However, there was an incident the other day when a student kept repeating "Jesus Christ" over and over again. This was during the last class of the day during Inclusion.
Definition: Inclusion
A classroom in which sped students and gen-ed kids learn together from co-teaching general and special education teachers.
Definition: sped
special education
Definition: gen-ed
general education (i.e. non-sped)
I'm in the back of the classroom because the kids are watching a film. I hear a few quiet repetitions of this on the other side of the room. It wasn't said as an exclamation to anything, as is often unfortunately the case in society today. Rather it was merely for the humor of the situation. I thought about whether or not I should say something. Sure, it's a free country, but someone has to tell the kid that others might find it offensive or disrespectful (case in point: me). I decided I would address it after the film had finished, so as to not cause undue attention.
After the film, I'm walking around assisting students with their work. I hear the kid again repeat his offense (what is it about middle schoolers that they need to repeat something they find funny multiple times?). This time I walk over, and quickly point out the kid's inappropriate behavior with the direction to correct his behavior. He kind of brushes me off, but I leave the situation to go help another student. I do not engage in power struggles.
Definition: Power Struggle
something you should avoid at all costs. No one wins.
Later I hear this student again. I repeat my observation and direction. Let me point out that this is not the student's only offense this class. He was having an off-day (and it wasn't even raining!), complete with inattentiveness to lesson, loud talking, out-of-seat, and refusing to work. When I hear the offense again, I look at him and quickly motion for him to follow me out the door.
Side note: I've been working on my teacher-look. It gives me great pride and joy when it works.
Definition: The teacher-look
A wordless look given by a teacher to a student meant to incite fear and immediate repentance within the student.
Outside we discuss why I've directed him to stop repeating his offense. He knows why, because he's the one that supplies the answers, but he's still giving me attitude. I mention that because of his repeated unwillingness to settle down, start his work, and comply with teacher directions, I would have to fill out a behavior form on him. (Behavior forms aren't that scary––it just allows us teachers/administrators to have a log of certain behaviors, so that if there is a big problem later on, we can look back to see if this is a recurring problem or not)
Secret:
To students, behavior forms are equivalent to taking away candy for a month. ("Teacher, how could you??")
He returns to his seat, not to sit quietly and do his work, but to complain loudly to his neighbor that I'm going to "write him up" when really it was all his neighbor's fault. Etc. etc. blah blah blah. Later on I walk over and ask the neighbor kid if he was involved in the incident, which he admitted to. We talked about how it is offensive to some people, and how it doesn't matter what the religion is, you still have to be respectful towards it––and this is why France is having a lot of problems right now. This other kid was respectful and acknowledged my explanation, then quietly went back to work. However, the first kid kept going on and on, still refusing to do anything. I had to again explain that his behavior form was not because he had said Christ's name disrespectfully, but because of how he responded to a prompt and was continually disruptive in class.
Class finally ended.
I was drained.
Regardless, I'm actually quiet proud of myself. I feel like I handled the situation well. Could I have handled it better? Absolutely. But I'm glad I stood up and tried to take a moment to teach respect. I wasn't eloquent by any means, but I didn't sit there and ignore it.
I do think that God is there helping me as I teach and as I interact with students. Education is important to God. These kids are important to him. I was drained and a little depressed after school that day, but I do think that God was there to give me the initial prompting to teach an important lesson.
I continue to pray that God will help me at school in my teachings and in my interactions with students and teachers. Especially with the students. Teaching is the hardest thing I've ever done. It's mentally, physically, and emotionally taxing. But I love what I do and I'm grateful for the Lord's strength every day.
UPDATE: The next time I had this student in class he was much better. He finished his work and was following directions (even if it was with a little attitude). Sometimes kids have bad days. And sometimes they just need the chance to digest and think about your words before they take action.
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