Reflect back on a situation (or imagine a situation) in your classroom when, despite your best efforts to clearly establish proactive expectations, you were compelled to refer a misbehaving student to a school administrator. Write about what behavior prompted the office referral and the result of the student's visit to the office. Did the student's behavior change? Did the student come back from the office angry? How did you follow up on the student's misbehavior in the days that followed? In hindsight, would you have changed how you handled the misbehavior? Do you feel that the school administrator should have handled the referral differently?
As of yet (knock on wood) I have not had any scholars get to this point. I have been able to get the scholar (s) in question back on track and the class settled rather quickly. Most of the time, I simply redirect attention back to the topic at hand. If they want to continue being disruptive, I remind them that they are in my classroom and need to focus, and that I'll make time for them after the instructional period. I always leave the last 5 minutes of class open for cleaning desks and putting things away. That is when I am willing to have those more relaxed topics not dealing with the instruction period. Normally they just want to talk sports which is something we connect on.
ReplyDeleteI hope you never experience this. It's good that you give time to discuss other topics.
DeleteI'm sure I will. It is not a question of will I, but rather when and how bad will it be. Even when everything is done right and all the stars align, there will still be that 1 student who does something just to get attention, or is mistreated by someone and wants to deal with it on the spot.
DeleteMy kids seem to respond to being told I will talk to them later as well. I have a couple students that want to tell me about their weekend/ a video game in the middle of a lesson... When I give a specific time frame on when I can talk with them, they are easy to redirect.
DeleteI have had several experiences where I was compelled to refer a scholar for misbehavior (I will tell one of them-at elementary level). One time, when we worked in small groups with an aid, a scholar suddenly lost it; threw his desk and objects at others. I quickly moved scholars to our next subject while the aid went to get administration. It did take awhile for the scholar to calm down with administration and discuss what made him so upset. The scholar did come back to class saddened and shut down. In the days that followed we came up with ways he could express himself less destructively. We also found out (he had gone through child study team and met 1) that this scholar had a change of meds and had been diagnosed with emotional disability. One example was pace around your seat or in the back of the classroom. I don't think I could have changed that because he was being dangerous. As far as the administrator goes, I am unsure of what they could have changed.
ReplyDeleteI have found that it is not a question of if, but rather when and how bad. 20+ years in Law Enforcement, and I have dealt with many situations. I think the most important part is to keep calm, and not let others be influenced by the behavior. This shows restraint and patience while still dealing with the issue at hand. Being able to calmly deal with the type of situation you did, especially if it happens at the High School level, can be dangerous. Yet at the same time it becomes a positive message to others that you are able to deal with things and even to help others during their most dire times of need. I think we tend to look at situations only from our own point of view and loose sight of the fact that we are affecting others in on many levels in other ways just based on the interactions.Others in your class will remember how you dealt with the situation and have more confidence in their safety, as well may be more willing to discuss things as they know you will not be easily angered.
DeleteThat must have been a challenging situation to deal with in the classroom. It must be quite hard for the students as well when they are having changes in medication and thus the chemical balance of their brain, especially if they already had difficulty behaving as expected. Being able to address that with the student, admin, and class in general probably demonstrated to that individual that they are not being punished for having difficulties and that they have a system around them that still is working to help them.
DeleteSo far I have not had students misbehaving to this level, fortunately. However, I do constantly have to get students back on track, either by issuing a non-student specific reminder or by having to speak to the student directly. Generally, because I do my best to control my voice when I speak, they are only disappointed because they know they need to do work instead of mess around, but they are not angry. Come this next week I will be implementing a seating chart and set table formations, so hopefully this will help minimize their smaller misbehaviors as well.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking to them directly helps my students as well. They really hate being called out in front of others so I usually stop the behavior and then move on to the activity. When there is a right time, I will find the student and talk to them then.
DeleteSeating charts help keep certain kids from getting crazy together. Ha
I have sent a student to the office once. He wasn't really misbehaving in the traditional sense, but he was being an active and repeated disturbance to the rest of the classes learning. I tried a few different things before sending him to the front but the behavior kept happening. In sending him, I was hoping that he would have some time to reflect and calm down before coming back to class. Quigley sent him back with a fidget and it did help some. Now that I have more of a relationship with this student and have spent more time understanding him, I definitely handle these situations differently. We have had many discussions about there being a time and a place for certain behaviors and volumes and he has tried much harder in class. He needs more to time to move around the room as well. That seems to help.
ReplyDeleteAll teachers have students who are difficult to cope with because of their behavior, even working with parents support it is difficult to work with the students and the most difficult thing is that they do not let the teacher give the lecture and do not let the other students concentrate too, to send them at the office is not the solution creates more tension between the teacher and students.
ReplyDeleteWhat I believe is to talk with the students and see what the problem causes that behavior is and this way may help the students find their misbehavior.