 Hey there, I'm gonna flip over Hi, I want to try to turn this and see oh good it will work. I am broadcasting from My new office. We just moved And I have my own office and I'm very excited. So I will I'll show it to you. Well right now. It's a complete pigsty, but I'll show it to you later some other time So thank you for joining me and welcome. We have 11 whole people in here tonight. So that's just great See here's something I've noticed I like turning it this way and yet I can't see the comments quite as well But I think it it converts to YouTube a lot better or it looks better on YouTube What I used to do with my old Periscope broadcasts was I had them on a page called catch me And that page is no longer there. So I have now you moved all of my old Periscope broadcasts to YouTube so that's great So if you go to my website called to pedagogy and click on up on the corner top right There's all my little social media icons and stuff and one of them is YouTube if you go to my YouTube channel You will see now. There is a playlist that's called advice for teachers. So if you go there all of my periscopes are there So yeah, just great. So tonight we are going to be talking about whether or not recess should be withheld As a punishment. I got an email actually just a couple days ago From a guy may not have even been a couple days ago might have just been yesterday Saying that he Hey Jason When I'm looking this way it's because I'm looking at the comments because they're coming up on the bottom of my screen I'm going to try and look at my camera so that I'm looking at you But I may occasionally look hey, Nicole So he was he was saying, you know, like I typically have held kids in for recess As a punishment, but I'm starting to have doubts and I thought well Yeah, there's definitely a lot of stuff out there about that practice. So I thought that would make a great question for tonight So I wanted to try to tackle that issue tonight. And so tonight's periscope has a Has a download has a document So if you're if you've never been to my periscopes before What I will do sometimes is It's great because it's sort of like a little research project that I get I'll have a teacher ask me a question And then I will go and dig up some good stuff And then I become a little bit more of an expert on that topic just because I took, you know a little bit of time. I Wish recess was still a thing in my world, too You know little kids have great they have adults tell them to take maps and have recess and yeah, and then anyway, okay, so Tonight if you go to Cultipedagogy.com Slash Periscope and I'm gonna just check that and make sure that it's right because yeah cultipedagogy.com slash periscope There is already a list or a link to a document that has the resources that I'm gonna be talking about tonight So if you want to link to those articles later That's where you'd find it called to pedagogy.com slash periscope and there's a link for May 10th, which is tonight's broadcast so Thanks Mark, I want to show you the rest of it But it's just you know what I am gonna show you all the rest of it because I want you to see the difference later So I'm just gonna quickly walk you around. It's a very nice room We basically got this house because I need an office so a window another built-in bookshelf fireplace it works and Now it starts to get really junky because there's a bunch of crap on the floor But just check out the view and I'm not a big fan of the green carpet either But oh people are liking this Look at the view. Look at this sick view Okay, that's pretty nice, right? Yeah So really really excited. We were really out growing our old house and so we just moved in and it's been very very hectic and I'm very excited about this So let's talk about recess Everybody's loving on the room. We're talking about recess. So Here is what I found first of all I just started off by basically googling it and I really couldn't find any support for Taking away recess for kids. Just none like everything I found was Categorically against the idea of taking away recess. So I'm gonna tell you how I'm gonna break this down Okay, because I want to make sure that everybody's clear that I really do get Why I am in Kentucky. I'm in Bowling Green, Kentucky I really understand why teachers take away recess and I want you to know that I am going to be addressing the fact that I can empathize with what happens in In the teacher's head when you're going to take away recess I just think that All teachers need to understand why it's not a good idea to do it and what some of the alternatives are So first we're gonna talk a little bit about the research about why it's not a good idea to take research Research recess away from kids Talk a little bit about why teachers do it and then some alternatives Okay, so the first resource that I linked to in the handout is That okay, some people are talking about alternatives. We're gonna get to those in a few minutes So if you've got suggestions, we are definitely gonna get to a point in this broadcast where I really want to hear What other things you do because I've got some suggestions but I Want to get those all like Get those all added up together later. Okay So the first study that I linked to is it's called the crucial role of recess in school and it's by the American Academy of Pediatrics and They I mean they really look at it for some from so many different angles And so what I did in this document is I basically just pointed out the ones the points that I thought were really really key Okay, so I'm gonna read some of these to you and Some so much of this is stuff that everybody's gonna be like yeah, duh like we know this already It's this common sense, but the fact that there have been all these studies on it that can actually quantify and say this is not just you You using your common sense. This is actually based in some science. We've discovered this to be true after recess This is recess for kids or a break for older kids So this this is true not only for elementary-age students, but also for adolescents students are more attentive and better able to perform cognitively They also say That it almost doesn't even matter what kids do during recess because I think sometimes Some teachers are gonna be like well these kids are only socializing especially when you're dealing with like fifth and sixth graders If they're just standing around talking It may be Tempting for a