Does your school take away recess time as punishment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are other ways that teachers can and do manage their classrooms effectively without breaking PGCPS policy. All research points to the conclusion that our kids do not get enough physical activity during the school day.

Take them to the park after school and let them run around for Pete's sake. Parent your children.

Wow! Way to judge other parents. You must be super proud of your self righteous soapbox.
My kids do go to the park after school nearly every day. Little kids need lots of opportunities to go out and run around with their peers. They need to clear their heads, get some fresh air, and yes, get some energy out.

If you have a different opinion, you should go and read the scientific literature on the topic.

I have read the literature. You should read it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. You can thank ineffective parents for this policy. Specifically, the ones who aren't willing to discipline at home and aren't responding to my emails detailing Snowflake's disruptive behavior. Apart from missing 1/3 of 1/2 of total recess time, these kids have no incentive to stop the disruptions and then ALL my kids suffer.

Not understanding why ALL the children must get in trouble. Let the one kid stay inside. Put his ass in another class. Put him with the gym teacher, the music, the art, the admin team.

Sitting through the disruptions of an undisciplined-at-home kid is how they all suffer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. You can thank ineffective parents for this policy. Specifically, the ones who aren't willing to discipline at home and aren't responding to my emails detailing Snowflake's disruptive behavior. Apart from missing 1/3 of 1/2 of total recess time, these kids have no incentive to stop the disruptions and then ALL my kids suffer.

I understand that it must be extremely frustrating as a teacher to have to deal with out of control kids but there is a written policy on taking away recess as a punishment. How could you justify breaking that policy if you were called out on it?

They are practicing proper task behavior. My class has plenty of fun, engaging pair and small-group activities. I plan my day's lessons to be balanced. Sometimes, they are instructed to listen and behave as learners (during tests or direct instruction). I make this disctincion very clear, every time we are heading towards the quiet learning sections of the day. I do my part, but kids who disrupt this learning time are being trained not to do so by missing 1/3 of 1/2 of the day's recess to "practice." This is only if the email(s) I send home are ignored or not working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. You can thank ineffective parents for this policy. Specifically, the ones who aren't willing to discipline at home and aren't responding to my emails detailing Snowflake's disruptive behavior. Apart from missing 1/3 of 1/2 of total recess time, these kids have no incentive to stop the disruptions and then ALL my kids suffer.

I understand that it must be extremely frustrating as a teacher to have to deal with out of control kids but there is a written policy on taking away recess as a punishment. How could you justify breaking that policy if you were called out on it?

They are practicing proper task behavior. My class has plenty of fun, engaging pair and small-group activities. I plan my day's lessons to be balanced. Sometimes, they are instructed to listen and behave as learners (during tests or direct instruction). I make this disctincion very clear, every time we are heading towards the quiet learning sections of the day. I do my part, but kids who disrupt this learning time are being trained not to do so by missing 1/3 of 1/2 of the day's recess to "practice." This is only if the email(s) I send home are ignored or not working.

It sounds like you are a great teacher and what you say makes a lot of sense. But there is a very specific policy on the books? I'm just curious are teachers not made aware of the policy or are they just blatantly ignoring it? Where I work, there are a lot of policies. I find that a lot of them aren't effective etc but I still have to follow them. Just wondering if there is a lack of communication from the administrators to the staff or just an "don't ask/ don't tell" type of attitude about it.

[Anonymous]

Not a teacher, but I know for a fact that loosing recess time is part of the discipline plan in K at our PGCPS. Seems strange that they would make it a policy if it's prohibited by they county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. You can thank ineffective parents for this policy. Specifically, the ones who aren't willing to discipline at home and aren't responding to my emails detailing Snowflake's disruptive behavior. Apart from missing 1/3 of 1/2 of total recess time, these kids have no incentive to stop the disruptions and then ALL my kids suffer.

I understand that it must be extremely frustrating as a teacher to have to deal with out of control kids but there is a written policy on taking away recess as a punishment. How could you justify breaking that policy if you were called out on it?

