Clip up clip down

I have a few students with behavior charts.  One of them is neither defiant nor unwilling to work, he is just impulsive.   He is big and loud and exuberant.  He calls out whatever happens to be on his mind whenever he wants.

He sort of reminds me of Mark at that age.

He has a chart and if he just can't stop yelling and bouncing and hurling himself around the room, the clip moves down.

If he sits still and does his work for a few blessed minutes, the clip goes back up.  If he ends on green, which is the top of the chart, he gets a prize at the end of the day.

Most of the day he is hurtling around at top speed or remembering his chart and asking if he can clip up.

The answer is usually 1) no and 2) sit down.

He is charming and funny and he knows it.  He also makes all the girls giggle.  

Yesterday I was right in the middle of a phonics lesson and he called out, "Do you hate Tongans?"

I said, "No."

He said, "Do you think white people are the smartest people?"

I said, "No."

I said, "These are good questions, but we are doing phonics right now, so can we talk about this later?"

He said, "OK."

During writing, we are doing personal narratives.  One choice is they can write from a strong emotion.  I have encouraged them to remember a time when they were happy, sad, nervous, excited, scared, etc.

I said, "For example, one time I was scared when my sister and I were driving in the snow and our car slipped off the road and we got stuck in a snowbank."

My irrepressible friend asked, "Did you pray?"

I said, "Yeah, we actually did.  And our dad came with a shovel and dug us out of the snow."

"Was it your dad or your Father?" He pointed to the ceiling.

I said, "It was my dad."

Another girl raised her hand, "You should pray when you're scared."

I agreed.

Sometimes they remind me in no uncertain terms that I teach school in Utah County.

I eventually got the lesson back on track.  I eventually got through the day.  We clipped up and down many many times.