It’s easy to give directions.
“Mario, open your book.”
“Lucy, stop talking.”
“Roger, change your seat.”
“Anthony, put the torch away.”
If you find they don’t have ‘bite’, that when you give direction, you question or debate, here’s why:
All teachers have rules, but they are not required unless you have a consequence that is important to the student. Many teachers have abstract consequences: warnings, an eventual phone call home, a nebulous threat to talk to the counselor. None of these matter to the student in the short term, hence the challenge or the argument. Hence constant redirection. Hence, the exhaustion of teachers.
Very few teachers have the following rule: “There is no arguing with the instructions.”
Make that one of your rules.
That means, whenever you give an address, it must be followed immediately without debate.
If you have an immediate consequence for the non-compliance that matters to the student, the student will comply.
Try a fifteen minute detention after school and forget the warning system.
Every time I tell a student to change their seat, they change it, not because they have the complexion of Arnold Schwarzaneggar, but because if they do more than change their seat, they know they have 15 minutes after school. Non-negotiable. That means they’re not worth arguing, so don’t.
You can make this happen with any address.
Usually the next question I get from teachers is, “How do I get them to come to detention?”
We’ll save that for a later lesson, but if you caught the principle here, you might as well.
In the meantime, starting tomorrow, try these steps:
1. Make it one of your rules not to discuss with staff (explain what you mean by discuss, respond, debate).
2. Tell students that if they argue, they will receive a 15-minute detention after school.
3. Immediately change someone’s seat after the explanation so that they get used to the new regime.
If you go ahead with the arrests, this will be the end of pointless arguments and debates.