The Desk Turn

Today in class of our guest speakers talke about the desk turn. This is when a teacher turns the desk around backwards so that students cannot reach insdie of it and be distracted by books, pencils,school boxes, etc. My cooperating teacher used this technique with one of the students in class who has constantly been noncompliant with the classroom rules, and following directions. My teacher one day just turned his desk around. He was not happy!She did however explain that he could easily earn his right to have his desk the proper way he just needed to follow the directions that are given to him and have correct classroom behavior. He was very willing to work to have his desk turned back around. He finished his work and possibly without even realizing it was less distracted by his pencil box and books. I like this idea a lot because I have seen it be effective and I feel that as long as teh reasoning is explained to students and students are able to "earn" their desks to be turned back around I think it is a good technique.