Today was one of those days that started off on the wrong foot and I could not seem to catch a break as the day went on. My SA always reminds me that I come on the hardest day of the week, Thursday. It is a day where the teacher does not get a prep block and the students do not get a break from doing “work”. It is also the day before Friday which is always long as I have been told by many teachers. I actually never noticed the stretch before today. The students were not well behaved during my lesson and did not pay much attention to the instructions I was giving throughout the day; I thanked the ones that did pay attention as I appreciated their attentiveness. I did not take the behaviour of my students personally today, instead I looked at it as “one of those days” because I know my students will not always be on their best behaviour and I will have many days like these in the future. Instead I decided to take it in and observe how my teacher dealt with them when they mis behaved during her lessons and throughout the day. One thing that did hurt my feelings today was when one of the students made a rude remark during the story I was reading. When I asked a question about the character I heard him say under his breath, “nobody cares”. I chose not to acknowledge his comment and kept going with the story. I could tell he was uninterested and all he wanted to do was get ready for recess. I do wish I spoke to him privately after recess, which was my plan until I got distracted. If a situation like this arises again I definitely would talk to the student privately and explain why an inappropriate comment like that is not acceptable and can hurt someone’s feelings. Overall, many different learning experiences today that I can move forward with for next week.
Yes Harjot, some days can be more difficult than others for students and teachers. It is great that you acknowledged those who were on track and attentive. Ignoring the inappropriate comment was a good strategy. The student was likely challenging you to engage and by not doing so you avoided more inappropriate behavior. You often know the goal of a student’s misbehaviour by checking on your own feelings. When students are looking for attention, you feel irritated. When they are looking for power, you feel angry, when they are looking for revenge, you feel hurt and when they have given up, you feel quite helpless. Student misbehaviour is communication and, if at all possible, not to be taken personally. In fact, it can be a guide as to which intervention would be most useful at the time. Your idea about calmly discussing the issue with him at a later date is a good one. It would be helpful to ask him about feeling angry when he made that comment and what caused it, then to ask him what else he could have done instead, that would not be inappropriate like the comment he chose.