teacher to say well if they're not even getting physical exercise. What is the point? This some of this research that they're quoting in this APA study Says that it doesn't even matter what they're doing if they're getting a break from the learning It's actually helping them to be able to focus better when they are learning and this has to do also with I Mean, I think there are two practices that are going on. I think there are teachers that are taking away recess Abba as teachers that are taking away recess as a punishment and Hold on a second. I Just want to make sure that we don't that we've got people who are being just Excited about stuff and also want to make sure that we're getting rid of creepers But I don't think we have creepers. We just have people that don't like kids with phones. That's fine okay, so the The point is that they need a break and it's not just it's not just people saying oh kids need a break like literally they need a break in order to process more stuff and Now with all the testing and stuff like that There's even more of this pressure to sort of just keep drilling and keep learning and keep learning and keep drilling And if they never get a break the information just can't go in. Okay. I've got a question about what do I teach? I used to be an English language arts teacher in middle school I was a teacher for seven and a half years and now I help teachers Hang on one sec Okay, so what the Other study or this study is also saying is that the students actually need time To to socialize and that recess is the only opportunity they have all right I'm gonna have to flip this because I'm not able to read the comments. I was trying to keep it nice and landscapey But I just can't do it. I can't read the comments while I'm doing that So, okay, so they perform better cognitively they develop social skills and again That's something that certain teachers are gonna just say well, that's not that important. Yeah, I'm I'm being held accountable for all these academics but It's gonna impact the in academics. So If they're not given the break, it's gonna end up impacting the academics anyway Okay, so this study that I linked to from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It's got a bunch of other stuff I'm really just breaking down some of the most important things that I found But the thing that I thought was really the most interesting that didn't Necessarily occur to me in terms of common sense was the piece at the end about how it doesn't even matter what they're doing during recess It can be any kind of a break if they don't necessarily have to be Running and playing and throwing basketballs and enjoying fresh air They so this is holds true for adolescence as well that they they can just be hanging out talking and that Cognitive break can really really help them later It also goes without saying that it helps their behavior as well. And this is especially true for Kids who have ADHD who tend to be the ones who you most frequently have the problems with? That teachers a lot of times will take their recess away from those kids and then those kids will their behavior will get even worse so For so many reasons a break is important for kids They don't actually recommend as Particular length and and I probably should take that back because it actually might be in there And I thought you know I wanted to pull out the most important things about should you or should you not so I would Definitely recommend that you go and take a look at that study and see because they link to so many different studies in there Okay, I Want to just take a moment to talk about The thought process that goes on in a teacher's head because I don't want this to turn into just slamming teachers who take away recess I think that teachers who take away recess are at the end of the rope. I think they are just they have Threatened to take it away and then they have to to follow through with their threats Which is one of those reasons why you know once you've been a teacher for a little while you should be learning from your mistakes They're don't threaten something that you don't ultimately want to take away, but really Taking recess away is I believe it's a sign that you You don't have a lot of other solutions and you don't have a lot of other options Yeah, and Nicole you did they just don't have a lot of other options Which means that you have an underdeveloped tool kit basically and that toolkit needs to be better developed Yes, just as true on the parent side so What we need are some more alternatives first of all The first thing to look at is is your lessons in class And if your your teaching style requires kids to be sitting still for long periods of time without any activity That would be the first place to go for Looking at a solution looking for a solution to this problem If you find yourself constantly punishing a few kids or the whole class, which is a whole separate issue Another thing you shouldn't be doing There's a real good chance that your Learning activities in class are just not interesting enough for the students and that that would be the first place to look Another article that I'm linking to is Called nixing recess the silly alarmingly popular way to punish kids and this is from the Atlantic It's kind of a really good overview of the problem and they Suggest a number of alternatives. Okay, because we've got a question here about how do you punish them? What they recommend are sort of these bigger systems like PBIS, which is positive behavior intervention Support and supports. It's a whole approach to discipline That's very different from the kid does something wrong and then you just punish and then you just punish which by the way Part of what some of this research is showing is that punishments like Taking away recess tend to happen way more to Minority students to schools where students are higher poverty Those schools tend to Have more just straight-up punitive like hardcore punishment as opposed to figuring out what the problem is and finding a creative solution Or recognizing positive behavior and having students work toward privileges and stuff like that. So that's just sort of a separate issue Okay, but PBIS they they recommend something called the responsive classroom and also a company called playworks And these basically all of these are working on making school a more positive place Oh, I forgot to turn off my I forgot to turn on airplane