I had my first real run in with a young student today. The student is one of my form members of mine and I had already warned him following a number of other reports that back chat and 'clever' comments were not being appreciated by other teachers.
He did arrive in the room a little too lively and was warned that he should calm down or be moved. He didn't, I thought I also saw gum being chewed and so moved him. I received an immediate 'I'm innocent, why?' response, then a 'not fair' and bag and equipment crashing around at his new desk. He also refused to stop bemoaning the injustice, so I felt I had to send him out of the room and ask him to report to the Deputy Head. He did, returned, apologised and we moved on well.
So I'm not to worried about the head-to-head element, which defused the problem and got the lesson back on track for the other students. But could I have prevented it? On reflection, yes. I wasn't well organised for this lesson - too few copies of a handout, text books unavailable to issue, etc. - so I didn't take immediate charge. If I had, the silliness could probably have been stopped before it escalated. I am going to think about easy engagement exercises I can do with groups when they arrive a little over-exuberantly, that might calm them down.
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I have tried this. I now do a really simple 'pop quiz' to revise key words and concepts from previous lessons. It hardly takes any preparation as I just pick headline items from the syllabus that we've covered.
ReplyDeleteMy relationship with this student is improving. I'm consciously avoiding conflict, but, in turn, they have backed down somewhat as well. 'Face' is a big issue with Asian students, but they are also aware that teachers face the same issues - we can't back down in front of the class. Maybe this is just an uneasy truce - time will tell.
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