Trouble Spot - Tattling

The Bug Box

Decorate a small box with "bugs," emblazoned with the words "It Bugs Me." When a student tattles, ask the child to write a quick note on a piece of paper and put it in the box.

Skim the notes quickly to ensure none are of immediate importance.

Ask the class at the end of the day if anyone who put in a note is still bothered. "The overwhelming majority of the time, it's no longer a problem," says Deb Isett, who teaches at Washington Elementary School in Barto, Pennsylvania, and who loves the box. By the second half of the school year, she says, she's hardly using it at all.

From NEA Today, "Discipline Zingers," January 2004