Young Men's Club - 2/29/08

Today the boys learned that I do not bluff. If I say that I'm going to do something I do it. I told them yesterday that their behavior was unacceptable. I also told them that a 30 minute time out would be enforced at the beginning of today's club. Sure enough, at the the beginning of today's club I implemented the longest time out in the history of Young Men's Club. And you know what, I didn't feel the least bit bad about it. I constantly remind them that their behavior dictates what happens in the club. If they're good, we play games, have fun, and I give them prizes. If they're bad, we have time outs and lectures. It was their choice. After about 10 minutes I started sending kids to the bathroom break. (I'm tough but fair) At around the 15 minute mark, I allowed some of the better behaved children to come out of time out early. This is another one of my favorite tactics. I let the good kids have fun and let the poorly behaved kids watch. During that time, I would play some drum beats and then have them repeat it. At the 30 minute mark, all but two of the kids were released from time out. Those two were Jourdan and Nasir. Here's yet another thing about these two: They love to push me. They love to try and get away with things. And I always catch them. Not because I'm so good but because they can't control themselves. For some reason, these two love to dance. Which is fine but not at the beginning during snack time. Trust me, with all the other kids from all the other clubs running around, having the kids in my club dancing is not going to help matters. But these two always start dancing the SECOND by back is turned. I literally turn my back and then immediately turn around again in order to catch them. They get caught every time. And that's why I added an extra 10 minutes to their time out. After time outs and some warm up drumming, we ran the drumming part for the Black History show. Honestly, it's going to be really incredibly. They just have to take it seriously and commit to it. Then I allowed them 15 minutes of "free drumming." Which again, is just 2 kids playing drums and everyone else dancing. (See, I understand the love of dance and I will allow time for it) Unfortunately it ended on a bit of a downer. I got them all together to run the speech for the show. It took way too long for them to get it together. Especially since it's the same speech that they learned about 2 months ago. So I was not happy about the behavior and we spent the final 5 to 10 minutes in yet another time out with yet another lecture. I don't think I'm asking too much. I just want them to keep their hands to themselves and listen to me. I just don't think my demands are that outrageous. But at least two of the kids were extremely well behaved today and they were rewarded accordingly with Blow Pops. Nasir came up to me and said, "I don't get a Blow Pop do I?" I refrained from using any swear words.