Teachers please stop taking recess away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My autistic and mainstreamed DD hates recess. She doesn't have friends close enough to play with every day, she doesn't like loud noises and screaming. She normally brings a book outside everyday and either reads sitting against the wall or she'll hang out with the teacher.

It sounds like your daughter, when she brings a book outside or even when she hangs out with the teacher, is also benefiting from recess, just not in the same way other kids use it. And that's OK.

[Anonymous]

Another teacher here. At our school, we often use EXTRA recess as an incentive for hard work and good behavior. And yes, we take away from EXTRA recess minutes as a consequence for poor choices. But the kids still get their basic, required recess minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I am somewhat sympathetic to the PP above, I remind you that if you have to get to know each one of your students afresh every day you are doing it wrong. Supposedly you take time to learn what makes each tick when you first get them. I also don't believe that the problems you are having are all that new. Kids didn't change that dramatically in the last 10 years. Instead of taking away the only break they have, find other ways to get through to them. It's possible. Good teachers know how to do it.

I love how this PP never came back to give more specifics of her wisdom. Just--you're doing it wrong and good teachers know how to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I am somewhat sympathetic to the PP above, I remind you that if you have to get to know each one of your students afresh every day you are doing it wrong. Supposedly you take time to learn what makes each tick when you first get them. I also don't believe that the problems you are having are all that new. Kids didn't change that dramatically in the last 10 years. Instead of taking away the only break they have, find other ways to get through to them. It's possible. Good teachers know how to do it.

I love how this PP never came back to give more specifics of her wisdom. Just--you're doing it wrong and good teachers know how to do it.

EXACTLY... because everyone is an expert on teaching.

[Anonymous]

I think that we can all agree that we, parents and teachers, want school to be a positive experience. My question is how do you make that happen when kids are punished for other kids' poor choices? Teachers want to use peer pressure, cooperative classrooms, and what they feel is their only bargaining chip- recess, to make it happen. What if you have a kid that isn't the type that applies peer pressure to others? You are stuck hoping someone else does it. What if you have a few bad apples that don't fall for peer pressure and don't care? Once again, you are stuck. There's a got to be a better way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just a request to all teachers to stop using recess as a bargaining tool. My child's teacher apparently punishes the whole class when some of them misbehave. They are misbehaving BECAUSE they are cooped up all day with no physical activity!!! Taking away recess is lazy teaching. Find other strategies to deal with behavioral problems in the classroom. Let 7 year olds get some fresh air for Pete's sake! Rant over.

Preach!
--signed a public elementary school principal who has 2 recess blocks for each grade and will not allow teachers to take away recess unless a child is having a specific issue at recess, e.g. hurting someone

Would love to know what school you're at. Our fcps principal last year cut the whole school's recess, including K, down to 10 minutes, not including transition time. It was a 6-7 minute recess. Horrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that we can all agree that we, parents and teachers, want school to be a positive experience. My question is how do you make that happen when kids are punished for other kids' poor choices? Teachers want to use peer pressure, cooperative classrooms, and what they feel is their only bargaining chip- recess, to make it happen. What if you have a kid that isn't the type that applies peer pressure to others? You are stuck hoping someone else does it. What if you have a few bad apples that don't fall for peer pressure and don't care? Once again, you are stuck. There's a got to be a better way.

There is. It's called Responsive Classroom. It works. Many schools are switching to it in fcps. I wish they all would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never take away all of recess but I sometimes have students walk the perimeter of the tennis courts instead of playing with their friends. They spend class trying to do that.

No, just no. They need a break. Find other ways to deal with bad behavior.

That is a break. Bad in the good old days, my father went to military school and if you broke rules you ran laps around the sports field.

I'm not that strict, but I think this is an excellent idea. Time to think and burn off some energy. Come back calm.

Sorry, but for many reasons running should not be a punishment. One, because running is awesome and not a punishment. Two, because many many kids today in this area have asthma or allergies and could not safely run that far. Without practice, running even one lap around a field can be excessive. And it's hot here. Most days too hot for that. Take an out of shape kid with asthma and have him run some laps around the field in the middle of the day and you have a recipe for a dead kid and a major lawsuit. Sorry if you think that's a snowflake thing, but it would be a stupid teacher who didn't think of that ahead of time.