This week has been a really tough one at school. Monday and Tuesday I came home and just vegged out. Truly. I did very little once I got home. The days have been so taxing that I want to do nothing but relax. That’s okay, right?
I adore the students who are in my class. They truly seem like nice little boys and girls, and I am continually thinking of ways that I can reach out and touch their lives effectively and positively. But they are wearing me out! The simplest tasks take so much work to accomplish. If I am not stopping one student from doing something, it’s another. Constantly. All day. Every day.
There are two students in particular who try my patience every second of the school day. One is a little girl who is new to our school. She is a bright little girl with a very good personality. However, she’s very ADHD. Her mother came in and talked to me the second day of school and let me know that she has taken her daughter off of meds. Most of my day is spent calling her back to her seat, off the floor and into her seat, taking things out of her hands that are distracting her from work, drawing her attention back to the task, etc. It’s become a big problem in the classroom, and each student pretty much avoids her like a plague (when they aren’t making fun of her, that is). Very little work by her is produced in class.
I try my hardest to protect her from other students’ rolling eyes or harsh words. That kind of behavior is not acceptable in my class either. No one wants to sit next to her. No one wants to work with her. Few people want to even talk to her. And we’ve only been in school for twelve days.
She and I had a discussion last week about her behavior and what we can do to make sure that her days at school are better – scholastically and socially. I had worked out an award system that had been okayed by her mother. With each piece of work that she finishes for me, she is rewarded. The work must be done neatly. It worked for about a day or two. She still wants the reward, but she doesn’t complete the work. I’ve moved her several times so that she isn’t distracting others and so that she has her own space. That doesn’t work. Nothing seems to work, and I’m getting very frustrated.
One day at a time. We’ll get through it. I will figure out a way to get through to her.
The other student is a little boy with a lot of anger inside of his little body. He never smiles, and he is so incredibly defiant that I might as well put it out of my mind that he will ever consistently do classwork or homework. I try to talk to him to find out how we can work together more efficiently, asking him for his input. I get nothing. Not a word. Barely a blink. He won’t even look at me when we talk. He sits at his desk all day ripping, cutting, and cutting paper. He brings inappropriate things to school and then gets incredibly angry when I take them away. He holds onto the things so tightly when I ask for them (then take them away).
I’ve talked to his previous teachers, hoping to learn some technique or secret that will work with him. They all had major problems, too. What can I do with him? He, too, makes his classmates miserable. He has no friends. He plays alone every single day (when he’s actually earned recess). I’m going to try to work with his parents, but from what I’ve learned, they will be very little help.
These two are the worst cases in my classroom. The rest of the class, as a whole, tries my patience all day, too. It’s a continual struggle to keep their attention for longer than a nano-second. Talk-talk-talk. Rip-rip-rip (paper!). Kick-shove-eyeroll-shove-flick-poke-evil eye-shuffle in the desk-drop a book. Oh yeah, it’s a joy!
How can one class be this disruptive? Even the “good” students are losing behavior tokens. Token=recess. They don’t seem to care if they lose a recess. (Okay, some students care!) I’ve begged other teachers for their advice and tricks-of-the-trade. I have actually added so many things to my classroom management that I feel like I am running a circus.
Give me a hand and you get a free ticket!
Step this way and you’ll receive a point for your team!
Let’s see how many minutes you can add to your P.A.T.!
One hand, two hands, three hands! More!
After talking it over with a colleague, I am going to try another approach to a reward system – positive reinforcement. I’ve admired the technique for a couple of years now. Patsy does it in her class, and I had actually thought about incorporating it into my classroom previous to this year. She’s going to help me get started. It’s nothing intricate. I will now have Super Students – students who bring in their homework, do their classwork, lose zero behavior tokens, etc. They have special privileges. Hopefully it will be a way to positively reward good behavior in class. Hopefully it will encourage students a little bit more.
I’m willing to try anything.
I don’t want to feel like a nag anymore. I don’t like it.
Welcome to my world.
(P.S. It was a rough day. I will survive. Things aren’t always bad. I do have a few moments here and there where I have a good, strong hold of their attention. They are engaged at times by the activity at hand. See? It’s not all bad. )
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