Help me please before I go crazy!!!!!! I teach a 8th grade math class to four students. Lately the two girls having been picking on each other. ie, I was talking to two girls about the HI Consultant and the other was wondering who that was. The one girl just flew off the handle, causing the other (who is Emotionally impaired) to come right back. I tried to get them to discuss the problem, but it just got worse. They both want to be switched around in their classes, but I won’t let them (the principal won’t either) because I really feel they need to be taught how to get along with others. I don’t want to avoid the problem, I want to give the girls the skills to deal with conflict. Oh what should I do before I go crazy!!!!!
Re: fighting girls, grrr!!!
pattim, Thanks for that reading sight. Very helpful!!!!
One of the girls is going to be signed up for an anger-management class. Hopefully that will help. What bothers me is that the solution to this problem for the girls is to switch classes. Maybe this is wrong, but I believe they shouldn’t switch. They need to learn how to work together. They don’t need to like each other. But you are right about the consequences, but I like to try and solve the problem right then and teach them the skills to deal with each other on the spot, other than sending them to the office. But I guess from now on if they start getting out of hand, I will just send them to the office and talk to them later. Girls and hormones, I tell ya!!! Thanks again…
Re: fighting girls, grrr!!!
Everytime a student in my groups would fight verbally I would make them write down 2 nice things about the other person and give it to that person. Sure stopped the verbal attacks!!!
cleaning windows...
one of my friends who had 11 kids did this when her kids were fighting..made them clean windows…They have to be on opposite sides of the window in order for this to work… The girls have to face each other and at first they are angry as they are spraying at each other but the window stops the contact and as they wipe the windows they will start giggling… It works like a charm….
Gayle and pattim
Awesome ideas!!! I have two spray bottles for window cleaning……Gayle, what if child refuses to write two nice things about each other, I know my girls will refuse to do it..
Re: Gayle and pattim
Then you have the whole class write something nice about everyone in the room, put all the ideas in a hat and a person pulls it out and reads it and they have to guess who the person is…
Where there is a will there is a way….Creativity will sooth the savage beasties…Let us know how next week goes…
Re: Gayle and pattim
Exactly Patti! Rebecca, I never had students refuse but I was working with 4,5,6th graders too. Given a good set up at what they will have to do if they argue or say inappropriate things to each other stimes in itself diffuses alot of ger towards each other. I also would have them write it down and give it to me, then I would read it to the other person in the presence of the one who wrote the note. This relieves some of the discomfort until they get used to doing it. Soon they will have fun with it and get whacky…..just like girls always do!
Hi Rebecca,
you have your hands full…a kid who can’t read in one and in the other you have bickering girls… Reading Reflex would be a program that you can use with your non-reader and it is relatively inexpensive. Also, there is a website online that has free lessons for teaching reading, it is called Valder Phonics…
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/valderbooks/program.html
In regards to your wendy whiners….you can see if an SLP can teach them pragmatics (social skills) with a small group. I have an excellent book that is used for group pragmatics therapy called Conversations A Framework for Language Intervention by Barbara Hoskins. I learned about it in a grad class for Speech pathology. It was only about $30.00 but it is jampacked with ideas to teach social skills
In this book it outlines activities that one can do with preadolescents, adolescents and young adults who are having difficulty in communication.
Have you set some ground rules for your classroom? That should be the first thing that is done in this situation so if they get out of line they know what the consequences will be.
But….I think talking with the speech and language pathologist and having her do some pragmatics therapy would be a great place to start. Good luck!