Class full of "fun" kids!

Hi!

Have you posted this in the “teachers” forum?

Although I agree with you that this is the correct place to post, this forum just doens’t get the traffic.

Barb

Don’t remember what journal it was in, but I read a really good article about developing a trusting community when you’re starting with kids who are defensive and territorial and the whole nine hyards. It stressed the developmental aspect of it — you just don’t try to get complete trust until you’ve worked through a fgew other stages (which, alas, I can’t really remember).
Maybe a search for “trust stages classroom” would yield something in ERIC…
There’s also a cool article but sort of geared to youmnger kids called “teaching tolerance” at LD OnLIne, which is about teaching kids to put up with stuff (more basic than the “tolerance” I thought of when I read the title).

I don’t know the book but I do know the behaviors you’re describing. Kids bring a lot to school with them and in some places, fighting is commonplace. Adults fight, kids imitating adults fight too.

Sometimes fighting and bad language are a sign of anger but equally often these days, kids are just doing what they see being done around them. They’re not even always very aware that their language is ‘bad’.

I’d start with the fighting first and tackle it head on. I’d tell them how much it hurts you to see your students fighting with each other. Describe the kind of safe classroom you want your classroom to be. Point out to them that you don’t fight with them and how little fighting solves. And I’d even offer - anytime you feel a fight coming on, come to me so we all can talk it out. Otherwise, tell them, the year will be spent in stopping fights and that you all have much better things to do.
I’d build a really fun activity into each day to be sure they are do feel as if school has better things to do than fight. If they basically don’t enjoy the school experience, they’re much more likely to descend into fighting. Keep them moving from one good activity to the other and it can curtail fights.

also analyze when the fights are most likely to break out and try to put some more positive structure into that part of the day and so proactively prevent fights from breaking out.

Good luck.

Have you considered designing a program for these children regarding bullying, self-esteem, lotus of control, etc? I wrote a program for year 6 girls who were very negative towards one another and by the end of a 6 week program they had learnt to respect one another and get along and accept that people are different. Make it fun and include games with it, eg role plays and provide them with their own folders that can be decorated and ask them what they think it is like to be picked on by other students and what should they do about and and who they think they should tell. The internet is a great way to research this stuff!

If you want anympore ideas email me on: [email protected] :)

Just thought of another suggestion: When students arrive to the class room ask them to write down a goal for the day e.g. ‘I will not use bad language’ and the students have to stick by that goal and work it as a reward system. At the end of the day ask them to give them a mark out of 10 and go around the class to see if people agree that person hould have given themselves that score and ask the person why they gave themselves that score. Or use a card system where they have a number of cards for the day and every time that they use bad language they get a card taken away and at the end of the day the number of cards left over are counted up, at the end of the week add the totals up and create some kind of reward system. This is a system that is used at a particular school in Adelaide for children with challenging behaviours before returning back to normal schools. I hope these suggestions help in some way!

Once again contact me on: [email protected] :)

Try [u]Bullyproofing the Classroom[/u] by Alan Beane…a step by step instruction manual. Also, there are specific social skills worksheets and activities for different grades, all the way through high school.

Debcat