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If you have a problem managing your students in a classroom, it’s time to be a little strict with them. Meaning, sometimes you have to punish them if they misbehave. But, by punishment, we do not mean that you should beat them.
All teachers experience management issues in classrooms from time to time. Issues must be addressed, and sometimes a punishment or consequence is usually required. One of the most challenging aspects of being a teacher is enforcing consequences or punishments. Punishments and consequences are not always good for students, but we understand that they are required to maintain a positive and managed classroom environment.
Beating, spanking, and yelling can have negative outcomes. It can cause behavioral and psychological problems in students and low self-esteem, stress-related issues, and aggression in the long run. That punishment will live on student’s memories forever. I believe we all have that one punishment or consequence during our school time that we still remember forever.
Should Teachers Be Allowed To Punish Their Students
In my opinion, punishment should be permitted. We are all aware that teachers have difficulty dealing with 20 to 35 students in their class. Even the excellent student will misbehave at some point, which can be challenging for teachers. If teachers do nothing, the other students may misbehave since they see no consequences for the bad behavior.
Sometimes, it is impossible for a teacher to determine who committed an infraction, so if no one confesses, the entire class must be punished. If there are few known students who misbehave, I don’t think the whole class should be punished. Because of some student’s bad behavior, the entire class should not get punished.
Every parent has created their methods of punishing their children. Some parents do not think the punishment is a good thing. When your child starts school, the teacher is now in charge of punishment, regardless of your punishment philosophy. Most schools banned corporal punishment years ago, so parents don’t have to worry about their child being hit by a teacher.
Creative Punishments for Students
As teachers, we often forget that punishment is not intended to make your students fear you. The main purpose of punishment is to teach your students the importance of good behavior. So, here are some of the creative ways of punishing your students.
Digital Monitoring
The best creative punishment you can come up with for students is to use monitoring apps. There are many monitoring apps designed especially for schools to monitor students. Among all the monitoring apps, I highly recommend you to use a non-intrusive monitoring app, fenced.ai. This monitoring app allows you to create a digitally safe learning environment for your students.
The monitoring app fenced.ai, provides many features for schools such as app blockers, remote control, safe web browsing, geofence alerts, and social media monitoring. Generally, students do not obey the rules and break the rules as some fun and entertainment. Students are not allowed to leave the school premises before their time, but they seem to disobey the rules. It is always hard to track students and their location, so fenced.ai allows you to restrict the students to leave the school’s premises and instantly alert notification.
During class, students tend to ignore the lectures and play games on their laptops or school PCs. It is not always possible for teachers to look at all the student’s computers and guide them. In such a situation, fenced.ai plays a significant role in getting insights on the student’s device and seeing all of the installed apps. If you’re the supervisor, you can use this feature to restrict access to inappropriate apps like games or social media.
Redo the task
The old faithful redo has been a creative consequence used by teachers for many years. As they go about their busy school day, teachers may overlook the redo category of consequences. The redo is a broad category that a teacher can consider when devising unique consequences for students. Throughout the years, the redo has done a lot of good for students.
The basic idea behind the redo is that when a student performs a task incorrectly or does something incorrectly, they redo the task correctly. With a redo opportunity, the teacher redirects or addresses the student’s misbehavior. Any classroom procedure can use the redo method if the student does not complete it correctly the first time.
Some may argue that simply copying the redo strategy is not very creative, but there is plenty of room for the teacher to be creative with the redo area of consequences. Creativity can be incorporated into the how, when, and where. The “why” of the consequence should always be known. We are not looking for a bizarre outcome. Just a memorable consequence, a changeup, and a permanent change in our student’s behavior.
Make It Right
We’ve all had that teacher who always wanted us to right any wrongs. Perhaps we have even found ourselves in a situation where we have asked our students to correct a mistake. Unfortunately, this usually ends with the student issuing a half-hearted apology.
You might not go any further if the apology was genuine, but we have probably all witnessed the forced apology from our students. So, if the apology isn’t going to be sincere, consider a more memorable change that could result in long-term changes in your student’s behavior. Perhaps it should be a student assignment to make it right in some way.
Allow the Overdo
Another creative consequence to consider is the overdo. When something is done incorrectly in the classroom, the teacher acknowledges the behavior and allows the student to repeat the behavior repeatedly. The main point is that the student realizes, as a result of the consequence, that the behavior isn’t all that entertaining or engaging.
Perhaps not as common as the previous suggestions, but this can be a memorable and effective change in student’s behavior. We may have even heard of a situation or story in which parents caught their child doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. As a result, the behavior was replicated to demonstrate to their child that it isn’t all that fun or engaging to be involved in that type of behavior.
In the classroom, creative consequences or punishments can be highly effective. We all have students who require a different punishment to permanently change their behavior. I hope that these four types of creative consequences will be helpful to you in the future.
Why You Should Use Creative Punishments
Usually, teachers get many bad behaviors from students which need to be addressed and give consequences to particular students. The rules and regulation of the classroom have seen to be unfollowed and ignored. Therefore, creative consequences are required to discipline the students. Here are the three reasons why you should use creative consequences.
It Can Cause Permanent Change
The first reason to use creative consequences is that it can cause a permanent change in a student’s behavior. If a consequence or punishment isn’t changing or discouraging unwanted behavior, it should be abandoned in favor of a different option. Creative punishments or consequences can give a long-term change to particular students.
If you use creative consequences properly, it can be a changeup, memorable, and result in long-term behavioral changes in students. A teacher doesn’t give a punishment with the intention of increasing, fostering, or encouraging future misbehavior. Creative punishments provide an opportunity to influence a student toward long-term change.
It’s Memorable
The second reason to use creative consequences is that they are memorable. Punishment can become so routine that students forget about it by the time they get home. Every time a student gets in trouble, they get temporarily suspended, fill out a reminder, and so on. Students remembered the teacher’s punishment before their misbehavior, and the question is whether that is the impression we want to leave with our students.
Sometimes the best way to break a student’s bad habits is to put them in a situation they will never forget. Not in a negative way, but in such a way that the student remembers the punishment more than the violation. A remembered punishment discourages future infractions. You must ask yourself some questions: if the consequences in our classroom have become ineffective, perhaps a change is required?
It’s A Changeup
And the last reason for employing creative consequences or punishments is that it is a changeup for the student. When students are subjected to the same punishment repeatedly, it can lose its effect on them. It’s almost like being temporarily suspended and apologizing like a normal day for them.
When used appropriately, a creative consequence or punishment can have a lifelong impact on a student’s future. We’re not talking about some evil plot here, but rather a change from what the student was used to receiving as a consequence in that specific situation.
Conclusion
There are consequences for your actions no matter where you are in life, and school is no exception. Teachers should establish a set of boundaries in their classrooms. A classroom that lacks boundaries and consequences is a great disservice to all students in that class.
In this article, I have mentioned and explained different types of creative punishments for students. I hope that these four types of creative consequences and three types of need of using creative consequences will be helpful to you in the future. If you have any doubts or didn’t understand any terms, then feel free to mention them in the comment section.