Shoes are important

SO! Just wanted to let you all in on an anecdote. I have discovered (with the help of another volunteer) the perfect solution to the corporal punishment dilemma (well not perfect, but pretty close). Anyway a big problem of discipline in my classes has been that my students know I won't hit them. Telling them they'll get a zero on the homework honestly doesn't work. They really don't care since them actually advancing only really depends on the scores to their NECTA exams which are taken at the end of Form 2 and Form 4. Everything else is just inbetween. Anyway, so I was assigning cleaning the choo (bathroom) etc, and it wasn't helping much. So anyway, another teacher volunteer had a great idea and I have stolen it to use at my school as well (but hey, if its a good idea, there's no shame I think in stealing, it. Being a good teacher isn't entirely about being original right?) So what i did last Tuesday with my students being late with their homework is I took one of their shoes, such that they had to walk around all day with one shoe only untill they finished writing "I will not be late with my homework" 1000 times. They all finished by the end of the day cause I told them they'd have to walk home without a shoe otherwise (I really wasn't giving it back till they turned in the lines). I knew I had hit on a good punishment when they asked if they could please clean the bathroom instead. Also this friday, for the first time in EVER, the class that I had used that punishment on, stacked and turned in their homework WITHOUT being asked. Success! Yes!
So my friend who thought up this brilliant idea uses this also for students being late. I've just started using it, and I may start to implement it for being late as well. We'll see. Just wanted to share my success story. Its effective and causes no harm, and compromises the "this is Africa" mentality, in a more gentle waywith the US. and I'm just darned pleased with the results. So yay.