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
Showing posts with label nice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nice. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Day 335: Play nicely, children!
Why can't people just be nice?? This is just going to be a quick rant about mean people on the Internet. Last night, I heard that my baby formula company, Abbott, was recalling some of its batches of Similac due to a possible contamination risk. Of course the website was clogged all day due to concerned parents like myself trying to find out which batches.
I tried to find news sites that were carrying the numbers of the recalled batches. On one site I was scrolling through comments to see if anyone had posted a link to a site carrying the information. One comment made my blood boil. She said essentially that having contaminated baby formula was what we deserved because we weren't breast feeding our babies.
How ridiculous!! I would imagine that most parents are a lot like me and my friends, doing the absolute best we can in our given situations, or in my case, in my given body. While technically it is possible to breast feed if you adopt, the process is generally difficult especially in a post-hysterectomy patient, and even in the best cases, still might not produce more than half of the milk required to sustain a child. Plus, my daughter is lactose intolerant and has to have all soy formula. She couldn't have been breastfed if I were her natural mother. Other women can't produce milk, babies can't latch on, working mothers don't have pro-lactation workplaces. There are a host of reasons why people use formula. We certainly don't deserve to be unintentionally feeding harmful things to our infants.
I understand people feel strongly about breastfeeding. I certainly think it is God's best answer for feeding our children, but also understand that you can love your child and make a different choice. I don't think my daughter should watch 98% of television. Do you love your child less than I do if you let him watch Teletubbies (mm maybe ; p )? I am teaching my daughter sign language so she can communicate with me years earlier than she will be able to speak. Are you a bad mommy because you don't know sign? or don't think it is wise? We don't all agree on what we like on our burgers, how in the world would we all agree on raising children?
Isn't differences and tolerance the basis of our current educational policies? Yet that woman ranted about formula using mothers as if we should all raise our children exactly the same. I bet if her son is dyslexic or ADHD, she will fight to the death to get him accommodations in the classroom. All people, lives, situations aren't the same. You can disagree, offer suggestions or just shut the heck up and be tolerant of people who are different.
Goes back to that famous book, "All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all and play nicely, children!
I tried to find news sites that were carrying the numbers of the recalled batches. On one site I was scrolling through comments to see if anyone had posted a link to a site carrying the information. One comment made my blood boil. She said essentially that having contaminated baby formula was what we deserved because we weren't breast feeding our babies.
How ridiculous!! I would imagine that most parents are a lot like me and my friends, doing the absolute best we can in our given situations, or in my case, in my given body. While technically it is possible to breast feed if you adopt, the process is generally difficult especially in a post-hysterectomy patient, and even in the best cases, still might not produce more than half of the milk required to sustain a child. Plus, my daughter is lactose intolerant and has to have all soy formula. She couldn't have been breastfed if I were her natural mother. Other women can't produce milk, babies can't latch on, working mothers don't have pro-lactation workplaces. There are a host of reasons why people use formula. We certainly don't deserve to be unintentionally feeding harmful things to our infants.
I understand people feel strongly about breastfeeding. I certainly think it is God's best answer for feeding our children, but also understand that you can love your child and make a different choice. I don't think my daughter should watch 98% of television. Do you love your child less than I do if you let him watch Teletubbies (mm maybe ; p )? I am teaching my daughter sign language so she can communicate with me years earlier than she will be able to speak. Are you a bad mommy because you don't know sign? or don't think it is wise? We don't all agree on what we like on our burgers, how in the world would we all agree on raising children?
Isn't differences and tolerance the basis of our current educational policies? Yet that woman ranted about formula using mothers as if we should all raise our children exactly the same. I bet if her son is dyslexic or ADHD, she will fight to the death to get him accommodations in the classroom. All people, lives, situations aren't the same. You can disagree, offer suggestions or just shut the heck up and be tolerant of people who are different.
Goes back to that famous book, "All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all and play nicely, children!
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