I've been teaching 4th grade for five years. During my first
year tattling drove me CRAZY! I developed the BEST system for
tattling. I introduce The Tattle Tub during the first week of
school. It works wonderfully and annoying tattles are a thing
of the past!

First, I gather my students to the carpet and we discuss what
tattling means. We talk about the kinds of things you should
report - physical and emotional bullying, witnessing someone
cheat or steal, etc. We also provide examples of tattling.

Then I show them the Tattle Tub. It's simply one of those
large animal cracker tubs you get from Costco. I have a sign
on it and a few small pads of paper inside. When the students
want to tattle, they write in the pad and leave it in the tub.
They are allowed to do this whenever they need to, but I
encourage them to wait until I'm done with a lesson.

It never fails.... For the first few weeks of school there's a
lot of foot traffic to the Tattle Tub. I let it go, allowing
students to do what I have taught them to do. If someone is
abusing "the tub" I speak with them privately. Visits peter
off after a month or two.

I always read the notes and discuss them in private if
necessary. I honestly throw most of them away because they're
silly tattles. This year I had adifficult student who kept
stealing students' pencils and erasers. I kept all the notes
about him and documented the information.

On 6/26/09, Debra Rowntree wrote:
> Last year, as a first year teacher, I was bombarded with
> tattling. It drove me nuts. I need a more creative way of
> dealing with this problem.

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