Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Misbehavior
Misbehavior, depending on the student, can mean many different things. If students are not engaged, or generally not interested in the subject matter, or do not feel safe in the environment provided, misbehavior is more likely to occur. I quite enjoyed how B & S discuss misbehavior in our class text. Determining whether a child is seeking attention, revenge, or power, was a brilliant concept to me. As well, I like how our emotions as teachers/student teachers is taken into consideration when dealing with misbehavior. It is very beneficial to know what is going on with how we are feeling or thinking when students are not behaving appropriately, or what we have deemed appropriate for that specific class or student. A concept I had not thought of before. Being aware of the different goals of misbehavior as well as being in-tune with our own thoughts and feelings helps us determine what the child wants or needs and thus why they are misbehaving and how we are going to deal with it. The other section of the book where I experienced an 'Aha' moment was where we either believe that "all kids should behave" versus "all kids at some time will misbehave." During my first practicum in 401 of PDP I was in a grade 5/6 split class where misbehavior seemed to be a very common occurrence. When I started my observation I was in utter disbelief at how misbehaved this class was. I could not figure out why students were still reading, talking, writing, drawing, or fiddling with things, while the teacher was giving a lesson or instructions for something. I went into this class with the attitude that everyone would be behaved and actually listen to their teacher. Was I ever wrong! I truly don't believe that I would have let this disbelief consume me so badly had the teacher actually waited until all her students were listening. However, this never seemed to be the case. When it was my turn to teach, I found myself completely frustrated with the class and there lack of (at least this is what I deemed it to be at the time) disrespect. Having said all this, I did eventually get all the students to listen to what I had to say by waiting.....and waiting.....and waiting, until I had all eyes on me. My point is, I feel my practicum would have gone completely different had I gone in with the attitude of "all kids at some time will misbehave." This would have allowed me to be a little extra prepared for when misbehavior is inevitable rather than stunned because I couldn't believe it was happening. I believe teachers and students should sit down at the beginning of the year and make all the class rules and regulations together. Students should be responsible for coming up with the consequences shall these rules not be followed rather than the teacher and be given responsibility in doing so. In my opinion, some of the most successful classrooms are prepared, organized, engaged, and have a keen classroom set-up which limits the opportunities for misbehavior! Knowing how to deal with behavior problems takes courage, confidence, and consistency, as well as experience. Every student should be respected regardless of how they act, for I truly believe we, as teachers, need to demonstrate respect to all in order to receive it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hello Ashley,
Thanks for sharing your experiences in you first practicum. You descibed well I think how your beliefs of respectfulness differed quite significantly from your SA!I think for those of us who have not yet entered that areana it gives us pause to explore what we might do if our classroom management syle varies significantly from our SA. I commend you for waiting the students out. Somtimes it is the silence or total lack of response that garners attention most.
I feel that students live up to our expectations, not to be overly simplistic but I feel that all behaviour is in truth communication. I think as adults we have a tendency to categorize children's behaviour with adult intentions. This is unwise and inherently dangerous because children are not mini adult and we need to understand most "misbehavior" is reactive and not systematically organized to disrupt the class or cause us grief. I personally would attribute a great deal of misbehavior to poor classroom management. Ashley, I like your suggestion of a classroom meeting to lay out classroom expectations of conduct.If we create a community of learners, students will not just be impacting the teacher with their behaviour but they will be letting down their classmates (power of positive peer pressure)! In another class we have been discussing the real 3R's - Reinforce, remind, and redirect. These seem relevant to our discussion. Misbehaviour I think can be mitigated by positive reinforcement, calm reminders of behaviour requirements, respectful redirection when necesssary to get student who is off task back working with the group.
I believe that "misbehaviour" is an opportunity to connect on an individual manner with the student. Somewher there is a disconnect between our agenda and theirs. I think it is our job as an adult and mentor to begin a dialogue into the reasons why they are not able to follow classroom rules.
I am reminded of a favourite book of mine that I seem to fall back to when I feel overwhelmed and am in need of encouragement. The book is "The Four Agreement by don Miguel Ruiz where he speaks of the four essential agreements you must make with yourself: Do not take other's actions personally, Do not make assumptions of their intentions, be impecable with your words and use them ponly in a positive manner, and finally always do your best. I guess in the end any misbehaviour we encouter is indeed a window into our own motivations and an invitation for further self reflection and heartfelt inquiry. Every behaviour has a reason, the question we must ask ourselves I think is are we ready to make the investment needed to determine the cause that underlies the visible symptom displayed?
Post a Comment