I've posted here several times before and you guys have given me great advice. I'm a first year teacher in a high poverty school, teaching 8th grade. I have struggled a LOT with classroom management
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YES, all good advice. Love & Logic is my Bible for middle school. Be fair & consistent. Pretend you like them as convincingly as you can--everybody wants to be liked, especially middle schoolers. Chat with them one on one at any opportunity...ask what they did over the weekend or whatever, just take an interest! Don't think of it as trying to get them to like YOU--some of them are so hardened to teachers after years of being hollered at and seen as a problem. Think of it as you learning to like THEM. Before you know it, you may even start to genuinely enjoy them from time to time :)
It's so hard not to take it personally when they misbehave, especially when you run your classroom based on relationships like this, but I always, always try to remember how hard it was to be a middle schooler (and I was a relatively wealthy, academically competent middle schooler without any of the genuine problems my students have). They're having a worse day than I am, just because they had to come to middle school today.
Hang in there! I've been teaching 8 years and I still have days when I feel like I can't do it anymore. It feels awful in the moment, but then the very next day everything's lovely and I can't even remember why I felt that way. It's almost summer!
Several have mentioned to me I "can't be their friend" in their letters. No, I don't think I act friend like, but I always ask how their weekends went, tell them to have a good day at the end of the day as they leave, smile at them as they come in....I was a huge believer in positivity and respect before I came here. But, they take all that, including saying please and thank you, as evidence that I am soft and need to be "more aggressive". They are, quite simply, the students from hell. I have several great students and I feel guilty I can't do more for them.
I don't think I want to teach anymore, but I am not sure. I have had a very hard time. I have been desperately unhappy all year. Thank you for the advice! It is nice to know even people that have been teaching a while have their rough days.
It's so hard not to take it personally when they misbehave, especially when you run your classroom based on relationships like this, but I always, always try to remember how hard it was to be a middle schooler (and I was a relatively wealthy, academically competent middle schooler without any of the genuine problems my students have). They're having a worse day than I am, just because they had to come to middle school today.
Hang in there! I've been teaching 8 years and I still have days when I feel like I can't do it anymore. It feels awful in the moment, but then the very next day everything's lovely and I can't even remember why I felt that way. It's almost summer!
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I don't think I want to teach anymore, but I am not sure. I have had a very hard time. I have been desperately unhappy all year. Thank you for the advice! It is nice to know even people that have been teaching a while have their rough days.
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