Time Outs Using Buddy Teacher

Time-outs Using a Buddy Teacher

(Summary from Teaching Children to Care)

Sometimes time-outs are best completed out of a student’s home classroom. This requires a buddy teacher. It’s best to establish the buddy teacher system before there’s an immediate need, preferably at the beginning of the year.

A child may need to leave the room when:

• The student’s distracting behavior continues while the student is in time-out.
• The stimulation of the room continues to overwhelm or agitate the student.
• The student refuses to go to time-out.
• The student is defiant towards the teacher.
• The teacher needs a break from the student.

In any of these situations, the classroom teacher will want to enlist the aid of a buddy teacher, who is often the teacher across the hall or next door. When a buddy teacher is required, the procedure is direct and simple.

• The teacher initiates the time-out and selects another student to get the buddy teacher.
• The messenger-student goes to the buddy teacher’s room and lets the buddy teacher know that he/she needs to come get a student for time-out. The student’s message is brief and without explanation.
• The buddy teacher enters the classroom after getting the message, gestures for the student to come with him/her, and escorts the child to a suitable table or resting spot in his/her classroom that is visible to the teacher and not by the door.
• The teacher decides when the student should return to the classroom. He/she will walk to the buddy teacher’s room and gesture for the student to return to class.
• Students in the buddy teacher’s room need to be prepared for having a student from another classroom come to their room for time-out. They must know their “jobs,” and not provoke or interact with the student.

If a student refuses to leave or makes a scene in the second classroom, then the principal is called and prepared to accompany the student to the office.