Sarcastic Non-verbal Reactions from Students

Posted on November 8, 2011 by jenniferw — 1 Comment ↓

Thanks to one of my readers asking how to handle students who respond with non-verbal sarcasm in the classroom.

Sarcasm is one of those deadly sins in the classroom. Only the right teacher with the right mix of students in exactly the right situation can get away with sarcasm. Usually it’s to be avoided at all cost. That said, many students use sarcasm daily, even hourly! (or in some student’s cases, always.)

The benefit of non-verbal reactions, provided they do not physically harm another person, is that the result is always emotional. That doesn’t sound like a great benefit, but at least you will not have to call the school nurse or fill out an incident report. There are two important things to know when dealing with a student who is using non-verbal sarcasm.

First, realize that there are two causes for the behavior you are seeing. 1: the student has it out for the teacher, is very smart, has found your buttons and enjoys pushing them as often as possible. and 2: the student is feeling huge emotions and doesn’t know how to handle them without acting out. Knowing which is causing the particular behavior in your class is not necessarily important to the solution to the problem, but it is good to be aware of both reasons.

Second, it is important to remember that your job as a teacher, for better or for worse (and regardless of what Washington DC says), is to teach these students how to succeed in the world. This goes way beyond reading, writing and arithmetic (or whatever subject you happen to be teaching). 

When a student responds with non-verbal sarcasm, it is important first to not react emotionally. You are the adult. You need to respond with maturity even when your student is not. This goes for your attitude too. If you are thinking immature thoughts, you cannot expect your student to act any differently.

The easy answer to what to actually DO is to do nothing. Ignoring the behavior is the best choice when the student is trying to push your buttons. Unfortunately, many times the student is experiencing strong emotions (frustration, hurt, anger, irritability, sadness, you name it) and doesn’t know how to deal with them, and so as soon as the opportunity presents itself, out comes the sarcasm and irritating behaviors.

If these behaviors are a repetitive problem in your classroom, it might be a good idea to start activities that help to teach students how to manage their emotions. Journals where they have to explain how they feel about certain situations can help them verbalize emotions that feel too big to express, even if about hypothetical situations. Role playing, where students have to act out common situations in life that require self-control and subsequent discussions about possible reactions and proper reactions are also good activities.

What NOT to do: discipline! unless the student does a specific thing that is against school or classroom rules, you should not give a consequence for the behavior. 

Last tip: after school is out, sit in that student’s seat. Think about school from that perspective for a while and reflect on the student’s behavior, other students’ responses and your response. Sometimes reflection will provide insight that surprises you!

 

 

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Posted in Body Language

Don’t Lock the kid in the closet

Posted on November 3, 2011 by jenniferw — 1 Comment ↓

In college, I had a wonderful professor who was able to provide the most hilarious and serious illustrations for the most important lessons. I would like to share with you her story about following through and the importance in the classroom.

The Lesson: Follow up on what you say, always and without fail. This will give you leverage for obedience later in the year.

The Story: (and I apologize, because I will not be able to do it justice as it has been many years since I heard this story).

There was one boy in her class, you know the type, the one who always knew how to push her buttons no matter what. Well, it was almost lunchtime, so she was sending the students to the coat closet to retrieve their lunches 2 at a time. Each time, there was a commotion in the closet and she soon realized it was because this kid was in the closet, waiting for his classmates to open the door, just to scare them.

At this point, most of the class had their lunches, so it was her turn to be the surprise. She walked calmly to the back of the room, opened the closet door and was greeted by the student who assumed he was going to surprise yet another student. Well he was the one who received the surprise as the teacher simply told him to stay in the closet and closed the door. 

The class resumed calm quickly at this point and the young teacher promptly forgot about the student in the closet. She lined an obedient class up for lunch, went down to the lunch room, took the class out for recess afterwards and went back to the classroom for afternoon classes when she suddenly remembered, and was horrified. 

She quickly retrieved her student, who was waiting, scared, in the closet still, got someone to cover her class quick and marched the student down to her principals office. (keep in mind this was probably 20 years ago but still not so long ago that parents wouldn’t be a problem and the teacher was sure her short career in teaching was now over.)

She told the student to wait outside the office while she went in and explained what happened, mortified and apologetic. The principal brought the student in, asked him what he had done to deserve his punishment, got a promise that he would not act up again and then went to the kitchen to find him some lunch.

After school was over for the day, the teacher sat in the coat closet with the door closed and cried. She kept her job and never again forgot about any student. But, as she told us, she knew that if she ever threatened to put a student in the closet for misbehaving, the student would believe her because she had done it once!

