Ok,so I’ve been in Taiwan 3+ years and I have never seen such rude and mean kids ever. I consider myself as a humorous and easy going person with a strong sence of fairness and empathy. Getting along with my students has never been a problem,until now.
I have a grade three class from hell. They are definitely not the sweet little grade three’s I have been accustomed to. Bascially it all stems from one girl student in the class which all the other students despise.The class will tease and harrass her to no end disrupting the class.When it’s her turn to speak the students will cut her off and say rude things to her.They make her cry and then laugh at her. One time she came into the class with a black eye. I asked what happend and she said her father beat her because of a test score.The response from the other students was “haha you deserve it.” When I try to mediate their quarls, I will get responses like, “she deserves it, so what, who cares”
I get the class calmed down and try to get on with the lesson. Minutes later more name calling erupts.I try to give them a “do unto other’s” lecture which was a watse of breath.I gave them I set of classroom rules which the Chinese teacher helped to present. It didn’t work.
A few weeks ago I started pulling kids out of the class and taking them to see the principal,which I felt was my last resort.It worked,for the rest of the class anyways. The next day they were back at it again and giving it to me too. “your a bad teacher, we want you fired, we,you blah blah blah.” Now they ignore me when I tell then it’s class time and beak off to me when I give them their homework.
Finally, I had had enough of their spoiled and dispepecful attitudes and ended up giving then a lecture and not in a nice way. It was the first time I ever yelled at my students. I know there are beter ways to deal with this situation other than getting mad,but damned if I know.
Maybe they only way to keep them under control and keep the lesson going is to step out of my element and to be a hard handed teacher.I am more than prepared to do this but would prefer to have good teacher to student relationship.Maybe I should just write this class off and worry about the others.Other than punctuation mistakes,any advice to be offered would be great!
That’s pretty messed up. Do you have a contract there? Have you been teaching for 3 years? I suppose you have. Hmmm. Maybe you should just go down to the office and refuse to teach until they start acting like humans.
Remember, you are there to teach them, not be their friend/buddy. These kids need to know that your classroom rules will be strictly enforced. Believe me, it will help in the long run. Even the children you mentioned will begin to understand that their actions will have consequences if, and only if, you consistantly enforce the rules. Children are not stupid. They know exactly what they can and can’t get away with. Best of luck.
No,I have not asked why the kids don’t like her. Other that the fact she has ADD and is a yr older,she is pretty normal girl. She is not the instigator in these fights,but will react to the other students. I have the full support of the principal which is nice,but I would still like solve this little mess on my own accord. I think because I will not tolerate their rude behaior ,they think I am on her side and therefor have turned against me.One way or the other I will deal with this,even if I have to beat each one like an ugly red headed step kid. Just kidding.
Thanks for your concern everyone.
In this sort of situation, I would not hesitate to pull out the Mr. Hyde teacher and be very heavy handed with them. (I’m glad you put a “just kidding” after the “beat them” statement, I use heavy handed in the metaphorical sense as you did.)
Students need to feel safe and secure. Generally, having a warm relationship with students is the best way to achieve that. But if students don’t feel the teacher is in control of the situation, they lack that sense of safety anyway. Laying down the law can help the situation. Once order is restored you can then re-establish the warmth.
You may not be experienced with a confrontational style of discipline, so I’ll give a few pieces of advice that have worked for me when I have faced difficult classes:
Use physical space to make your point. Physically go to the place where there is trouble. You are standing, they are sitting. If you are standing right over them when you disicpline that will make them uncomfortable and they will find it difficult to be rude. In extreme cases, get into their personal space. (Be careful on that last one. I’ve only had to use that a few times, and it’s always been enough, but it could backfire with some students.)
Raising your voice is appropriate. It is a way that we communicate displeasure, and they will understand that. But do so in a controlled way, to achieve an effect, not because you are angry.
Zero tolerance. Don’t let a problem start. Don’t try to escalate your reaction halfway through a class. At the first sign of a disruption, come down on that person severely. Make it so getting your attention for discipline is something that is not at all desirable.
Definitely involve the parents in the discipline process. That may be your most critical task in reigning these kids in.
Your desire to use positive reinforcement and have a good realtionship with your students is the right approach. Don’t abandon it, even with this class. As soon as you establish order and they all respect you as an authority in the classroom, go right back to it.
Be extremely organized in your lesson planning for awhile. Have every minute well planned in the class from the moment you walk in until the end. This will give them less freedom if they are kept busy. Then perhaps you can loosen the reins later on.
Have games which really focus on competition. Break the class up into two teams. Have simple rewards like candy or stickers for the winner. If one kid is bad, that team doesn’t get anything. The kids on that team will be very annoyed and help you police the misbehaving kid yourself!
Be patient… things do get better. The best class I ever had was HORRIBLE for the first month. It took everything I had to stay patient and focused. I continued to work hard and let the kids know I cared. I was VERY consistent in my enforcement of classroom rules. After a month, I couldn’t believe how things clicked. It was like a light went on in their heads.
It will get better, stick with it!! Kids can tell when the teacher cares about them and they will come around!!
j99l88e77 said:
That’s not helpful and a little offensive too… kids are supposed test us. That’s what they do.
Just seemed to me that they seem quite out of control for someone’s who’s been teaching for three years.
Play games and give them snack and candy. That’ll smarten them up. Award more stickers to the winning team. Ten stickers = snack. Give stickers for homework or good behavior.
I don’t know what else to say because I’m not there.
[quote=“j99l88e77”]Just seemed to me that they seem quite out of control for someone’s who’s been teaching for three years.
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It’s got nothing to do with the teacher’s experience level or ability to teach, j9932674549. I’m sure we’ve all had a class like gomerpyle at some point. You can be the uber-teacher and still encounter problem children and classes that are, collectively, harder to manage than normal.
