When most teachers think of punishing their students for being disruptive in class, the first thoughts that pop into their head are docking points off the student’s participation grade, sending them outside the classroom or even forcing them to stay after class. For Chinese teacher Mariam Fan, all she needs to do is pull out the fireman’s hat on the shelf behind her and place it on top of the disruptive student’s head.

Whenever Fan finds her class boisterous, she quickly redirects their excessive energy with a brief and engaging activity.

“If I notice that the class is a little bit chatty, I just think of some different way to have people shift their attention so I say, ‘OK, I will need a fireman,’” Fan said.

Even though many students raise their hand to become the fireman, she deliberately chooses the student who is “a little bit chatty” at the moment. She sees this as an opportunity for students to feel embarrassed or even gain attention in front of the class.

“Sometimes those students are chatty because they want to get attention so when they get that kind of attention, they feel fulfilled for that day,” Fan said.

Fan cleverly ties her unconventional punishment back to her curriculum and she observed that students were more engaged, heading into the class lesson.

“It’s a language course, so it is good for students to do hands-on stuff,” Fan said. “We can even do something related to the text.”

Last year in Chinese AP, senior Kimberly Chou was a quiet and calm student who never got in trouble, but she remembered her talkative classmates’ experiences with the “popular hat” and even a pig mask.

Even though wearing a fireman’s hat is humiliating, Chou does not believe that wearing the hat is an actual punishment.

“I feel that it doesn’t really punish you in a way because you are only wearing a hat,” Chou said. “It just shows that you got punished because you are wearing it, but it really doesn’t do anything.”

Although Fan uses hats to quell her students’ rowdy behavior, she does not believe that her actions should be called “punishments.” Rather, it is way for students to utilize their surplus energy constructively. Her main goal is not to punish, but regain focus during class.

“Instead of punishing, I want to shift [students’] attention to something else and they could use their energy to do something related to class,” Fan said.