Discipline for everybody

Well, today was another of those 4 and 5 year old classes. And it to started to get out of hand. And I had just about all I could take. The leader of the pack was cute but deadly Kodai. And I had reprimanded him several times to no avail. So I had to run him down and catch him. It sorta reminded me of the days at the animal shelter when I frightened cat got on the loose. Kodai was much easier to catch, I promise you. Then I carried him out of the room (just outside the door so I could keep an ear out for the rest of the pre-school hooligans. And I asked Kodai if he wanted me to call his "Mama". He shook his head no, with very hound dog eyes. I asked him if he was going to be good. He nodded his head yes, vigorously. I really don't know how much he understood, but apparently our little heart to heart worked. If he started to act up too much I would yell "Kodai sit!" (more flashbacks to animal shelter days) and he would sit. And the rest of the class seemed to take note and did pretty good. I don't expect them to be perfect - they are 4 and 5 years old for gosh sakes. But we had fun in a slightly more controlled way. Then there was the disciplining I got. Mr. M. called and said he needed to speak to me about a small problem. So he came to the center and we had a little talk in his car. It seems that there was a complaint from one of the mothers of the kids in my 1st and 2nd grade class. Her son came home with the wrong workbook. I'm not sure why that is a crisis. The ideas we were learning were "make a mess" and "clean up". So the easiest way to show make a mess was to have them throw their workbooks into the center of the floor (along with all my stuff, too). One problem - nobody had their names written on their books. And some of the books got mixed up. Call out the National Guard. Now she wants to attend the class to see what is going on. Fine. I am not changing my style. This method of teaching has validity. It's called "Total Physical Response". Of course I use it cuz I have a dang good time. And so do the kids. I'll just remember to have them write their names on their books before I go tossing them around again.