I would inform the director of the problems you’ve been experiencing in that class. Sometimes a visit and a lecture from an authority figure they fear a little will do the trick. I also agree with the suggestions that the discipline/ class order level be turned up a notch. I’d say keep the kids busy, moving seemlessly and rapidly from one teaching point to the next. If you play games with this class, be prepared to immediately stop them and move on when disorder starts. Tell them that games have been stopped because of their misbehavior. It’s up to them if they want to play them or not. If you hear a student insult the girl in question, immediately order the student-- in a raised voice-- to stand up. Walk over and remove his/her chair and make the student stand for a set amount of time (anywhere from a few minutes to the rest of the class depending on the seriousness/ number of offenses). Add to the time if they fail to stand well, talk or otherwise continue to be disruptive.
[quote=“Toasty”][quote=“j99l88e77”]Just seemed to me that they seem quite out of control for someone’s who’s been teaching for three years.
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It’s got nothing to do with the teacher’s experience level or ability to teach, j9932674549. I’m sure we’ve all had a class like gomerpyle at some point. You can be the uber-teacher and still encounter problem children and classes that are, collectively, harder to manage than normal.
I would inform the director of the problems you’ve been experiencing in that class. Sometimes a visit and a lecture from an authority figure they fear a little will do the trick. I also agree with the suggestions that the discipline/ class order level be turned up a notch. I’d say keep the kids busy, moving seemlessly and rapidly from one teaching point to the next. If you play games with this class, be prepared to immediately stop them and move on when disorder starts. Tell them that games havel been stopped because of their misbehavior. It’s up to them if they want to play them or not. If you hear a student insult the girl in question, immediately order the student-- in a raised voice-- to stand up. Walk over and remove his/her chair and make the student stand for a set amount of time (anywhere from a few minutes to the rest of the class depending on the seriousness/ number of offenses). Add to the time if they fail to stand well, talk or otherwise continue to be disruptive.[/quote]
Exactly. And split the class up if this doesn’t work. I have a strong feeling that this class will always be the same, and you don’t want to be wasting 90% of your energy just keeping a lid on the little brats.
I would request that my AD split these kids up into different classes.
Thanks for everyone’s imput on this I appreciate it. I cannot split the class because there is only one grade three class.
Thanks for the ideas on classroom managment. I use quite a few of them already and they do work,least for most of my classes.As far as getting parents inolved,I don’t think that’s a good idea.Some of these kids have very protective parents and I have the feeling I would get the “it’s not my kids fault” reaction.Although,my classroom rules do state that if I have to bring them to the office twice in a week,their parents will get a call from the school.This raised an eyebrow or two when it was read.
I think Puiwaihin and Taiwaner hit the nail on the the head by saying zero tolerence and consistency is the key to controling this class.I will be firm but fair and hopfully these guys will get the idea and settle down.I think incorperating a better rewards system(with better rewards)will help too.Pencils and erasers wouldn’t motivate me all that much.
You may be surprised at how willing to take your counsel the parents will be.
There are a few parents who are hyper-intolerant of any criticism of their child-- and if you have any of those you’ll know it in short order. But the bigger problem is apathy from parents. They will scold the kid severely for a few minutes and consider their job done.
Getting the parents to really make a difference can be a serious task. At the very least you should sound them out. Parents can be your most valuable resource.
When a problem comes up, write it down on a clipboard or have students write it on a clipboard when it happens. At the end of the day when you might have a fun activity scheduled, tell the students that you will be having a meeting regarding a negative behavior instead. The time it takes to deal with it and resolve the problem will be shared with the time they would have gotten to play a game or do a fun activity.
You’ll find, or at least if the kids are wise enough to catch on, that they will start policing each other because they’ll know that every infraction of the rules means longer classroom meeting times. They’ll also start coming up with solutions much more quickly to help end meeting time faster and start playing their game sooner.
I did this with my students when tattling became a problem in class. They had to write out their tattles on a piece of paper and put it into the tattle box which was read at the end of each class. The rule was if it wasn’t to keep someone from getting hurt, something from being damaged, or to keep someone from cheating, then it went into the box and we would talk about it and how it could be resolved without my intervention instead of playing a game. The first week it was full. One of the biggest tattles was of taking other people’s things, like erasers, without asking permission. By the second week, I would hear someone start to get a piece of paper and the wrongdoer would say, “Hey wait a minute, I’ll give it back.” By the third week, it was empty everyday and the kids were resolving their own problems.
imaniOU,I think your suggestions are pretty good and have given me some ideas.
Starting today,everytime a student breaks a rule,s/he will write it down on a piece of paper and it will go into a box.They will be read at the end of the class like you suggested. I have also made a chart with their names beside the weekly classes.(6x40min classes a week) If a rule has been broken, an “X” will be put beside their name for that class.At the end of the month,the student with the least number of infractions will win the prize.
For additional motivation,the students with no infractions at the end of the class will get their name put in the box with a stamp on it, indicating good behavior.I will draw a name from the box at the end of the month for a second prize.I just hope all this is not too time consuming as the classes are only 40 min long.All in all,I think this could help with the disipline and the ss will have some fun with it too.What do you think?
I went out on the weekend and bought some of the marble shooting robots that the boys are always playing with and other items for the girls.
Thanks again for your suggestion,me thinks it is a gooder.
That’s the second time this week someone has used that word, in that sense, in front of me…me, the grammar freak. There’s an aneurysm with my name on it, I know.
Seriously, though, I’m glad to hear that you’re trying out some of these plans. Let us know how your system works in class. I really feel for you. It’s not easy dealing with bullying in your class.
