Last week, I assigned my students a project. They had to create a Facebook page for William Shakespeare. As a preview activity, I was asking them to imagine creating a Facebook page for me, what groups I'd be interested in, my relationships, posts, etc. One girl piped up and said, "Your status would be Shut UP!"
Everyone laughed. It is probably true. I used to use it judiciously to get the students' attention, but recently students have gotten louder and my concentration has gotten worse. I think it has become my go to maneuver instead of being a hail mary. So I decided not to use it in class any more. That was Wednesday of last week and I haven't said it since.
It has made me dig deeper into my patience pocket and teacher bag for ideas for classroom management ideas. It was a very simple decision, but I feel like it changed the tone in my classroom. Perhaps, being more polite has given me more patience. By refusing to lose control, I have actually managed to care more about my students and get less ruffled by rowdy teens.
I started giving them strikes. If they get to three, they head down to ISS for a day. I didn't have anyone get past two. I had one almost on 2 1/2, but he decided it wasn't worth the battle. I got to do this crazy thing - TEACH. Mm, feels great. I had all my students listening (well 98%) and learning. They were reading Shakespeare and getting it. How much is because I didn't say "shut up," I don't really know. I would suspect a lot of it is because I took back calm assertive control of my classroom. It doesn't JUST work for dogs. Trust me the differences between dogs and teens are fewer than you'd think.
When my Lil Bit gets mad and screams bloody murder for no apparent reason, the only thing that calms her is being silly and BIG silly. Getting upset back doesn't work, she doesn't understand anything but her own frustration and anger at that point. Tonight it was using a cold washcloth to wipe her face after dinner. It was warm at first, but cooled off and she had oatmeal all over her face. As soon as the cold cloth touched her, she went ballistic. I had to stop, take a second to look from her eyes and redirect. Same lesson - get myself and my emotions in check, then I can focus on someone else's. When I get and or stay under control, the people around me can too.
Funny how somethings in life are instant Karma. Being nice doesn't always get paid back right away or from the same person, but it pays off instantly in how we feel about ourselves, which in turn affects our next actions and so on. So Shut up is going to remain VERBOTEN in my classroom for awhile. If nothing else, for the person it pushes me to become. So Karma can keep talking as long as I remember to shut up = p
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