The other day, perhaps in a dream, or maybe while daydreaming, I had a minor bout of inspiration. I do dream about my teaching sometimes, which is a little sad, because that means even when I am sleeping I cannot escape the stresses of my job.

My moment of inspiration had to do with discipline, and I was thinking of effective ways to keep kids in line. Now, let me pause right here and say that this is why I *&#@! hate teaching in a public school. Why should I be thinking of ways to keep kids in check? Does that sound like a fun way to live my life? Do kids hate school?

Anyways, I thought it would be funny to make a kid write something over and over again like Bart Simpson does at the beginning of every Simpson's episode. So this boy in my class was giving the double bird towards some student outside of my class (TWO MIDDLE FINGERS!) and I saw him and I said, "K____, what the heck?! Take a break." I always make kids go outside immediately if they are being terribly distracting. Then when he came in I made him write

"I will think before I act."

on one side of a sheet of paper until he filled it up. That's only about 33 times, but I think he got the idea.

It was awesome.