I wrote to Stephen this morning about the discipline thing, just as a little pep talk for the day and as a follow up to that comment about from yesterday:
Stephen the entire thing is, when a kid is being an ass, to just stop teaching, go into English, and patiently tell them that you are asking them to develop skills that they don’t obviously yet have, skills they will need in the workplace. Skills that are more important than all the A’s in the world. Do not teach Spanish if they aren’t all on the rules and on the same page with you. Just stop. Stand there. Wait. Make phone calls and explain your rules and how the kid doesn’t get them, and how you need the parent’s support on this. Don’t teach Spanish if there is even one kid being rude. Stop and wait. Soon you will see that the bad eggs are fewer and fewer, and the other kids will turn on them. Don’t teach. There are others on the blog interested and, as Jody said, we have your back. Make those little kids who are rude do what you say when you say it as per the rules. You need to MAKE EACH RULE STICK EACH TIME YOU USE IT WITH A KID WHO, THROUGH THEIR NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR, IS ASKING YOU FOR A LESSON IN CORRECT BEHAVIOR. Don’t be nice when you do that. Show another side. I do that and it works. Discipline precedes instruction, and, without discipline, you shouldn’t even try to teach. Stand your ground. Enforce each rule by lasering it each time it is needed.
Stephen responded later today:
Well, Ben, I did just what you suggested. And it was effective. I think the “SLOW” thing was also a big part of the difference. I actually had one parent come to school and pull their child out of class in the next period and bring her over to apologize to me. That was quite a surprise! I also did see other students turning on the rude kids. They were frustrated that they didn’t get to add their part to the discussion due to the pauses. Well, I will continue in the same tomorrow.