mode. I hope I don't get interrupted. Okay However, I've also linked to other things that give you some more suggestions for other approaches The third link in this document is to an article from a blog called the inspired tree house And it's called positive discipline 10 ways to stop taking recess away And she offers 10 other alternatives now. Here's the thing a couple of the alternatives I thought we're kind of already like taking recess away For example separating the child from everybody else during recess or making them do certain things at the beginning of recess in order to earn It like doing some sort of cleaning job But that kind of felt like taking away some of recess anyway But I did see some suggestions. So that's why I stuck with the link One was having the child work toward extra recess for good behavior as opposed to them losing it Starting with a clean slate and saying let's see if we can work towards earning everybody extra recess if you do X Y and Z So putting the focus on earning more instead of losing the recess Another suggestion is withholding screen time instead of recess time. So if students have time during the class to Whether it's you know get on the computer or on the Chromebooks or something or get on the iPads and play You know a game of your choice. Let's take that away instead of recess You know take away There are probably other classroom privileges too that can be taken away if you really are at the point where you just need to punish instead of Recess and that's the thing any teacher especially at the elementary level you probably have a lot of different Things during the day whether it's preferred activity time or you know station choice time or whatever it is where they can They can lose a different privilege instead of recess since recess is so important for all a lot of the different kinds of development Another idea which is I think interesting this the child can still have recess But you they may lose access to a favorite piece of playground equipment Instead of saying no recess at all Okay, Nancy. I'm going to address that in just a few minutes. This is a this is a good idea Um Remind me if I don't address it to talk about what what we should do if the kid needs to catch up on on work So the idea is restrict what they can do during recess a little bit So just saying you know you can't play on the jungle gym today or if this is a child that really loves kickball Maybe they miss kickball or maybe they just miss five minutes of kickball to a little kid Just having to sit out for five minutes and do something like they know they're being restricted That might be enough to make an impression. It doesn't have to be lose all of recess. It could be something smaller So I thought that was interesting because they still get to go out to recess But maybe they lose access to some one particular thing that that day Okay, how are teachers able to diagnose a child with ADHD okay that I'm gonna write that down Okay The person who just asked me that can you please send me an email and ask me that again because I've been wanting to do research On that and I've got sort of like my own ideas based on experience, but I have not done any real serious reading on that So please send me an email if you just go to called to pedagogy.com click on about and there's a contact, okay? Yes teachers don't diagnose kids with ADHD, but sometimes we can recognize some key signs and then we can maybe refer That's that's a good point. We're gonna get to the ADHD thing probably in another periscope Okay, a lot of people are answering yes teachers don't diagnose But we might be at the front lines of being able to pick up on the signs of them speaking of ADHD The last resource that I'm linking to in the document for tonight's periscope Which by the way, if you're just joining us the document. I'm talking about is it's just a download if you go to cult of pedagogy.com Periscope Tonight's periscope has a link to it just says May 10th taking away We recess has a punishment click on that and you'll just go to a Google doc that has links to everything in Tonight's periscope and I am definitely going to be talking about ADHD in a future one because I can see there's a lot of interest in this The last resource is actually an article written about a situation where a boy who had HD ADHD Was getting punished frequently by losing his recess and his parents didn't like that and they talked to the school and they said look This is just not working. This is making his behavior worse. It's making him hate school. Can we please do something else? To to deal with this problem instead of taking away his recess so he just tells the story and and I think The solution that they came up with is such a good example of Instead of a school instead of a teacher and administrator Seeing bad behavior and just giving a blanket punishment for it Looking at the individual child and saying what is the problem and what we can we do creatively to address this issue and Prevent it from happening instead of just constantly looking for ways to punish punish punish Because I think as teachers we just keep thinking if I can just come up with a way to really get them Then they're gonna learn their lesson and they are going to stop doing what they're doing Instead we need to be figuring out. What is the problem and how can we stop it from happening instead of trying to find ways? To just you know teach them a lesson What this family did and what this school did? Was one of his problems was that he had a lot of trouble settling down after coming in from recess and So they were taking recess away from him So what they finally ended up doing instead was at the end of recess every day He just he had an errand that he ran and They would send him to the office with an Manila envelope that he had to just deliver This gave him an extra two to three minutes to walk down to the office Deliver it and come back gave him a sense of responsibility and the secret was that sometimes that envelope didn't even have anything in it But the office and the teacher understood that this is just and I've actually heard this term before it's called an Antiseptic bounce which I love that term an Antiseptic bounce basically meaning that you kind of bounce the kid from your class, but it's clean It's not it's not loaded with a punishment of any sort. You're not sending him out of class. He's being sent on an errand and This