By following through on consequences, students will learn to believe you, but please, don’t lock anyone in a closet!

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Posted in Disruptive students

Maintain Classroom Management Without a Voice

Posted on October 24, 2011 by jenniferw — 2 Comments ↓

Teachers often struggle to take days off when they are sick, and you might find yourself in front of you classroom without a voice if you haven’t already. Teaching without a voice can be a challenge, as can keeping the students in line when you can’t raise your voice over the growing din of noise.

Here are a few tips that might help your day go a bit smoother.

I have found that when students realize that you need help, there will be a handful of them who thrive on the opportunity to keep other students in line and provide any help you might need.

Maybe it’s the sudden opportunity to play boss of the others, but either way, enlisting students to be special helpers will often work. The one or two who try to take advantage of the situation and act up will often be put back in place quickly by the other students. At the very least, you’ll only have one or two students to deal with instead of the entire class this way.

The very nature of having no voice can help as well, ironically – the softer you talk, the more students have to pay attention to hear what you have to say. Pepper you day with jokes and secrets so that students want to hear everything you say. 

Have you tried something else that has worked? Feel free to share your wisdom!

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Posted in Disruptive students, Positive Behavior Management

Why Students Misbehave

Posted on October 17, 2011 by jenniferw — No Comments ↓

Students don’t misbehave simply because they like acting up (well, some do, but the number of pathological students should be relatively small in your classroom). Understanding why students are misbehaving will help you find the way to reach those students and bring about a change in your classroom.

1. Difficulty with academics.
Students will often act up if they are struggling academically. Whether the student is truly behind the rest of the class or simply feeling stressed by the work load, the result is often disruptive to the teacher and class.
Solution: provide more one-on-one time with this student or provide additional help through peer tutors, partner lessons, additional examples, etc.

2. I’m Bored!!
Many students who are ahead of the pack are bored and will act up. This can often be confused with students who are struggling because bored students will often refuse to do their work or act up while doing their work. 

Solution: provide students with a packet of challenge work that they can do if they complete their work early – make it fun work, not busy work, and allow students to choose activities that inspire them.

3. I am not loved :(

Students who live in situations where they are unloved or not attended to will often act up because they have learned that acting out provides attention. How sad is it that students will act up for attention? When negative attention is an improvement, we know that this is just a student who needs to be loved. 

Solution: Don’t give up on this student! Love him or her! Find ways to make each individual student feel like he or she is the most important student to you. Make this your goal.

4. I don’t understand the expectations ???

While it should not be common, unfortunately many times the reason students act out is because the expectations (rules/consequences/rewards) are not clear. Stating them, writing them down and correcting students for acting out is not enough to provide clear expectations. 

Solution: Spent time throughout the ENTIRE school year modeling proper behavior and having students practice proper behavior solely for the purpose of learning proper behavior.

Need more ideas? Check out Common Behavior Problems and Solutions for specific ideas.

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Posted in Class Rules, Disruptive students, Positive Behavior Management

Homework Assignment: Student Reflection

Posted on October 10, 2011 by jenniferw — 1 Comment ↓

Here’s your homework assignment for tonight: Sit down with a paper and pen or pencil and write down the names of all of your students. By this time, it should be easy (if you’re like me and you’re still struggling with names by this point in the year, don’t fear, you CAN learn them, keep trying!).

Now, look at the last 5 names on the list. Why did you think of these kids last? Think about each child individually. What does he or she need from you? Those kids on the top of the list are receiving the majority of your attention, thus the quick recall. Now it’s time to think about how to reach those kids on the bottom of your list.

Repeat this homework assignment each month – you will be surprised at how the names on the bottom of the list today may show up at the top of the list next month. Keep focusing on those names at the bottom of the list and you will reach each student in your class.

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Posted in Classroom Management Resources

Break Free From Expectations

Posted on October 3, 2011 by jenniferw — No Comments ↓

I have been hearing a pattern of comments this year from teachers: “I’ve got a tough class, they were tough last year and are just as tough this year.” or, “this class has been tough all along, now it’s my turn to suffer”, or “all of *insert grade here* is tough this year” (ironically, this seems to impact 5th grade the most…it must be a tough age).

