Yesterday one of my students and I were waiting in the hallway outside my room during a 'passing time'. She seized the moment and made a sincere apology to me for how she acted (out) as a freshman in my Art I class (two years ago...believe me, she and her three/four friends were very rude and disruptive to the class).
I felt her apology was heartfelt and genuine. I told her that I appreciated her telling me this and that it made my day.
I believe that some of the acting out that freshmen do is a matter of maturity. I think in this group's case it was increased exponentially, reaching a tipping point, a critical mass due to their strength in numbers, goading each other on and their not caring what the other students thought of them. Deep down I suspect they did care, but were not going to admit it. I dreaded that class every day because I couldn't get a handle on their obnoxious behavior and 'win them over'. (Maybe I shouldn't have cared so much about the 'winning them over' part).
One particular day I decided I needed some intervention. I emailed the powers that be about the disruption they were making, not certain if help would come, but just wanting the behavior marked 'for the record'. Lo and behold the administrator of discipline came into the room shortly after my email was sent, asked who the perpetrators were and pulled them all out of class. As soon as the four were gone the class spontaneously erupted into applause. I'm sure they could hear the applause as the outside door swung shut behind them.
Life went on, classes continued and the behavior calmed down a little, though never enough for me to let down my guard. It takes alot of extra, unnecessary energy to monitor potential disruptive behavior. That's the one part of teaching that is a drag! (I'm not going to lie!)
2 comments:
This is the first time your post came up under the posts I read, not sure why it hasn't come up before, but I'm enjoying catching up with you through your writing. I love the pictures of your classroom. I bought some bowls kind of like the ones you pictured from your childhood. Did you notice them on my kitchen counter when you were here in September?
gosh, to be honest, I don't remember the bowls you mention...I do remember some of your bowls having fat ridges in the sides, and of bright colors, are those the ones you mean? guess I'm due for a visit!
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