Student voted out of classroom!!!

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by wreckingcrew

Ok man, I'm calling bullshit on this. Yes, she gets paid to teach. Part of teaching is classroom management, i.e. making sure your students have an environment in which learning can take place, free from disruptions. That's the whole reason for behavior interventions and policies.

Look, unless you've spent 9 years teaching kindergarten like this teacher, or anytime at all with those aged kids in an educational setting, you really don't have an idea of what it is like.

During college, and for a brief time afterward, I was a preschool teacher, in a class of about 15-20 children. The class included many students who did not speak English as a first language, and a handful who had various developmental delays. It involved a curriculum and many of the classroom management skills one would need for kindergarten.

With that background in mind, I really can't understand why she would have the kid up at the front of the room like that, and "poll" the class in the manner that she did. I have been in situations where you had one child tell the other child how his/her contact made them feel ("You made me feel sad," etc.), but never where you were pitting the entire class against one child.

I can't imagine a situation where you would subject a child that young (even putting aside any other circumstances), to being called out by all of their classmates at once.

Teaching is a stressful job, no doubt, and there can be challenges in dealing with behavior. However, the method with which she dealt with the situation seems extreme.

ETA: I'm sure that all the facts haven't come out yet, so who knows if the truth lies somewhere between the child's story and the teacher's.

[laylo]

Kindergarten teacher here. There's nothing wrong with the other kids being involved in the discipline, even occasionally in front of the class. But it has to be done in a loving, positive way (which five-year-olds are certainly capable of). i.e. "It makes us sad that our friend Alex is not following the rules of our classroom. We can't wait for him to fix it [the behavior] so he can come back, because we like him and we miss him when he's not here." I also don't understand this vote happening after the child had already been returned by what I'm assuming was an administrator. However, like Sensuret I am skeptical about the accuracy of this story.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by laylo

Kindergarten teacher here. There's nothing wrong with the other kids being involved in the discipline, even occasionally in front of the class. But it has to be done in a loving, positive way (which five-year-olds are certainly capable of). i.e. "It makes us sad that our friend Alex is not following the rules of our classroom. We can't wait for him to fix it [the behavior] so he can come back, because we like him and we miss him when he's not here." I also don't understand this vote happening after the child had already been returned by what I'm assuming was an administrator. However, like Sensuret I am skeptical about the accuracy of this story.

I would think you'd have to be very careful about how it was presented, and you couldn't do it with every class. Odds are you would have one student who would take their constructive criticism too far, or wouldn't understand the aim of the exercise.

Your example would work well, but I wonder how many classrooms would be able to do it successfully.

[laylo]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

I would think you'd have to be very careful about how it was presented, and you couldn't do it with every class. Odds are you would have one student who would take their constructive criticism too far, or wouldn't understand the aim of the exercise.

Your example would work well, but I wonder how many classrooms would be able to do it successfully.

I suppose it is dependent on a strong culture. In my school, and my class in particular, there is a high number of kids with mental and behavior issues and we modeled this language a lot early on. The kids caught right on and within a couple weeks it went from "Hey, everybody shut up!" to "Class family, please make a better choice." I've never seen a child denigrate another in this process.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

I would think you'd have to be very careful about how it was presented, and you couldn't do it with every class. Odds are you would have one student who would take their constructive criticism too far, or wouldn't understand the aim of the exercise.

Especially with a kid on the autism spectrum.

Originally Posted by KSigkid

With that background in mind, I really can't understand why she would have the kid up at the front of the room like that, and "poll" the class in the manner that she did. I have been in situations where you had one child tell the other child how his/her contact made them feel ("You made me feel sad," etc.), but never where you were pitting the entire class against one child.

I can't imagine a situation where you would subject a child that young (even putting aside any other circumstances), to being called out by all of their classmates at once.

Teaching is a stressful job, no doubt, and there can be challenges in dealing with behavior. However, the method with which she dealt with the situation seems extreme.

ETA: I'm sure that all the facts haven't come out yet, so who knows if the truth lies somewhere between the child's story and the teacher's.

Just to reiterate, in all my posts on this topic I have stated that I did not think that the teacher handled this situation in the best manner. The vein of my last couple posts have been towards the people that have stated, "She's a teacher and should have more patience, or just taken them out to recess."

I agree with laylo that you can do this in a constructive manner. I don't think that occurred in this situation. How effective that would have been with a kid with Autism, I don't know. I just would like to see more about this student's documented behavior and the results of his evaluation.

Kitso
KS 361