It seems lately my school has been having major issues with kids and their ability to pay attention and listen. Another major problem is students are constantly struggling with keeping their hands to themselves. My teaching partner and I feel like we're always babysitting. This seems to be a common trend with other teachers within the regular classroom setting.
Today we had a lock down drill and my class had to practice the drill three times because they could not sit in our designated lock down area (the PE equipment room closet) quietly. We ended up missing the majority of our PE class. By the time we finished practicing our lock down drill we had time to go outside and run two warm-up laps and then we came back inside the school because PE was over with.
I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions in situations such as this? I explained the importance of taking an emergency situation seriously and why it is so important. I sent a fix-it plan home with one of my students who appeared to be an instigator of the chatty disrespectful behavior. Hopefully today was a lesson in listening for all.
I feel your pain! My afternoon class is a lot like this. I've tried a lot of different things this year, and I've found that something can work one day, but not the next. That's the most frustrating part.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest thing I have found to be successful is consistency and noticing who the instigators really are. At first, it seemed like the whole class was out of control. I narrowed it down, though, to five students who were consistently starting the problems. Instead of having the whole class practice, I would have the majority of the class go outside to play or have center time while the kids causing the problems practiced how we sit on the rug--or whatever the problem time was. At first, they didn't seem phased by this at all and actually goofed off during the consequence. After being consistent with it, though, they started to get upset that all of their friends were playing, and they were sitting on the carpet. This certainly hasn't stopped all of the behavior problems, but it helped to show them that the boundaries aren't going away no matter how long they push.
Is there something fun you can plan and let the kids know that students who follow the classroom rules will have the chance to enjoy it? Then just mention that it would be a great time to practice making good choices for kids who need that extra time.
Hope you find something that works for your kids!
WOW! I think you should go have a chat with their classroom teacher!!! wink, wink!
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