Secret # 6 Sarah Busch

I really liked how the author brought up the point that we are the teachers and it is our job to show students how to behave. We take for granted the manner and social skills we learned, because some students are never taught these skills, such as apologizing when they have done something wrong, or saying “excuse me” when they bump into someone. This was a good point that put a lot of my student’s behaviors into perspective. I work with a lot of students that lack these social skills and at times I can get very frustrated. I need to remember that these students have not necessarily been taught or seen these things modeled in their lives. Also, a lot of the students come to school with the burden of their environmental factors and home situations, which impacts their attitude. This is something I need to keep in mind. I have on particular student that fits into this category; he can be very challenging at times with the behaviors he exhibits. However, I remind myself to take a step back. I try to think about all the possible reason this student could be having a bad day due to his home life or environmental factors. This gives me the patience I need when working with this student and the reminder to try different approached with classroom management.

I found the statement “The more out of control a student is, the more in control we as teachers have to be in dealing with that student” very interesting. I have dealt with a few students that exhibit out of control behaviors in the classroom. However, I have noticed that when I felt confident in my management techniques and was calm the student responded much more effectively. These were the times when one of the teachers in my room was there in case I needed them. However, when having to deal with said student and out of control behaviors when no one else was in the room that was good in working with him, I became very nervous. I am sure you could hear it in my voice, and see it in my mannerisms. These were the times when my management techniques were not effective. Therefore, this statement is very applicable to my student teaching experience.

I full heartedly agree with the statement that walking away from negative conversations will deflect the behavior. In my student teaching placement I have observed several situations where other teachers tried venting to my cooperating teacher. However, my cooperating teacher is a laid back and calm person. In one instance the other teacher was complaining about another teacher and stating that she was not going to offer her help in dealing with a student anymore if this other teacher was going to talk about her. My cooperating teacher, showing no emotion stated, “Who is that benefitting? Surely not the student.” The other teacher had nothing to say in response. Clearly not feeding into the negativity does work in deflecting it.