They are practicing proper task behavior. My class has plenty of fun, engaging pair and small-group activities. I plan my day's lessons to be balanced. Sometimes, they are instructed to listen and behave as learners (during tests or direct instruction). I make this disctincion very clear, every time we are heading towards the quiet learning sections of the day. I do my part, but kids who disrupt this learning time are being trained not to do so by missing 1/3 of 1/2 of the day's recess to "practice." This is only if the email(s) I send home are ignored or not working.

It sounds like you are a great teacher and what you say makes a lot of sense. But there is a very specific policy on the books? I'm just curious are teachers not made aware of the policy or are they just blatantly ignoring it? Where I work, there are a lot of policies. I find that a lot of them aren't effective etc but I still have to follow them. Just wondering if there is a lack of communication from the administrators to the staff or just an "don't ask/ don't tell" type of attitude about it.

Thanks. I don't teach in PGCounty... I saw this thread under Recent Topics and just realized it was site-specific. Apologies to anyone who might have confused me with one of their childrens' teachers.

[Anonymous]

When I was a student in PGPS teachers would make you stand on the WALL and watch the other kids play LOL....talk about torture. We had one teacher who would make you sit in her class and listen to classical music for the whole recess, Yikes! All the students thought of her as mean and very cruel

[Anonymous]

No but I am fine with it

[Anonymous]

For anyone interested, here's a link to the American Academy on Pediatrics policy statement on the importance of recess which includes "The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child’s development and, as such, it should not be withheld for punitive or academic reasons."

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/183.full

[Anonymous]

I think taking away recess is so counter intuitive - especially for younger kids. They should do 'structure recess' as a punishment. Have them run laps, do calisthenics, some sort of activity that will expend some energy.

[Anonymous]

"This kid is being disruptive and has too much energy so let's take away the time allocated in the day for him to utilize all that energy and wear himself out" -backwards ass teachers.
Disruptive students need to be kept busy or referred to the SIT process to identify proactive ways to reduce and eventually eliminate disruptive behavior. Many times students are disruptive because they don't know the content and are hiding behind their behavior or they already know it and are bored. Notice I said MANY TIMES not all the time. Yes there are some legit issues out there but taking away recess will not fix the root of the problem.
10 years teaching here. Never had to take away recess from a kid.
And please don't think sending them to another teacher is a solution. You are taking away from educAtional time and other teachers shouldn't have to be responsible for a child not on their roster. Our classes are big enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They might have to walk laps or something during recess. That's obviously the response to the Mommys who will complain that little Jacob "needs to get his energy out!"

Then they will cry out corporal punishment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. You can thank ineffective parents for this policy. Specifically, the ones who aren't willing to discipline at home and aren't responding to my emails detailing Snowflake's disruptive behavior. Apart from missing 1/3 of 1/2 of total recess time, these kids have no incentive to stop the disruptions and then ALL my kids suffer.

+1 The conversation needs to change from how dare you take away recess to Johnny, what did you do to cause you to miss recess?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"This kid is being disruptive and has too much energy so let's take away the time allocated in the day for him to utilize all that energy and wear himself out" -backwards ass teachers.
Disruptive students need to be kept busy or referred to the SIT process to identify proactive ways to reduce and eventually eliminate disruptive behavior. Many times students are disruptive because they don't know the content and are hiding behind their behavior or they already know it and are bored. Notice I said MANY TIMES not all the time. Yes there are some legit issues out there but taking away recess will not fix the root of the problem.
10 years teaching here. Never had to take away recess from a kid.
And please don't think sending them to another teacher is a solution. You are taking away from educAtional time and other teachers shouldn't have to be responsible for a child not on their roster. Our classes are big enough.

Doubt anyone thinks taking away recess time is getting to the root and I'm sure teachers ARE going through the proper channels if it is reoccurring behavior. However, if a child is preventing other students from learning and taking away a teacher's valuable time (teachers are evaluated on maximizing instructional time) then there is a problem and even short term solution is better than allowing the behavior to continue unchecked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think taking away recess is so counter intuitive - especially for younger kids. They should do 'structure recess' as a punishment. Have them run laps, do calisthenics, some sort of activity that will expend some energy.

Corporal Punishment.