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Take It In For An Attitude Change
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33 thoughts on “Take It In For An Attitude Change”
“…but if they sense that they can get away with not behaving, they will do it. That is why we have grammar.”
I did a whole week with my 8th graders. They are all bright but it seems now more apparent that the Spanish teacher kicked these guys out last year from their classes and had them take French. That said, I gave them a week of grammar AND output activities. I had them prove it with a speaking assessment — 1 min to tell me a story with optional pictures that they drew. I tell them that the final will include 1 min in front of everyone.
However, I think that what you do is much more effective — because it is immediate so there is a conditioning of the kids to behave. The behavior portion is so key in the work we do and we all have a way to do it.
My other classes have been doing good with the 10 minute rule however I still catch a few kids with their heads down — too much homework is being assigned to them in their other classes and there’s district testing.
I hate to use ANY language activity as a threat, but I understand why this worked. I’ve done it in the past, but the “reset” timer only lasted a week or so.
My lowest rock bottom was that last terrible teaching gig (for those of you who don’t know, I was hired as the 3rd Spanish teacher by December to teach a language I didn’t know. That ended badly, but not because I lacked Spanish proficiency. Find a link to 32 videos, here: https://benslavic.com/blog/report-from-the-field-with-questions-lance-piantaggini/)
Ben, what would you have done if your class refused to do even THAT translating activity? If they did, there would be no leverage to get them back to stories. That’s what I was dealing with, and imagine what others have run into at some point, too. It is a very helpless feeling when a damaged enough student doesn’t respond to anything we do (e.g. translation, chat after class, time out in hall, sent to office, call home(s), etc.).
Have you ever been there? What did you do?
In nine years, I’ve only had a handful of kids for whom I couldn’t find that one motivator (like Judy mentioned)-all of them in high school.
I don’t have the “kick them out” option (ELLs get an hour of services daily by law) and I get them year after year. But i’s so hard because they are “damaged” like you said, but we have a responsibility to not sweep them under the carpet.
Talk to a counselor immediately about “damaged” children. If they don’t make time for you, ask your administrator for a Student Support team referral form. Specify that they do not need RTI (for academics), but rather you need them to be evaluated for a possible 504 behavioral plan. If you still have trouble, skip the counselor and talk directly to the school psychologist and ask about the procedure. Keep pushing to you get the kid some help. Some administrators are lax about dealing with/accepting S-team referrals (which is illegal, but a reality). Definitely document everything.
Also, talk to last semester or last year’s teacher. If this is a recent change in effort or behavior, something more traumatic may have happened (family problems, abuse, bullying), in which case you definitely want to talk to the counselor.
Oh, this wouldn’t apply to an entire class of kids.
In that case, see if you can’t break them up. Send them to ISS or the alternative classroom or whatever and if the problem persists, change classes for those two or three leaders or instigators. Otherwise, there might be “no leverage to get them back to stories” and you might be “the grammar rack” for the semester.
One time, I was hired into a situation in January, replacing a sub that didn’t know Spanish, but was a real sweetie. The students quickly realized that ‘I’ was the reason that they lost their beloved sub. They all rallied against me.
I was able to convince the students to fill out a survey (like the ones on this blog) and I just sat as close as possible to the the students, next to a chart of topical vocabulary, (so that I would never have to turn around and take my eyes off of them) and discussed the kids’ likes and dislikes.
It felt like CI and turned out to look similar to ‘Student of the Week’ or ‘Circling with Balls’. I had to face them directly and stare at them, otherwise they would side talk or do other things.
At that time, I was able to base their entire grade on these interactions. Otherwise, this little hat trick for killing time with fake CI would never have worked… I call it ‘fake’ because they were not really interacting with me. I just talked.
They told their next year’s teachers that they learned absolutely nothing. And it was true. Because they disliked the loss of their sub, they did learn absolutely nothing. But, I got to speak comprehensible Spanish every day. We do the best we can; we move on… and on… and on….
