Concerns of the prospective teacher!

EMAILNOTICES>noHi Lee, Here are some ideas … the best way to start the year is be overly strict at first, and then loosen up if you think you can. It’s very hard to tighten up a class that has been let loose. Seat the 2 or 3 worst behaviors near your desk, but not side by side. Teach from that postion so you are always in their face, even sit yourself right on their desktop while giving a lesson, it’s hard to be bad with the teacher right in your face.Kids with some behavior do better in a class where there is some freedom to chat quietly, rather than a dead silent class, and every teacher has his/her comfort level in that regard, so you have to decide that for yourself.You should have a quiet place for distractible kids to work off in a corner, like a study carrel/cubicle, which are expensive, or a cheapo like a range shipping box taped to the top of a desk. This shouldn’t be a punishment area, but an “office” area …. “johnny, there’s too much noise here, why don’t you go to the cubile to finish this work.” If they still can’t behave you could put a desk outide the door to the room in the hall for those kids, so you can at least finish the lesson with the class. Try not to send kids to the prin’s office unless it’s serious, prin’s respect teachers who handle it themselves, and a trip to the prin wears off if used too often.Reward/point systems can work, especially if the parents are in on it and support it.Kids respect discipline if done in a fair consistent way, we all recall strict teachers that we liked because they cared, and were fair. If a kid says something mean that hurts your feelings, get him/her alone and tell him that it hurt your feelings, often kids don’t think of that, and are touched that you confided, and feel worse than if you scolded them.It’s really a process of getting to know the kid, what he responds to, when to isolate him, getting him to like you by being fair and caring, never insulting or humiliating him, and just getting on a wavelength where each of you has an understanding so that the day goes pretty well for both of you. Good luck! -Bob: Hello everyone, I’m completing my B. of Ed. (Primary) degree this
: year, and I’m very interested in any suggestions you may have on
: asserting myself with an unfamiliar class, and especially teaching
: strategies for ‘challenging’ students! I had a bit of a rough old
: time at a school last year, understood by the faculty to have an
: above-average proliferation of behavioural ‘problems’. I felt that
: I was more of a distraction against familiar routine than another
: practising teacher. I would also be interested in strategies
: anyone may know of or use in recognising specific learning
: difficulties based on behaviour, as the regular teacher knew of no
: formally diagnosed learning difficulties within his class. Thanks
: - any help would be greatly appreciated!

: I would say again what you dealt with sounds like a normal situation to me. All new teachers are “tried”. Did some veteran teacher tell you this was not the case? They lied to you then. Student teachers - which you were - are fair game.Right now you’re rethinking your decision to teach, I think, not rethinking your approach to classroom management. And you’re looking for a “magic bullet” answer. There isn’t one but that teaching isn’t easy.Do you like children? Many teachers sadly don’t. Do you see childhood as a phrase that you will train children out of or do you see them as valid individuals in their own right and with rights to have their needs met by their society? If you see yourself as the White Knight on a Horse bringing the truth into their lives, take Bob E.’s advice.I’d myself would disagree with Bob E.’s advice but you’ll find disagreements when you ask about classroom management issues. I dislike the very phrase classroom management as it ignores that you have people in that classroom. Would you call it “people management?” Are we thought to “manage people” or “manage children”? Did your parents manage you? Or did they parent you?Classroom management is a phrase that works to get teachers to get students to sit sufficiently still so that the teachers can stand and talk for an entire class period and have kids do worksheets. It truly is managment and little learning occurs in those classrooms although they abound in our educational system.You can “teach” like that and draw a paycheck, although not very large, for 40 years. If you want to be a social worker, a minister, a healer, a facilitator, go into teaching. If you want to “teach” by standing in front of a room with modern children in it and just handing out worksheets and grading those worksheets based on your superior level of education, be prepared to live at odds with your students.But even doing that, they’ll settle down when it’s your own classroom. Children are very forgiving people.Good luck. Hello everyone, I’m completing my B. of Ed. (Primary) degree this
: year, and I’m very interested in any suggestions you may have on
: asserting myself with an unfamiliar class, and especially teaching
: strategies for ‘challenging’ students! I had a bit of a rough old
: time at a school last year, understood by the faculty to have an
: above-average proliferation of behavioural ‘problems’. I felt that
: I was more of a distraction against familiar routine than another
: practising teacher. I would also be interested in strategies
: anyone may know of or use in recognising specific learning
: difficulties based on behaviour, as the regular teacher knew of no
: formally diagnosed learning difficulties within his class. Thanks
: - any help would be greatly appreciated!

