Constructive Motivation at High Volume

I'll call him "Justin".  Justin was, as many of us call students like him, a pita - a pain in the ass.  He blurted out inappropriately, he intentionally bugged his peers, he was never where he should be... and he always had an excuse.  His OCD was an issue only when it was convenient for him to not do something.  (If he accidentally dropped his iPod in a garbage pail, he'd dumpster-dive in a heartbeat.  However, if asked to move somewhere else in the room because of his disruptive behaviour, he'd have a conniption because someone else's germs might be there, or there might be gum stuck under the desk...) 

This day, he and two other grade 7 students had not had their math homework completed, again!  My instructions to them:  "Bring a piece of paper and a pencil and meet me in the hall."  I started the class off and went into the hall.  "You need to write a letter.  Dear Mom, Dad, Gramma, whoever is at home.   This is the second day in a row that I have not had my math homework done.  Tell them why.  Tell them how you plan to correct this.  Sign it.  I'll be back in a few minutes."

I returned ten minutes later.  Two of the boys held up their finished letters, but not Justin;  his paper was still blank.

"Where's your letter?" I asked him.

"I couldn't do it."

"The other two were able to.  Why couldn't you?"

    "I don't have a pencil."

Pause.  "So you've sat here for ten minutes, doing nothing because you didn't bring a pencil, that I instructed you to bring?"  Silence.   After a dramatic pause, I leaned in closer to him and in a slow stage whisper I growled, "Get one."  His response caught me by surprise:

"Where?"

I stood up, threw my arms up in the air, and shouted, "It's a school!"  Getting progressively louder and more animated.  "There must be five thousand pencils in this building!!  Go get one!!!"  He walked past me, into the now silent room, got a pencil and returned.  I read the other students' letters, instructed them to have them signed for the next day, come back into the room, and left Justin in the hall to finish his letter.

The next day, I was summoned to the office. 

     "Rick," the vice-principal said, "We had a complaint about something that happened yesterday.  There were parents in the school and they overheard you yelling at a student in the hall.  They came to the principal to lodge a complaint."

I replayed the scene for him - just slightly less emphatically than the day before.

     "The parents said you yelled at him."

"I prefer the term 'constructive motivation at high volume'," I countered.  "Well, yes, I did raise my voice - and it was probably wrong to do so - but you know who it was - it was Justin!"

    "Yes, but there were parents in the hall who overheard you yelling at a student."

"Motivating," I corrected.  "OK, I know I should have been more cognizant of that," I continued, "but it was Justin.  You know what he can be like."

     "Yes, Rick, I know Justin very well."

"Then you can appreciate my frustration when he said that."

     "Yes, he can be very frustrating.  However, the principal was concerned because the moms came to see her."

"Yeah, I can appreciate that.  So, did the principal ask you to talk to me about this?"

     "Yes, she did."

"Ok.  Consider me talked to.  And next time I'll send Justin to her."

     "Don't bother, Rick, I know you can handle him.  Just don't yell in the hallways," he quipped.

"I won't," I replied as I turned to go out the door.  "I'll use constructive motivation at medium volume instead."