Now I teach French, but nothing is perfect…. I still run into trouble with CI/stories/classroom norms/ troubled kids/oddball admin. Judy is right and Jason is right…
This is why I am Leigh Anne’s biggest fan in the world:
They told their next year’s teachers that they learned absolutely nothing. And it was true. Because they disliked the loss of their sub, they did learn absolutely nothing. But, I got to speak comprehensible Spanish every day. We do the best we can; we move on… and on… and on….
Dude. Teflon. We all need Teflon.
There is something deeply beautiful about this post, and the sentiment behind it. As the semester wears on and I am feeling more irritated and worried by student behaviors, this post reminds me to take a step back. Any student who decides that they are learning nothing will probably be right. And we do the best we can, and move on and on and on. Thank you for this, Leigh Ann.
Lance, I don’t think there is an answer to your question. Each student is different. What works miracles with one won’t work at all with another. On the one hand, you have to get to know the student, to understand where he’s at and what he’s going through to know how you can reach him. On the other, we are only human and can have thirty or so of these kids in a class and four or five classes, so we’re just not going to be able to get through to all of them. Somehow we have to choose how far to go, how hard to try. Do your best, don’t hold grudges and don’t beat yourself up.
Someday, a student that you thought you had failed may come back and let you know that even if you didn’t do as much as you would have liked, they did notice that you were trying. That it made a little bit of difference, that it planted a seed. I try to respect all my students for the possibilities they have inside, even if I’m not the person that’s able to unlock the gate.
“Do your best, don’t hold grudges and don’t beat yourself up.”
That is such a lovely mantra. In my eyes, it’s the emotional core of our side of things. We do our best – sometimes hitting a home run in class – don’t hold grudges against kids – because there is so much going on that we don’t see – and we can’t allow us to beat ourselves up. How will we convince kids that we care about our langusge if they sense that we don’t care about ourselves?
I’m writing down Judy’s statement above and keeping it in my wallet.
🙂
It’s like giving birth.
We all forget the pain of after-Spring-Break teaching.
Please know that even the lil first graders are regressing in their behaviors – teachers report less patience, kindness, attention, time on task, there are more ‘issues’ on the playground…more tears, also more state testing (coincidentally – NOT).
Let’s be gentle w/ourselves as we wind down. 9 more weeks! While it feels like we’ve built up so much since the beginning of the year, the kids’ attitudes do rule the day, and the wave may be unstoppable. Let’s hold our values but change up our agendas and expectations…
Amid all the frustration and distress of this portion of the year, sometimes encouragement blossoms.
A few weeks ago in a thread, I mentioned a student who has been very quiet in my class but then offered me a doughnut hole, which I accepted. Here’s some more of the story.
Since then, this student has become much more involved in the class and has started speaking German regularly, even outside of class. (He also still brings me a doughnut or doughnut hole from time to time.) He will come by during sixth period (my conference period) just to say hi. He offers very good answers and ideas to the class conversation. Here are two incidents from the past week:
I have chosen this year not to give tardies for a minute or two late, contra my school’s discipline code. Students must, however, greet me and shake my hand when they arrive and then explain in German why they were late. (I just recently added the explanation part as a response to feeling that students were taking advantage of my grace.) Before I started doing this, I had a frank conversation with my students in first period about my grace on being late and indicated that I felt some of them were taking advantage of it rather than being conscientious about getting to school. A few days after that, this particular student was late, but he called one of his friends to have him tell me before class that “Ethen” was running late and why. This is the first time I have ever had a student call ahead because he was running late. Wow.
Today, the air conditioning in my building was out (and won’t be fixed until we come back from break, which is next week). Most of my students were simply complaining about the situation, but “Ethen” made a comment in German about “der Techniker” (the technician), referring to an article that I had shown the class several weeks ago. It was about a door at a German university that was broken and all of the memes that popped up around it. (Here is a link to the story – http://www.buzzfeed.com/sebastianfiebrig/techniker-ist-informiert#.qnyoY10xx ) He suggested that we make memes about the air conditioning, and I thought that was a great idea, so I showed the class the pictures of the door and its memes again. Then I handed out paper, told students they could use their phones to access information on the internet, and asked them to create a meme in German about the air conditioning and the “Techniker”. I checked them for appropriateness and corrected some of the worst errors, then we walked down the hall to the door into the air conditioning room and posted them on the door and wall. This was such a hit that I decided to do it with all my classes. I had an easy day, and my students had a lot of fun turning something uncomfortable into something productive. During sixth period when he stopped by, I thanked my student for his great idea.
