Considering this blog has taken a year in the making, what a day to begin. The night before last, I took two different prescription drugs for the wicked migraine that refused to compromise (comparable to some students) and had yet to find relief. I finished taking attendance and said about three words when all hell broke loose in my class. One of my female students told the boy next to her in several four lettered words to stop talking to her, about her, and everything in between. I THOUGHT it would be over quickly but sadly, I was wrong. As I proceeded to tell her to calm down and stop slapping her desk, I see she is getting even more annoyed and angry. The boy is remaining calm but he was saying, "Why are you getting crazy? Don't you know how to behave?" At this point I'm thinking, "Do I call or not call for security?" When I was able to get the girl's attention without raising my voice, I saw she was shaking and the tears were flowing from her eyes. This kid did not need A212. She needed reassurance and a hug. One of my beloved colleague did come in my classroom and ask if I needed any assistance and I assured her we were having a therapeutic session and on the road to recovery at that point. It is very easy to toss the kids out of the room but one of the problems is they still do not learn proper behavior. It is not my job to teach them. I am not proposing it but sometimes it is a teachable moment. Sometimes our kids expect to get thrown out of the classroom because their behavior warrants it or people have a lack of patience for them, but if there could be a higher bar maybe they would behavior better. My entire class was in utter shock that I did not throw anyone out of the class or write them up. I explained to them that I do not approve of the behavior we just witnessed but let's try and settle our problems in-house instead of going to A212 all the time. Besides, both students listened when I was speaking to them and they did not disrespect me or touch each other. That made a big difference.
Is writing a disciplinary slip the end-all to our problems?
Posted by Joanna at 5:29 PM 0 comments
Stealing the souls of children
5 years ago
6 comments:
I only send students to A212 (and it's right below my room over in Siberia!) for three reasons. 1) They threatened me. 2) They threatened another student or students. 3) They got on my very last nerve and I need to send them out of the room before the students see another side of me they have not yet seen. The last reason, however, hardly happens. Generally, I like to send the student outside of class so he/she can relax and I like to figure out what is going on. They do have bad days after all and being a teenager isn’t as peachy as we’d all like it to be.
Btw, Happy First Post! :)
Not to call! You handled that situation better than (probably) many teachers would. We need to embrace those moments, learn from them as teachers and try to use them to show our students that we are not the enemy. Well done!
I occasionally sen kids for a drink of water on the other side of the school.
"But I'm not thirsty,"
You are now...just go before one of us blows up.
"But I'm not about to blow."
Yep, but one of us is....
"Gotcha Dr. D."
We have a couple of great administrators in A212--while I realize that a write-up means I've given up control of the situation (and I hate to lose control), the administrators will listen to you.
Sometimes I use A212 as a time-out corner, with the blessing of administration.
We're dealing with kids. We're the alpha dogs, and both we and the kids know this.
(If you're not sure about a situation, I strongly recommend always calling security. You can always shoo them away if you don't need them, but in the rare cases where a fight truly breaks out, seconds matter.
And one more piece of advice--if two guys are fussing at each other while sitting down, do not stand between them if you're a male teacher. Really. Trust me.)
I RARELY ever throw kids out and I am reluctant to even when I do. The only time I will is if I have given an explicit warning that if a behavior doesn't stop, then I will throw them out. If they don't, I have no choice. I have to back up what I have said.
I agree with your point about what these kids need. I remember being screamed at by a student as a student teacher and rather than flip out in return I talked to her like a human being and asked her what I could do to help her. She came in the next day and apologized in front of the whole class, because in her words, she told me off in front of everyone so she would apologize in front of everyone. By the way, her sister had had a miscarriage over the weekend.
I think that sometimes these kids come to us a little bruised, and while I ABSOLUTELY think that they need to understand that adults should be given respect, sometimes we need to remember how much love they need, too.
Good decision. And YAY! for your first blog!
I absolutely agree with all your comments and join by saying that most of the time, the overuse of the "evil" A212 room does more harm than good.
Creating an atmosphere of mutual understanding improves teacher/student rapport.
Sending a student for a walk to cool off sends a message that " I understand you're angry, and that does not necessarily mean you should be punished".
There are situation where a negative consequencse is not warranted. I think as teachers, we can sense when the situation is out of our hands. For all others, a long walk may be great therapy for all.
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