Watch this video [2:20] for some tips on developing a menu of consequences for your classroom.

I’d like to talk today about the concept of a menu of consequences—designing a menu that I can use on a daily basis when I have to address a misbehavior.

Consequences that are useful actually teach a skill. Skill-building is something that we’ve got to make sure we’re doing on a daily basis, when it comes to misbehavior.

First of all, I recommend always keeping the behavior in the classroom whenever possible. If you send the student out to an administrator, number one, you teach the child very quickly that you don’t have a lot of control. Number two, you teach them that they have to behave for someone else. Number three, let’s face it—the administrator can’t often please us, because they’re not going to consequence the child or punish the child hard enough, because they weren’t emotionally involved in the misbehavior in the first place. Whenever I can, I keep it in the classroom.

Watch my video for some examples of consequences for your classroom.