Sometimes little things make a big difference.
I looked up that link when you posted it before, Robert — hilarious!
News about that student is very fun to read, too.
This reminds me of high school more than 35 years ago! In one of my Spanish teacher’s classes, if a student entered the class late she had to recite, ‘ Más vale tarde que nunca ,’ which means “Better late than never. ” Look how it has stuck with me!
Hmmm, maybe I should teach them “Besser spät als nie, aber am besten nie spät” (Better late than never, but best never late.)
I love the “más vale tarde que nunca”! I have a sign by the door that says, “Siento llegar tarde” and that’s what they say when they’re late. And they are alway late because there is no official passing time between classes!
I’m so privileged. So far no student has been late to any of my classes. The latest has been, a student comes into class about to sit down and the bell rings.
Go for it!
“What is the kindest thing I can do for myself right now?” I have been coming back and back to this lately. Everything you all say is exactly what is going on for me! All of it, and I especially relate to Lance’s situation and thank him from the bottom of my heart for sharing those videos. So many of my days are mirrored there.
This week has been ridiculously challenging. Tuesday I hit rock bottom. Ha! Every time I feel that, there is always some other situation that presents itself where I go…Huh? I guess that other time was NOT rock bottom. Desperate and feeling trapped because I cannot remove students from my space, I was about to make “packets” for them to do in the back of the room. But that idea brought me so much heaviness due to the clutter of it. I looked around my room on Friday and it just felt like a tornado had been through there. Piles of paper everywhere. I have a huge white board but half of it covered with posters and stuff that do not enhance a feeling of clarity and ease. So I took them down. Took my rules poster off, created a new super streamlined rule poster inspired by Annemarie’s simple one that she so kindly shared with me on Monday when I took a sick day bc I was flattened.
Tuesday was the “rock bottom” day with pretty much every class a shit show. Especially block 3. During and after that class I just wanted to run away. I am an avoider. So I decided to try non-avoidance for once. Talked to a student who is ridiculously disruptive yet “needs an 80.” So exasperating. I went over the (older version) rubric yet again. She accused me of grading according to my mood. Just as I was about to get into it she said something that made me pause, which was something about how my energy projects out and she feels shut down. I was like “whoa!” In that moment I did not have a “solution” but I thanked her for saying this. Of course! When I get all grippy and defensive as block 3 approaches (nervous stomach, etc) this is projecting out.
Yesterday during my prep, I completely changed the physical space. Still needs work, but it was radical enough to feel totally new. I met the block 3 kids at the door, excitedly. For real, not just pretending. I asked them to form groups of 3 or 4 bc I had set up tables, grab a white board and marker. Had a “lesson plan” written clearly on the board (color coded for each group)! It was just a bunch of acronyms but the fact that it was written up in a neat boxed off area of the board made it familiar to them. Annemarie said to find things that are part of the school culture and integrate those. So I did.
Anyway, introduced the new 3-point rubric and self evaluation (a la Annemarie), and then we did a Diane-inspired “Listen and draw” where I read a bit from the “Pirates” novel. they drew pretty happily and responded to the questions, signaled, etc. The student who storms out of class daily stayed the whole time! Today I will talk to her again and thank her for being honest and helping me to see where I needed to let go. I think I may talk to the whole class about this, because I think it is a good model of being super uncomfortable and wanting to entrench into the behavior that is causing the friction…and then doing something different. ??? They evaluated themselves at the end: “I give myself a ___because_____________” There were three of these statements, one for each of the skills (listen, respond, clarify). Another student who I’m super concerned about said she felt much better because she understood everything. Reminder for me…I go to fast and when I get freaked out I go faster! OY!
