first I'm gonna just I'm gonna I'm gonna pull audible here um you are going to ask them if they're refusing to do work and you don't have to make a big deal of it you can walk over the kid all right I'm sorry are you are you refusing to do work are you refusing to do what we're doing right now now a student has this is a yes or no answer yes I am refusing or no I am not right and if you say no you're not well it doesn't look like you're

doing like you had a blank paper your paper's on the floor into your desk you don't have a pencil around or you're on a different website or like what like I'm I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here uh are you using magic so and just having that sort of conversation with a student yes or no answer are you refusing to do work the next time it happens you're going to tell them what the phone call is going to sound like Aaron let me tell you something here's what the phone call is going

to sound like when when I call home today I'm going to call your mom I'm going to tell her that I asked you three times earlier to be two times earlier to be cool then I pulled you in the hallway and had a private conference with you that's what this conversation sounded like then you came back into the class you assured me that you were going to do work I even let you have a beat outside of the classroom to kind of calm yourself to check yourself to come back in to find success in class

and I even affirmed you multiple times to let them know to let you know that all I wanted was for you to find success in class and that this wasn't about me that it was about you then you were doing whatever you're doing I will just I will talk to your parent about that and then I'm going to let them know that I asked you did are you refusing to do work would you either assured me that you were not even though this is what was happening or you told me that you were refusing to

do work and now I'm now your parent and I your guardian I have to have this conversation to figure out what's next is that the phone call that you want me to make so I'm not going to just say I'm going to call home and I never do this move where you call a parent in the middle of class that's a nonsense move please don't do that um because all it does is shame a kid and make them feel bad and it feels good in the moment but it's just like it's that is I think

when teachers do that it's more about them and not about students so you then let them know what that phone call is going to sound like and then if the behavior persists you can either ask a student to go to the office or step outside um or whatever your school does in that situation because you've given multiple things you're gonna then write that situation up and then you're going to call home and let the parent know exactly what happened when you call home is the last thing I'm going to say because I I did not

plan on making a video this long but when you call home that conversation has to start with look before we even get into this I need you to know that your child's success is my number one it's my number one goal in my life your CH your kid is why I'm here so I'm calling home not to just get them in trouble not to tell you that they did something that they weren't supposed to be doing I'm gonna it this like I want to explain what took place in class and then I'd love on the

back end of this after I tell you if you could tell me anything that has worked in the past if you've seen this sort of thing before and you know a teacher that did something that worked um or if we can figure out a solution together and in that way now the parent isn't being shamed they're not being blamed they're not being put on blast they're not feeling like they have to be on on defense because you are like calling and putting their kid on blast and are all angry and heated up it's I'm just

trying to show up so we can help your kid together and most parents can get down with that most parents will will appreciate that you weren't just getting them in trouble that you weren't just calling home you weren't just writing them up or giving them some dumb detention it is actually trying to work in community with parents so that you all can find a way for their student to succeed in class and Beyond and so though that's what I do when we have classroom rule Breakers uh in school there might be a different way that

you do it I am I am I love learning about this stuff so if you have a way that works for you if you could put in the comments section below I would love to know about it and look if you want to see more questions like this you can just go right over to our Facebook group real rapid Reynolds teacher talk is open to all Educators you have to answer like three questions to get in so we know you're not a robot and you're not like a brand trying to sell people stuff but it's

just a safe space for educators um and that's it gang we'll see you next week peace