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Just for the sake of simplification: are you arguing that the summary Holly Tree wrote is just in some people's imagination? Because there is not a whole lot of empirical evidence to support this point of view. The vast majority of evidence points in the opposite direction.
The self-esteem movement, along with many other cultural changes, has been very real since the 70's. It manifests itself in myriad ways including the dumbification of the curriculum, making standards easier than they should be, trophies for everyone, turning comparisons in academic performance into top secret information, etc. It comes in the form of "creative writing", "game playing", no use of red for correction, not making students consider spelling because it puts "a dent on creativity", showering students with praise for minimum performance (even though studies are now beginning to show that too much praise lowers performance)... and the list goes on.
To pretend such things have had no impact is just naive or plain reactionary.
PS: Achieving a sense of "worth" must be based on something. In education, you don't achieve a sens of worth just because you breathe. The only way to feel good about yourself is to achieve something you found to be quite difficult when you first attempted it. I see plenty of children and young people today feeling super-great about themselves without much substance to show.
IDK, I don't see much difference between public schools of the past and present. Again, I think they've improved, though not tremendously. Having attended both public and catholic schools as well as teaching at both and having educated my oldest in a Catholic school for a few years, I still think they provide a better education than public.
There are things I dislike about public that I won't go into here because it is not consistent with the topic of this thread.
Honestly this thread is bringing back memories of all the 'old' adults sitting around lamenting about the youth of today while they clucked their tongues.
I went to school during the 1980s...the origins of the so-called self-esteem movement. I certainly never had a teacher who intimated to me that there were no wrong answers, or who didn't correct my work when I was incorrect.
I personally did not experience any of it (1970's) but did see my kids deal with it in elementary school a few times. Our son's second grade teacher did away with red corrections on spelling tests, telling us he felt they were "negative enforcers"....thank goodness he retired at the end of that year. And the whole phonetic writing movement with its focus on getting the student's thoughts on paper vs writing correctly. Sometimes, teachers and administrators' hands seemed tied: the prinicipal at this school was disgusted because parents complained that the "Student of the Month" awards went to the same students...and the PTA voted to "broaden the award." While he recognized that if everyone got the award it meant little, he couldn't do anything about it.
This is why the teacher needs to learn other techniques.
When the kids are talking over her she should whisper, not get louder. If they miss something, that's their problem not hers.
She could also have a sign they go over at the beginning of the year. Our school does a clapping thing. Whenever the kids hear the clap, they all stop and clap and then when all the kids are clapping, they stop and listen. It can also be something like turning off the classroom lights for a minute. That usually gets the kids attention.
I suggest that the teacher get Harry Wong's book, "The First Days of School" and that she starts over and teaches procedures. It will pay off.
No, its problem for the whole class. Forget the gimmicks. Kids need to get the message from day one that they need to pay attention.
IDK, I don't see much difference between public schools of the past and present. Again, I think they've improved, though not tremendously. Having attended both public and catholic schools as well as teaching at both and having educated my oldest in a Catholic school for a few years, I still think they provide a better education than public.
There are things I dislike about public that I won't go into here because it is not consistent with the topic of this thread.
Honestly this thread is bringing back memories of all the 'old' adults sitting around lamenting about the youth of today while they clucked their tongues.
One major difference is the disappearance of the "electric paddle". Our town's Facebook memories page is full of stories of getting the board. Most readily admit that they deserved it. A few talk about incidents where it went too far. Only one mentioned that a parent went to the school about it. Nearly all say that it definitely kept order in the classroom. There were very few hard feelings thirty+ years on.
No, its problem for the whole class. Forget the gimmicks. Kids need to get the message from day one that they need to pay attention.
The problem is that she hasn't gotten to that point. She needs to go back and teach procedures and get the whole class to buy into it and understand the process. Until that time, you use gimmicks if they work and they do.
The problem is that she hasn't gotten to that point. She needs to go back and teach procedures and get the whole class to buy into it and understand the process. Until that time, you use gimmicks if they work and they do.
I have read Harry Wong and some of his stuff is worthwhile and hugely effective but a large portion of it just will not work in high school classrooms. So yes, do not be particularly friendly or even "wait to smile until Thanksgiving" as Harry says, even spend the ridiculous quantity of time on expectations boring them to death the first week going over your very high, very precise expectations ( I do that every year) but please, please, please, do not expect high school students to respond to a clap when you want their attention.
For some innately well behaved students, going silent may work for them, but for the very poorly behaved the best thing is to give one warning, and then follow through with a clear and uniformly enforced consequence while maintaining a completely emotionally neutral demeanor. Oh, and make sure to give out at least one detention for talking out of turn either the first or second day (assuming it occurs). Preferably for interrupting another student rather than yourself.
There are definitely various rules a classroom teacher can come up with to maintain classroom order that are likely to be frowned upon at the administrative and/or district level, or by given parents. Removing a child from the classroom due to behavior is one particular hot button issue, for a lot of reasons, both valid and suspect. A teacher MAY put a rule in place to remove a student from the classroom for various infractions, but it's just as likely to be trumped by a higher up authority to do so, in a lot of circumstances.
In my previous school, at our peak enrollment (about 2000 kids, K-5), there were 90 teachers. We had three administrators, a psychologist, and a social worker. There were many other adults on campus -- computer lab and music teachers, various coaches, four office workers, plenty of aides, playground supervision. Now (900 kids) there is one administrator, no psych, no social worker, no music/computer lab, no librarian, insufficient playground supervision and 1.5 office workers. There just isn't any where for kuds to GO any more.
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Our town's Facebook memories page is full of stories of getting the board. Most readily admit that they deserved it. A few talk about incidents where it went too far. Only one mentioned that a parent went to the school about it. Nearly all say that it definitely kept order in the classroom. There were very few hard feelings thirty+ years on.
