Behavior Problems! What are teachers supposed to do? (superintendent, curriculum, middle school)

[LookinForMayberry]

Originally Posted by Jennifer5221

So tell me...what is legal anymore.
You can't deprive the student of his/her education so you can't put them in the hall.
You can't call home because they don't believe you.
You can't send them to the principal because you look bad.
So...what now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Teach the lesson plan? Leave the parenting to the parents?

Seriously, I am guessing that it would probably be best to just record any "incidents" and make a formal report. If the disruption becomes too great, I suppose YOU could go to the Principles office...

[loloroj]

Last hs I taught at had a parking spot reserved for the local police force. That should tell you what a lot of my students. It was a poor district, where a lot of kids had one or both parents in jail/prison, where they were on parole/probation, where the only meal of the day many received was at school. For most of these kids, school was the last thing on their minds, they had far greater problems than if they were catching on to the material.

Point is that no real education will take place if the family puts no value in their own education. If a child never sees a parent reading, has no books in the home, or if their are serious alcohol/drug/economic problems that work against silent contemplation, there is little a teacher can do that will make any difference. I learned in my life that the only true education is self education, the one that comes if one loves to read, think and speak about the material. That's not what's happening in the country, so why should school be this oasis in a desert of idiocy and marketing. An engaged mind isn't just found in a classroom, it's found anywhere engaged people exist. The problems happen when you have disengaged minds crammed into a room where they're forced to do what they don't care to do. In that case, it's better to find a way to get those unengaged minds either to find their own way to becoming in gear or to leave. I don't believe a teacher can do it when they have 30 of 40 students mindlessly sitting through the day.....

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by loloroj

Last hs I taught at had a parking spot reserved for the local police force. That should tell you what a lot of my students. It was a poor district, where a lot of kids had one or both parents in jail/prison, where they were on parole/probation, where the only meal of the day many received was at school. For most of these kids, school was the last thing on their minds, they had far greater problems than if they were catching on to the material.

Point is that no real education will take place if the family puts no value in their own education. If a child never sees a parent reading, has no books in the home, or if their are serious alcohol/drug/economic problems that work against silent contemplation, there is little a teacher can do that will make any difference. I learned in my life that the only true education is self education, the one that comes if one loves to read, think and speak about the material. That's not what's happening in the country, so why should school be this oasis in a desert of idiocy and marketing. An engaged mind isn't just found in a classroom, it's found anywhere engaged people exist. The problems happen when you have disengaged minds crammed into a room where they're forced to do what they don't care to do. In that case, it's better to find a way to get those unengaged minds either to find their own way to becoming in gear or to leave. I don't believe a teacher can do it when they have 30 of 40 students mindlessly sitting through the day.....

This is what we need to change. We need to stop treating all kids like they belong on the college bound track no matter what their background. Their background matters.

[lititzman2003]

My wife goes through this everyday. If she sends a kid to the office he/she gets a hug and told not to worry about the big, bad teacher who sent them there.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by lititzman2003

My wife goes through this everyday. If she sends a kid to the office he/she gets a hug and told not to worry about the big, bad teacher who sent them there.

I feel for your wife. I, basically, got told that sending kids to the office is proof I can't manage my class. Seriously, if there are no consequences for misbehavior, do you expect them to behave when derailing the class results in less work for them?

I'm pretty sure when I send kids to the office, they just tell the principal what I do wrong. I'm so tired of the us vs. them mentality here. I'm not from this city so I'm a "Them".

[scocar]

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

I feel for your wife. I, basically, got told that sending kids to the office is proof I can't manage my class. Seriously, if there are no consequences for misbehavior, do you expect them to behave when derailing the class results in less work for them?

I'm pretty sure when I send kids to the office, they just tell the principal what I do wrong. I'm so tired of the us vs. them mentality here. I'm not from this city so I'm a "Them".

My experience has always been that it's not until the office referrals get to be numerous that the theory of not being able to manage the class gets brought up. I know that I was always reluctant to send kids up because I thought myself that it would reflect badly on me. I've never had a principal imply that I could not manage my class, when I sent a kid up to the office. But I do think that common sense would tell us that if we are sending more kids to the office than other teachers, that there might be an issue with the teacher.

Think about this from the principals perspective. They walk into two classrooms. Both classes are equally orderly when they go into them. One of the teachers has sent 20 referrals to the office in the first 3 weeks of school and one has sent none. Who would you think has better classroom management?

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by scocar

My experience has always been that it's not until the office referrals get to be numerous that the theory of not being able to manage the class gets brought up. I know that I was always reluctant to send kids up because I thought myself that it would reflect badly on me. I've never had a principal imply that I could not manage my class, when I sent a kid up to the office. But I do think that common sense would tell us that if we are sending more kids to the office than other teachers, that there might be an issue with the teacher.

Think about this from the principals perspective. They walk into two classrooms. Both classes are equally orderly when they go into them. One of the teachers has sent 20 referrals to the office in the first 3 weeks of school and one has sent none. Who would you think has better classroom management?

Are they the same kids in each of those classes ?
Kids that absolutely don't care what happens will disrupt the class no matter who the teacher is or the subject matter.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by scocar

My experience has always been that it's not until the office referrals get to be numerous that the theory of not being able to manage the class gets brought up. I know that I was always reluctant to send kids up because I thought myself that it would reflect badly on me. I've never had a principal imply that I could not manage my class, when I sent a kid up to the office. But I do think that common sense would tell us that if we are sending more kids to the office than other teachers, that there might be an issue with the teacher.

Think about this from the principals perspective. They walk into two classrooms. Both classes are equally orderly when they go into them. One of the teachers has sent 20 referrals to the office in the first 3 weeks of school and one has sent none. Who would you think has better classroom management?

One problem with your logic....It's the same three kids for the same reasons day after day...

Please quit answering my posts, the condescending attitude is not, at all, helpful.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

Are they the same kids in each of those classes ?
Kids that absolutely don't care what happens will disrupt the class no matter who the teacher is or the subject matter.

They are the same kids. Three students in one class account for 90% of my office referrals.

One does not care and is disruptive just to be disruptives, one likes the attention she gets from the other students when she can get me to stop to address her behavior and will, simply, escallate until I do and the third really has impulse control issues and when he can't settle down, the only thing I can do is send him out of the room. While he can get the most beligerent, he's also the only one who will come back and appologize later.

There are a few other students I have sent to the office for things like eating food during a lab, misbehavior during labs (I have a zero tolerance policy here regardless of what the office thinks. Safety has to come first.) or insubordination. I've had a couple ask to be sent because they didn't like my decision on something and were having trouble controlling themselves. I just let the office know they just need some cooling down time.

[TabulaRasa]

There are a lot of variables in what antecedents play a role in triggering various student behavior. Taking Class A and Class B as a random sampling doesn't necessarily provide the most useful data unless all these variables are recognized and factored in (which is in and of itself, typically fairly complex behavior analysis). If it were as simple as "Do what Teacher A does, s/he doesn't 'get' this behavior," that would be nice (and make life easy). But the one-size-fits all approach isn't really useful.