Last night, my CT e-mailed me saying that she would be gone today due to an illness. I was excited because I would get to take over the classes again (I took over last Wednesday). Everything went great last Wednesday. I don't know what happened today.
My first two classes went fine. I was able to explain their work to them and they worked quietly on it. Third period was when the $hit hit the fan.
Third period is normally a loud class anyways. Today they were working on their research papers. I explained what needed to be done and told them when it was due, and told them that they needed to work the rest of the hour. I told them that it was okay if they talked quietly, but to not get too loud. That didn't work.
They started to get loud and I politely told them "Hey Guys, noise level is a little loud". That got them quiet for about five minutes. I repeated the same mantra another two times before the substitute got fed up.
The substitute, feeling the need to step in, got the attention of the class and gave them a speech on how rude they were being and that they needed to respect me when I told them something. Some of them looked shocked that he said that. Others laughed. I felt embarrassed that the sub had to step in.
Then, the unbelievable happened. They started talking AGAIN. I looked at the sub who looked back and me and I yelled, "Seriously! He just gave you guys a lecture on respect and listening and being quiet and then you continue to talk! Just sit there! I don't want ANYONE to talk. Just sit there!"
I freaked the kids out. They had never heard me yell before. I had always been pretty calm in my demeanor until this incident. I was so disappointed in them. I was livid. When I get ticked I cry, so here I am holding back tears and pissed off.
I eventually calmed down and I e-mailed my teacher to tell her how the first half of the day went. She has had problems with the class and the noise level, so we made a new seating chart. They aren't going to like it, but with my diversity trip on Wednesday, I won't see them until Friday. I wish that they would act more responsible so that I could be more lenient with them, but they deserve the new seating arrangement.
For some reason, I feel like I failed with that class. I feel like I should have handled it differently. Looking back, I wish I would have taken one of the instigators in the hall when it was happening and had a chat with her. I think that that would have solved a lot of the problems. I want to give the class some freedoms, but third period is proving to me that they can't handle it.
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i had a number of years working with felony delinguent teenagers. Many were so conditioned to confrontation and ignoring the teacher that they were immune to the type of approach you described.
ReplyDeleteI found the better, non-confrontational way is to stop, walk over next to students who continue to talk and make eye contact with one of them. They'll stop talking and eventually, the other student(s) will also get quiet. At that point, I say "now that I have your attention..."
If this behavior occurs in one or two classes, then you'll need to modify your teaching approach with those classes. Specifically, I do shorter teacher input and then have the students work in small groups (diads and triads) and have one of the group report on their findings.
One size does not fit all...
Dr. E.