: Hello everyone, I’m completing my B. of Ed. (Primary) degree this
: year, and I’m very interested in any suggestions you may have on
: asserting myself with an unfamiliar class, and especially teaching
: strategies for ‘challenging’ students! I had a bit of a rough old
: time at a school last year, understood by the faculty to have an
: above-average proliferation of behavioural ‘problems’. I felt that
: I was more of a distraction against familiar routine than another
: practising teacher. I would also be interested in strategies
: anyone may know of or use in recognising specific learning
: difficulties based on behaviour, as the regular teacher knew of no
: formally diagnosed learning difficulties within his class. Thanks
: - any help would be greatly appreciated!Lee- I am am second year teacher and I certainly do not know all of the answers but I have encountered several students with learning difficulties and I will share what I did with you. For one of the students I had in my class with behavoir problems I kept a tally of how many times the child disrupted the class each day for a week. I then invited the Parents of the child in for a conference and we discussed possible corrections for the child at school and at home. I dont think teachers can do correction alone- they need the parental support at home also. (I know it may be hard to get, but them you have to figure out a way to “bribe the parents” too. After the conference, the child’s behavior slowly began to change in a positive way. I must admit that he would have a bad day every now and then but at least he was not a constant ditraction for the other students.Now, one of the students that I am currently teaching is having major difficulties in the area of reading. Personally, I think she is immature, a little slow, and needs to repeat, but the parents insist that she is lazy. Again, it is important to have parental support with students who are not doing well. It is obvious that no one works with this child at home. What a shame we say to ourselves as we watch her get further behind each day. So what did I do. I have begun a reading program during school hours that allows her and 7 other students to be tutored in reading. One on one attentionis given twice a week for thirty minutes at the time. It has been implemented for two weeks now and I think students are improving.Good luck with your teaching endeavors!

PASSWORD>aaaghvsKT3iJgBob -I’ve always had a lot of respect for your advice. Unfortunately, I did not get my usual case of the warm fuzzies over this last one. May I offer a couple of reminders?: Hi Lee, Here are some ideas … the best way to start the year is be
: overly strict at first, and then loosen up if you think you can.
: It’s very hard to tighten up a class that has been let loose. Seat
: the 2 or 3 worst behaviors near your desk, but not side by side.
: Teach from that postion so you are always in their face, even sit
: yourself right on their desktop while giving a lesson, it’s hard
: to be bad with the teacher right in your face.This confused me. Are we seating behaviors or children here? Also, are we looking for confrontations or to help kids with behavior problems learn other behaviors that are better suited to learning?: Kids with some behavior do better in a class where there is some
: freedom to chat quietly, rather than a dead silent class, and
: every teacher has his/her comfort level in that regard, so you
: have to decide that for yourself.THIS I agreed with mostly. Unfortunately, young kids with ADHD aren’t very good at judging how much talking is ok without lots of monitoring at first. Here’s one of those places where limits need to be VERY clear.: You should have a quiet place for distractible kids to work off in a
: corner, like a study carrel/cubicle, which are expensive, or a
: cheapo like a range shipping box taped to the top of a desk. This
: shouldn’t be a punishment area, but an “office” area
: …. “johnny, there’s too much noise here, why don’t you go
: to the cubile to finish this work.” If they still can’t
: behave you could put a desk outide the door to the room in the
: hall for those kids, so you can at least finish the lesson with
: the class. Try not to send kids to the prin’s office unless it’s
: serious, prin’s respect teachers who handle it themselves, and a
: trip to the prin wears off if used too often.You started out with the right idea but….sending a child with behavior problems and probably attention problems out into a hallway with little or no supervision is asking for trouble. What about alternatives like seating the child near you and attempting to find the cause of the problem through a functional behavioral assessment and addressing it? Again, not “in their face” but close enough to make frequent eye contact and deal with things before they become a problem.: Reward/point systems can work, especially if the parents are in on it
: and support it.Reward/point systems can be reinforced at home but if you are rewarding for behavior at school, IMOHO, it makes more sense to me that those rewards be given by the person who is attempting the behavioral change. Doesn’t it make more sense that I tell you that you are doing a good job rather than have Joe Blow tell you?: Kids respect discipline if done in a fair consistent way, we all
: recall strict teachers that we liked because they cared, and were
: fair. If a kid says something mean that hurts your feelings, get
: him/her alone and tell him that it hurt your feelings, often kids
: don’t think of that, and are touched that you confided, and feel
: worse than if you scolded them.Are we attempting to make this child feel bad or helping them to understand that you have feelings too while modeling good problem solving skills?: It’s really a process of getting to know the kid, what he responds
: to, when to isolate him, getting him to like you by being fair and
: caring, never insulting or humiliating him, and just getting on a
: wavelength where each of you has an understanding so that the day
: goes pretty well for both of you. Good luck! -BobBob - I wouldn’t like anyone who got in my face, shamed me and humiliated me by isolating me in the hallway for “being bad” while my peers were looking on. Let’s face it, we are in the Teaching Children with ADHD forum. These kids have a medical condition that requires teaching and support in order for them to function in the classroom with their peers, who they often have difficulty relating to, without a teacher making them look even worse by singling them out for such drastic punishment. Lest you think I don’t understand, I was one of those kids who suffered this type of treatment.The teachers who gained my respect and who taught me the most were the ones who enlisted my cooperation in learning to help myself and taught me to deal with the effects of ADHD. They were clear in their expectations, challenged me with a curriculum that captured my limited attention and treated all kids with the same consequences. The ones who gave me a “dummies desk” right next to theirs, humiliated me and made me look bad in front of my friends got just what they expected…….a behavior - not a brilliant child with ADHD.