Sep

21

Sometimes My Students Are My Most Compassionate Teachers.

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Dealing With Stress, The Way I See It | 1 Comment

There I sat at my desk with a cup of tea in my hand and dreading the next moment: the moment when the bell would ring, and my first class of rambunctious teenagers would tumble into my classroom. I felt really ill. This cold wasn’t getting better; it was getting worse. I just wanted to sit quietly in a darkened room sipping my cup of tea in quiet misery. Perfect, like that was going to happen.
It did not go well! I was sitting at a table with a group of students when I heard myself saying in a rather bitchy frustrated voice “What do you mean you don’t know how to do those trigonometry questions? We went over all that yesterday.” At that point one of my students, bless her, looked at me and said in a “joking” manner that she would like to give my chair( my chair is on wheels) a little shove so that it would go out the door, and I would be out of the room. At first, I was shocked when she said that. Imagine talking to me like that! Then when I thought about what she had said, I felt like thanking her. I wanted to thank her because she helped me realize that I needed to be at home in bed, not here at school being a b….. Not only did I not have the compassion for my students that I usually have, but I did not have any compassion for myself. I needed to be home in bed but didn’t realize it until my chair, with me in it, was “travelling” across the room.

Sep

18

Wild Angel

Filed Under "At-risk" students | Leave a Comment

I was listening to Joshua Kadison’s song Wild Angel tonight on Joyrise. It’s a sad song that reminds me of all the Wild Angel’s I’ve had in my classrooms. You know, those kids who are so needy and looking for love in all the wrong places. Kadisons lyrics are so powerful. Go listen ,and you can’t help but be moved. It made me sad. I wonder where all those Wild Angels are now, the ones I taught in jail, in the open custody facility and in the regular classrooms these last twenty two years.

Sep

18

Students Who Don’t Perform or Complete Work in Class

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Special Education | Leave a Comment

1. Interact frequently with these students. They do soooooo better with the personal touch. Seat them close to you, stand near them, ask them questions, ask them their opinions. This will help reduce the chance of them drifting off into lah lah land. Some kids work better if they know you are interested in them.

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2. Assign buddies when doing class assignments-math buddies, English buddies, science buddies etc. Train the students to ask their buddy first if they have a question. If their buddy doesn’t know the answer, then it becomes a group question that the teacher will answer. This will prevent kids from just sitting there because they don’t know what’s going on, or don’t know how to do the work.

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3. Check for understanding by having the student explain “whatever” in their own words. Kids get to know they are accountable and pay more attention.

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4. Catch them being good. I can’t stress this enough!!! Reward them with praise whenever you see students doing what they are supposed to. “Oh good, you’ve got your books open and ready to go.” “Oh good, you’re asking your buddy a question.” “Oh good, you’ve finished three questions-you get the drift. It works like magic! I catch them being good, not being bad, and I feel so much better! Really. Try it.

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5. Have the work listed on the board with page numbers. When kids seem to be in neutral, ask them what are they supposed to be doing. Don’t ask them why they aren’t doing it.-waste of time. When they say they don’t know, point to the board. Soon they’ll be trained to look there.

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