Averys to Angels

After reading the blog by Pens4life ‘I Wear Zebra Stripes’ I was quite impressed at the effect the penalties had on his children…so I decided to steal it! I thought I would use it on my class of 12yr olds who all have behavioural/social problems. I’ll be honest the past two weeks had been pretty bad behaviour wise and we were all coming to the end of our patience. The calm had been severely disrupted. I had nothing to lose!

While I do talk to them about ice hockey an awful lot, they do not have a clue really about the sport. When I announced that the rules were changing in the room completely nothing could have prepared me for the reception I would get. I had run them past a colleague prior who thought that they were a fantastic new approach to our new term issues.

I boldly announced that there would now be set time penalties for different types of bad behaviour…..2 mins for instigating, 5 mins for fighting, 5 mins for abusing the officials (staff) and so on and so on it went. I was greeted with only one groan, which surprised me as I thought the idea would go down like a lead balloon.I explained that there would be a set area in the classroom that we would call the penalty box and that area was for thinking about your actions and ways you could improve your behaviour. They took great satisfaction in creating a super sign saying ‘Penalty box’ and choosing a very uncomfortable chair to place there! It all added to the spirit which I hoped to create. We also now have a huge poster on the wipeboard that sets out all the time penalties and we went through thoroughly which types of actions went under which category.

To my disappointment, in the beginning, the excitement took over them and they all wanted time in the penalty box…and every time I said they had a penalty I just wanted to laugh. This was soon solved when the first true penalty was handed out…5 mins for abusing the official (me)…for a very underhand comment. Problem solved…they all now appreciated that when they in the penalty box that it was thinking time for them, a time to review what type of behaviour I expect from them. This week we have had 5 incidents, which I’m thinking is pretty good going and I’m sure you wouldn’t see them vying for the top with O’Brien, Carcillo etc.

As if this wasn’t enough progress in a week, several of the boys have found a sudden interest/fascination with the sport. I have spent a lot of time the past couple of days explaining teams, players, rules, who’s doing well, how the league works etc etc. They have even taken it upon themselves to create their own name and logo (wow it sounds like I never do any REAL work) which now stands in pride of place in the centre of the board. Tomorrow we even have two pupils doing presentations on the Penguins, which they have been busy slaving over today. Along with this we have also decided that every week I will award Lady Byng of the week…which they love.

I always say that what I do with the children in school is not without reason, every conversation I have with them is a way of broadening their communication skills, every activity they do has a lesson behind it. We can’t learn in the conventional ‘high school’ way…it doesn’t work with these children, so we are lucky to have the freedom to try exciting ways of learning. How long will it last…who knows? What I do know is that for what we need at the moment, post-Christmas and a very long January, this seems to have done the trick.

I’m sure that I’m not the first to bring sports rules to the classroom, but as Pens4life so beautifully puts it, it’s amazing when a sport that you love weaves its way into your personal life. A truly amazing behaviour management strategy if I do say so myself!