"Refocus"

So our school has this policy about "Refocus". It's basically a glorified 'timeout'. But it sounds more professional to say "you need to rethink your behavior in the refocus area" instead of "get in time-out". But if a kid is really bad then they get sent out of the room and placed in my room....don't ask. So our assistant principal comes in my room and puts a kid in my Refocus desk and says, "watch him until 2:15 and he can go back to class." Nice. So this kid throws all my papers everywhere and pouts. So I look at his paper and it has "jale" written on it. So of course, I'm like, "you're name is Jale?? Really ? like Jail? Like where bad people go."
"No that's not my name. "
"Ok, so Jale, what was your behavior?" (this is question #1 on the paper)
"stole someone's money"
"What??? really???"
GASP!!! (from my students)
"Well, what did you want?" (question #2)
"money"
"good answer. write that down."
#3 What will you do next time?
"I'll listen to my teacher."
"How would that help? I mean, really. You're a thief. You have a problem with stealing, not listening."
"oh.....can I go back to class."
"i haven't decided."
question #4 Are you ready to go back to class? check yes or no.
Jale was really excited about this question. "I'm ready. See, I put a check."
"No, that's an X, but you can't steal anymore. Got it? And we'll go talk to your teacher to see what she says. She might say no. I would say no if you were in my class."
"Ok, i'll be good. I won't steal no more. I promise."

So....does refocus work? Absolutely not. However, it makes my day so much more interesting when they send them to me. I'll write more about the girl I had yesterday that we refer to as "Raised By Wolves."