I dislike giving kids detentions when they violate the rules because I think there are other ways that can more immediately help to change their behavior and give them better ways to deal with emotions like frustration and anger. So when a student swears, I like to give him or her the option of either a detention or writing a list of 15 words and phrases that should be used in place of that word, such as "holy cow!" or "golly wolly!" (I've gotten the funniest faces when I say this one).
Last week, I assigned this to a 4th grader who said the bad version of "shoot". The next day he brought me his assignment and when I unfolded his paper, I realized that I must not have been clear in my directions, because he had a numbered list 1 to 15 of the same bad word. oops. He must now have that word ingrained in his memory. Doggone it.
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