How Many Disruptive Students Do You Have in Your Classroom? (college, middle school)

[antredd]

For me, I have mainly 7. Four boys and three girls. I can call their parents, take their recesses, time them out, even send them to the principal, and the end result is the same.

Student 1 likes to crawl, yes under his desk.
student 2 gets up out of his seat every two minutes just to go and talk to his friend sitting across the room.
Student 3 watches me the entire time so that she can pass notes to her friends, and I have to stop to tell her to pay attention to me, especially when I am instructing the class.
Student 4 doesn't do any work and talks to anyone I move her next.
Student 5 yells across the room and always needs to go to the bathroom, and just sits there and draws.
Student 6 plays with her girly toys and note pads that I have to take from her daily instead of doing her classwork.
Student 7 likes to bother girls by calling them names and making funny faces at them.

Some of you may think that this isn't quite bad, but, my other students feed off these 7 students' behavior, and I waste a lot of precious instructional time on disciplining them and getting them back on task.

Please share some your stories.

[ccnj]

We're departmentalized so I have two classes. This year my homeroom is wonderful. I have no behavior problems and the kids love to learn (4th graders) I think my principal finally felt guilty for always giving me the behavior problems.

My second class is an entirely different story. I have one boy that has been kicked out of 3 previous schools. I can manage him, but it irks me that a 9 year old can have such a crappy attitude, refuses to do work and that is "okay" with everyone. I call home about his lack of work and get the same line every time, "I'll talk to him." Yep, that's what he needs, a good talkin' to.

I can't complain though. I had one year where my principal "blessed" me with 17 boys. And they were a wild bunch. My school works under the premise that if you show you can handle tough kids, you tend to get a lot of them.

I very rarely send kids to the office. I'd rather deal with the issue myself than to get annoyed when the kid comes back to the room with a smirk on their face saying they didn't get into trouble. My vp doesn't suspend kids because she is all about image and she likes to point out every year how we have a 0% suspension rate.

[antredd]

Originally Posted by ccnj

We're departmentalized so I have two classes. This year my homeroom is wonderful. I have no behavior problems and the kids love to learn (4th graders) I think my principal finally felt guilty for always giving me the behavior problems.

My second class is an entirely different story. I have one boy that has been kicked out of 3 previous schools. I can manage him, but it irks me that a 9 year old can have such a crappy attitude, refuses to do work and that is "okay" with everyone. I call home about his lack of work and get the same line every time, "I'll talk to him." Yep, that's what he needs, a good talkin' to.

I can't complain though. I had one year where my principal "blessed" me with 17 boys. And they were a wild bunch. My school works under the premise that if you show you can handle tough kids, you tend to get a lot of them.

I very rarely send kids to the office. I'd rather deal with the issue myself than to get annoyed when the kid comes back to the room with a smirk on their face saying they didn't get into trouble. My vp doesn't suspend kids because she is all about image and she likes to point out every year how we have a 0% suspension rate.

I worked at a school like that, and being a male, and the only African American male teacher, the administration felt that putting the African American male boys (who were discipline problems for their third grade teachers) in my class would some how motivate them to learn more, and not be as disruptive.

I have to say that I have been blessed to help them improve or I have seen them just even drop worse because they were just too unmotivated to learn, and that self fulling prophecy had set in at their tender 9 year old age. But I still love that age, and how much we still can influence their learning. They are at the age where they are manageable. When they get to middle school, I don't know what happens---I guess it's the hormones.

[tgbwc]

I have two classes of third graders. 24 in each class. I would say that maybe one in each class might be considered disruptive at times. Overall they are both pretty good classes and any behavior issues are very minor.

[antredd]

Originally Posted by tgbwc

I have two classes of third graders. 24 in each class. I would say that maybe one in each class might be considered disruptive at times. Overall they are both pretty good classes and any behavior issues are very minor.

How sweet. I taught 3rd for 8 years. After moving up to 4th, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT, AND THE AGE GROUP. THEY ARE NOT WHINERS AT ALL.

[ccnj]

I was actually an early childhood major in college. I was hired as a 2nd grade teacher, but two days before school started I was moved to 4th grade. I was worried then, but I love this age too.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by antredd

For me, I have mainly 7. Four boys and three girls. I can call their parents, take their recesses, time them out, even send them to the principal, and the end result is the same.

Student 1 likes to crawl, yes under his desk.
student 2 gets up out of his seat every two minutes just to go and talk to his friend sitting across the room.
Student 3 watches me the entire time so that she can pass notes to her friends, and I have to stop to tell her to pay attention to me, especially when I am instructing the class.
Student 4 doesn't do any work and talks to anyone I move her next.
Student 5 yells across the room and always needs to go to the bathroom, and just sits there and draws.
Student 6 plays with her girly toys and note pads that I have to take from her daily instead of doing her classwork.
Student 7 likes to bother girls by calling them names and making funny faces at them.

Some of you may think that this isn't quite bad, but, my other students feed off these 7 students' behavior, and I waste a lot of precious instructional time on disciplining them and getting them back on task.

Please share some your stories.

I find if I get more than 3 in one class, they feed off of each other and the attention they get from other students. I teach HS BTW.

I have two classes where I have a critical mass. If they're all there, it's not fun. I dread lab days with these two classes. I can't give the students who want to learn the attention they need because I have to keep focused on the trouble makers.

[antredd]

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

I find if I get more than 3 in one class, they feed off of each other and the attention they get from other students. I teach HS BTW.

I have two classes where I have a critical mass. If they're all there, it's not fun. I dread lab days with these two classes. I can't give the students who want to learn the attention they need because I have to keep focused on the trouble makers.

Right, and that is what makes our jobs so hard, because we are focussing too much on kids who aren't there to learn, and blamed for those same kids poor test scores.