I was just talking to my class about this. It’s a feedback loop. If they’re rowdy (not working their hardest to listen) I feel it deeply and feel nervous so I start talking faster. Then I lose them so they get less focused. Then I’m more nervous talking faster. It’s a vortex. I have to be super vigilant with my one class that still struggles with focus. I know next year when I start the year with the intention of zipping through stories the management in class is going to be easier because of less boredom and more trust. Like they’ll know we will get started, go there, and come back in one class. This idea of twenty Five minute stories is big to me.
Tina, I’m actually a slow-poke when it comes to talking. However, when emotions run high then I go faster. Lately I have been having trouble with my 8th graders (second year French, 1st year TPRS/CI/Survival). I go faster but it’s my mistake. I should allow any of them to disrupt nor should I go faster. One of my new goals is to feel comfortable delivering the CI from within myself and around me.
So today I made phone calls. My school is an honors school so parents are super receptive. I know its late in the year but I need to call in my support.
I haven’t even showed them the jGR. I’ve just marking those kids down to zeros until they show appropriate behavior then they can start to earn points. I’m old-school like that but I’m totally flexible with new strategies that are effective and get to the core.
My school/district is getting deep with restorative practices. We have a lot of old-timers here so the resources (extra counselors, district heads) are not being used at my site. So, I met with a restorative counselor about a particular student. His behavior is changing due to meeting personally with the counselor. What it involves is the relationships that we have and the effect his behavior has on the teacher-student relationship.
APRIL CHALLENGE — Sucess 2/3 classes met the 25 minute challenge for the story. I omitted “with whom”
“I know its late in the year”
Don’t let that stop you, Steve. If you have supportive parents, they do not care what time of year it is for feedback on their children. They have the kids all 365 days and every day is a good day for an attitude change. The attitude of supportive is”why did not tell me sooner?” We still have two months more or less and it could be a long two months. I believe that you did right in making the phone call and do not need to feel bad about it or justify it. Nice job.
Totally Nathaniel. The parents all gave me a “thanks for calling.” They trust their teachers and they want their children to be successful academically. That is why they filled an application for their “Darlings” to come to the school where I teach.
Ohhhh Steven I did this too, just today “I know it’s late in the year but…” Glad to hear I am not alone! And thank you Nathaniel for the support on that!
Jen, What was AnneMarie’s 3-pt rubric?
What’s your email, Nate? I’ll send it to you. My friend Becca Nichols created it.
WOW, Jen. Way to reflect on Tuesday and change it around for Wednesday! That is remarkable and must have taken so much work. And it’s great that you listened to that one student. I do learn a ton from my students and sometimes they can give valuable feedback especially when they know you are really listening to them.
Thank you, Annemarie. It’s nhardt@charter.net
Hey, Jen.
Did get a chance to thank your student? How did it go?
Yes! I am trying to shift the energy of that relationship. She was happy that I acknowledged her. I checked in and asked about yesterday and today. She said “It was easy! The drawing was fun! I need something in my hands to help me focus, I can’t just sit there and listen.” I gave an “exam” today, just basic translation of 15 sentences about the book. Everyone got a 100. That was my goal. I also wrote a note to Mom explaining what happened.
I love hearing that drawing helped.
Funny, some students were drawing on the tables… euh, I have them get a paper out instead and draw what comes to their minds from the story (from time to time)
I swear we are all tapped into some kind of ethereal group-think here. I suppose the sharing plays a big part in that. And Ben’s excellent nudging. Happy to read about your breakthrough with that student/class Jen. And Steven for not waiting til next year to make changes. Grant wrote a great piece to this end recently. You guys inspire me to be a better teacher, tomorrow (I mean, today, but it’s after school, so, you know what I mean…)
The thing is Jim, I had placed explicit expectations for the class including having a different student read them everyday. Of course, these expectations get tested… this is where the real challenge is: calling them on it. So, I was suppose to have already called because there were multiple offenses.