I just wanted to share a teaching moment I had yesterday. I have a student that is still struggling with the fact that he has to do work at school. He insists that we are in first grade just to play. I have been using logical consequences, choices and positive reinforcement. Things have greatly improved and he has made huge academic and social improvements. He was sick a few days and came back telling me again that he didn't want to do work and started to cry. I used choices and he replied no. I used a logical consequence and his sobs got louder. Finally, I sat down and said "I have something important to tell you." He quieted down. "Did you know that you will be doing homework until you are 18 years old and some people do homework until they are 25." His eyes got big and he was at a loss for words. I said, "We can make this work fun together by working hard together and working with partners or we can do it your way, which would work for you?"
He smiled and went right to work ;o) Sometimes a little truth about life can really help ;o)
And some people become teachers and do homework until retirement. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that worked for you. Sometimes, I think the shock value of certain statements wakes kids up and helps them to get out of the negative mindset they are stuck in. I have a student who keeps whining about how tired he is. If I legitimately thought he was tired to the point that he couldn't focus, that would be one thing, but he is using it as a daily excuse to avoid participation in group activities. Yesterday when he started to lay down and complain, I just nicely said he could go to the nurse and take a nap if he was that tired. He got these huge eyes and quickly said "No!" because he knew he'd miss computer lab and media. He worked hard the rest of the day.
I am glad you had success with that as well ;o)
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see that you're both not afraid to tell the kids like it is. Some times we have students that don't have boundaries set at home that come to school and think "I can do whatever I want at home, so that means I can do whatever I want at school". We need more people in this world to hold students accountable to high expectations. Set the bar high and they will achieve! Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to always bring in some type of connection to "life" or the "big picture". Yesterday, I made a connection with students about how "practice makes perfect". One student asked, "so if I practice my video games a lot, will I get better at them?" I said, "You will most likely get better at video games, ... but will that practice help you in your future?" Then we made a connection between education and life and why we do what we do at school. It got pretty deep, but the kids were really engaged and interested.
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