Remember that we are trying to curtail other normal discussions that take place here about pedagogy and such while we take a kind of time out in an attempt to create this important dream of a document. Many have agreed here that this document or something like it is much more important than anything else right now, since it addresses classroom discipline.
I have culled seven points from the various comments made here by group members over the last few days. Other ideas are encouraged and welcomed in this rough draft stage of what we hope will be a postable document that will effectively address verbal bullying/rude comments/teacher bullying, which is the purpose of EERP and so is a different document from the 2010 rules poster and the purpose of which is to address only what is highlighted in bold above.
Please put any other ideas that you may have in the comment fields below this post in the next few days and we might get to a first draft of our document. In my own view (which may not be possible) I see the final document as a postable document that instantly and directly addresses the behavior of any student who breaches verbal etiquette.
Therefore, please actively make suggestions below so that EERP can work for us next year as a meta-emotional group effort by every class to create civility in our classrooms in a conscious way for the benefit of all, including the offending student.
Here is what I have pulled from the comments made so far. I hope it gets a lot of discussion, since, by itself right now, it is not very strong and has a long way to meet the goals expressed above:
1. Student silent protest move/sign/gesture.
2. No backbiting rule with instant lecture.
3. Teacher acknowledges the gorilla upon its arrival, making space for it so that all present can know what is going on without shoving anything under the rug. (This suggestion is necessary to allow a group, not just a teacher, response to the verbal abuse.)
4. If we enforce the no English rule, they can’t use words as weapons.
5. Students are expected to SHOW respect for those in the room even if they don’t have respect. (This responds to teen demands that they be shown respect by the teacher before they will show respect to the teachers. It basically says that they will show the adult in the room respect ANYWAY, in much the same way that, in the military, a soldier can THINK whatever they want but cannot SAY SO in ranks.)
6. Drew said: “I often hand a kid the hall pass and say come back when you are ready to work with the team.”
7. David said: “My response is always just to calmly ask the student to leave the room. I try to make sure the entire class sees that no student can ever manipulate my mood or emotions. I do a couple fake yawns while everything is tense. Sometimes I will tell a funny story in English. I usually leave the offender in the hallway for at least 5-10 mins. (I know there are schools where this is not possible, but for me in this school its fine.) Then I’ll get the class on some writing thing. In the hallway, I’ll ask the student why they were sent into the hallway. Depending on their attitude at that point, I give some sort of consequence. I wish I could tell you all I call home 100% of the time. I’m embarrassed to admit I only call home about half the time. It really works. When I’m on the phone with the parent, I always say the following: “Problems disappear when parents talk to their children about behavior.” Even parents that openly don’t like me, will usually say something about how they will say something to Jr. about his behavior. The other day a freshman girl who doesn’t like anything about Spanish asked me “Why do you call our parents? We’re not babies!” I told her calmly that it works and I could feel that answer permeate the room. Also, I recommend the Ruby Payne books about poverty. They have been helpful to me to understand “the rules” of children of generational poverty. Keep up the discussion, I need to get better at this. Right now I have a freshman Spanish 1 class that I’m losing to English and bad attitudes.” (There is a lot in here for us to consider as we create our document).
I wish to be clear here. There is no room in this current discussion for discussing how we can make idle threats and general comments about student behavior. We have that in scores of failed in-services and writing all over the internet made over years that are simply of too general a nature. We need a bull dog of a response to every inappropriate comment that may be made to any member of this group at any time over the next year.
This document that we are trying to create, if we get it done, will describe a plan, outlining specific actions that we will take without fail every time (those of us who choose to do so) we need to deal with verbal abuse from students in our classrooms. We want to get the document written and in place now so that we can practice using it for next year.
Again, it will be like the 2010 rules – those seven rules which represent ten years of refinement work on my part but which merely address how to get our kids better at working together using comprehensible input in our classrooms. Rather, this document will have one purpose – to vigorously address inappropriately mouthed comments from misguided children.
Some administrators like to say that they want us to “just teach” and that they will do the rest for us. They are so wrong when they speak that way. They do not realize that “just teaching” is a small part of our jobs, and that, in many ways, the way most of them run their schools requires that we spent up to 50% or more of our time simply dealing with discipline, absences and the like. I am calling bullshit on those administrators here.
So we need a a plan. Nobody is going to create one for us and help us enforce it in our school buildings. So this is our first draft effort. Let’s see where it goes. Our lives are too short to have to continue to wake up at night thinking about individual children who should not have the power to ruin our peace of mind, a right that in some odd way our schools/society have bestowed on them, perhaps by TV, or by some other dark force.
The fact that those kids are not being stopped is a civil outrage – their mouths I mean. Everything I have ever read on this topic is just too vague and ineffective and is usually connected with some kind of sage expert like Jim Fay and other white males like that. It isn’t working. Maybe a group of real teachers is the only source for this remedy. Let’s try it. I hope the seven points that I have isolated out so far serve as a good jumping off point.