worked beautifully for them by the time he got back He had sort of gotten rid of that last little bit of excess energy He was ready to focus and he also felt good about himself because he had just done something to help They were giving him some responsibility now that To me, I don't think that that is the response to or the alternative to taking away recess I think it's an example of a Teacher and a family and a student figuring out and I had seen Yes, carrying library books. I've seen in the comments earlier talking about working with the student to find a solution because Most students don't want to be the kid who's misbehaving, but if taking away recess isn't working for them Which it sounds like it just doesn't in most cases They they might even know what could help them. So I think it's an example of Figuring I was going to work for that kid. Would I send a restless student in the middle of class on an errand? Here's the thing Once I got to know my students well enough I would be trying to catch that restless student a little bit before His behavior got to the point where it was unacceptable So yeah a walking break So once I know this kid as soon as I see that that knee is starting to go and he's starting to look a little bit You know uncomfortable that would be the time to send him on an errand as opposed to when his behavior has gotten completely unacceptable because once it's Passed the point where you know, the other kids are going to be like, you know Look, you know, Johnny's really acting up Why are you always rewarding him by letting him walk around school by himself? Like it needs to not look like he's being rewarded for this behavior. It's preventative. So That's great Nancy my kids have started recognizing when they need a break and they ask that's fantastic, too Like that's self-awareness is so important to build that in the students because really what we want is for them to be able to self-monitor and self-advocate and Figure out what it is that they need and be able to speak up and say look, I really need this It's gonna prevent a problem later So, oh a lot of so much good stuff tonight so I'd say take a look at some of these resources, especially if you're in a school where a lot of teachers are doing this taking away Recess take a look at that first one the crucial role of recess in school because it really really helps back up the opinions With really really solid research research in a lot of areas Okay, what was that other question because I said I was gonna answer another question in a little while Oh, it was about makeup work should recess be used for makeup work. See, I don't think it should be used for makeup work you know because Again, it's not so much the idea of losing recess as a punishment. That's a problem. It's losing recess Period has a detrimental effect. Yeah, catch up time To me. I'm thinking it's still You know, it's still them doing academic work and they're not getting that break so That's it. You know what that may be another question for me to answer in another future periscope Let's get some ideas For what when kids need to do makeup work, when do you find that time? Oh my gosh, so many ideas are coming up right now My gosh, I miss using lunch. Miss using lunch missing lunch. Oh gosh missing lunch You mean having lunch in the teacher's room. Yeah, we used to do that in middle school a lot separating them from their peers The thing is I feel like if you've given a punishment to a student and then they stopped the behavior that led to it Then that worked But oh, I see you're talking about a working lunch to making up to make a missed work. I Feel like you've got to use the time no matter what oh gosh silent lunch Man, you guys are killing me tonight. You have so many different ideas. Okay before we go I'm gonna have to watch this later and write all these down for future periscopes All right, listen, how would I punish a child? That's a completely set listen I think you should go to a website called smart classroom management Because I think once you're at the point of punishing Things have already gotten too far. You're already you've already lost control if you're punishing What we really want to do is prevent the behavior by building relationships with the students getting to know them really well and and also making sure that there are really clear consequences for certain choices and Also that there are great privileges for when you are making good choices Like being able to choose your own seat and being able to sit by a friend and these are privileges that you would then lose if you can't handle them so Having to punish a child means that you've kind of lost control of a situation and We've all done that and we've all been there, but I think if it's your regular Modus operandi, then probably it's time to recheck and see oh We did one on students not completing work. Yeah, listen Go to cult of pedagogy.com I've got social media icons in the corner click on the YouTube one I've got all of my periscopes now on on YouTube It's called advice for teachers and we did one on students who don't turn work Man, I'm not seeing a lot of these comments the the Website I just mentioned a few minutes ago with smart classroom management. It's just smart classroom management.com. Yes I can't keep up with you guys tonight. That's fantastic Okay, so thank you. I hope this has been helpful. Hey, Mario. I'm glad you're here I Have a feeling I'm gonna be taking One of these ideas that came up tonight for next week. It's gonna depend on how much research I'm able to do but Thank you all for for being here. Oh one other thing. This is a complete side note But I created a course about Twitter if any of you don't really feel like you're getting the most use out of Twitter I made an online course for it and it's 30% off and the and the sale ends tonight So if you feel like you want yes, you did Carla. I saw that if you wanted to learn more about it It's about an hour and 15 minutes. It's not very long So if you're interested just go to my website go to cult of pedagogy goji and go to to post down the one that says So you have a Twitter account what now click on that and the information about the courses in there And that the sale is gonna end tonight. So If you want to learn more about Twitter come grab it tonight while it's still on sale, okay? I'm done Have a great night. I'll see you next week. Thank you all so much for for joining me