I may be out of line here, but in my opinion, it’s time to break free from the expectations that a class will be the same as they were last year, or that they are “all tough” in a certain grade. In fact, students live up to expectations and if you expect them to be bad, they will. If they perceive the expectation, they will fulfill it as well, even if you don’t actually expect it. (this means you’re likely suffering from last year’s teacher’s bad management habits)

So you have the worst class, so the entire grade is a nightmare, ok. Now we move on. If it is 5th grade, you can likely have this conversation with them to elicit change. Otherwise it’s time for a radical shift in your own thoughts/attitudes and methodologies. 

Troubled students may still act out, but it’s time to give them all the opportunity to reign in their behavior – start by spending time each day modeling proper behavior and having students model proper behavior. Review or change classroom expectations and set in place strict consequences for misbehavior and rewards for proper behavior.

Above all, you need to respect your students. If you don’t respect them, how can you expect them to show you any respect?

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Posted in Body Language, Class Rules, Disruptive students

Spread the Silence

Posted on September 13, 2011 by jenniferw — 1 Comment ↓

Thanks for the teacher who suggested this idea!

“spread the silence” 

When your students noise level has reached a bit too high (or a lot too high!) for optimal learning to take place, start to spread the silence by asking one student, “spread the silence please!”. That student is to then turn to another student, asking the same thing. This repeats around the classroom and the noise level will quickly reduce. 

Any other great ideas for controlling the noise level in your classroom? Leave a comment telling us about it!

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Posted in Idea of the Week, Success Stories

How Class Sizes Don’t Impact Your Students

Posted on August 24, 2011 by jenniferw — No Comments ↓

With teachers headed back to school, final numbers are starting to come in. While some teachers are reporting classes at the elementary level as low as 18 -22 students, these teachers are in the minority. Most teachers are seeing 25, 30, or more students per class, even as young as Kindergarten. Some highschool teachers are seeing 40 or more per class!

Research, unfortunately for teachers, says that test scores are not impacted by class size. So as a result, those in charge of the school budgets, are saying great! Let’s get rid of some teachers, raise class sizes and we’re all good, the budget meets and test scores are not impacted. 

Teachers all across the nation are trying to figure out how to manage a classroom bigger than they ever imagined they would need to, at every grade level except perhaps special education. 

So how do large class sizes NOT impact your students? 

1. Class size does not impact your students need for love and attention – love in a world where parents are too eager to ship their kids to school and attention when kids are too often ignored.

2. Class size does not impact your student’s need to learn life skills alongside of academics – skills that parents all too often expect teachers to take care of instead of teaching themselves. 

3. Class size does not impact your students impact on the future – these children will become the future, so instead of waiting for politicians to change how things are now, try to focus on raising the next generation to care about their education. 

It’s too bad that our current leaders don’t realize these things and don’t understand how packing kids into a classroom like sardines empowers teachers to experience stress, increased planning times, increased difficulties in classroom management and more.

How many kids are in your class this year? What are the increased class sizes going to make the most difficult for you?

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Posted in Classroom Management Resources

Ten Last Minute Classroom Management Tips

Posted on August 19, 2011 by jenniferw — No Comments ↓
  1. Make all your class rules clear and visible 
  2. Demonstrate/role play how to follow the rules and classroom procedures
  3. Remember to use positive discipline (rewards) whenever possible, but have consequences planned and ready for those students who simply will not respond to rewards.
  4. Expect students to obey but be prepared down to every detail for misbehavior.
  5. Remember – you are their teacher, not their friend, but at the same time, you can be their confidant. 
  6. Create parent alliances!
  7. Reflect on how you handle management situations
  8. Don’t be afraid to change your rules/classroom management plan, even 1 week into the school year.
  9. Remember to praise students for anything you can!
  10. Don’t forget to smile and have fun!

 

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Run a No Excuses Classroom

Posted on August 19, 2011 by jenniferw — No Comments ↓

This year, commit to having a no-excuses classroom. Students (really, all people of all ages) have excuses for everything – my dog ate my homework, my mom forgot to pack my lunch, he wouldn’t leave me alone, etc.

When you introduce your classroom expectations to your students, ensure that they understand CLEARLY what is expected and then allow no excuses. If you require students to keep their hands to themselves, do not tolerate hitting even if it was an “accident” or if “he started it!”.

If you start the school year by providing room for excuses, students will continue to push that line all year, just to see how far you’ll bend before you break.

Some veteran teachers claim that you shouldn’t smile before Christmas. The point here isn’t that you shouldn’t physically smile before Christmas, but that you should start as you intend to go on, not allowing excuses if you would like students to simply follow the rules without providing excuses.

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Posted in Class Rules, Disruptive students