The choices we make

I loved the exercise we did this week in class, practicing the different scenarios of how a teacher might react. I found it so useful mostly because it felt very real, all of those contexts are ones we will encounter time and time again in a real classroom, and having a pre-thought out approach will make the encounters more familiar--we can react more on a "refined instinct" than a knee jerk one.

I appreciated its portraying of how easily we can slip into reacting as the "bad teacher" and how much more strategic we must be in order to perform as the good one. It's true that making those slips once in a while doesn't make us psychopaths. It happens. We just need to be very aware of the slight differences in our behavior or speech that can render entirely different reactions from the student. On inservice days at Grout Elementary we watched videos or engaged in discussions about Safe and Civil Schools, a program that instructs teachers about teacher behavior, child behavior and policy. One of the most poignant things I recall from those videos was a point about being an emotional teacher. As soon as you allow your emotions to take hold of you, it's very easy for the situation to escalate, for it to become a shouting match, or a square off of who's right: the teacher or the student. The severity might not be as intense with elementary students as opposed to secondary, but it's so interesting to me how a simple choice could turn a simple conversation like:
"Michael, we're finished with lunch, will you please put your garbage in the trash."
"I'm not finished."
"Okay, take one more minute and then please put it in the trash because it's time to go outside."

vs.

"Michael, throw your garbage in the trash."
"I'm not finished."
"It's time to go, I said throw it in the trash like everyone else."
"In a minute."
"Throw it in the trash now! You're not listening to me!"
"No!"
etc. etc. etc.

The stance we take dictates the student's reaction to a greater degree than we sometimes realize. And also, sometimes we DO realize but are just too impatient to take the high road. But honestly, what I've come to realize is it is EXPONENTIALLY more exhausting to square off with a kid and drag things out. By the end of the day you'll wonder how simple changes in tone could have aided in picking your battles saving you a lot of energy.