http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1797425
(Can't find the html code to imbed, so you'll have to link)
After you watch, if you can handle it, read below:
The woman in this video represents every insecurity I have about disciplining my students. She comes out swinging, trying to discipline the kid via the airwaves, as if he's going to have some kind of epiphany right there in front of her entire viewing audience and she can take credit for setting him straight. In the end, the kids socks it to her and she looks like a moron.
I hate being the moron
Early on in my first year I tried yelling, setting-straight, and shaming in moderate doses and it really got me nowhere. The kids didn't respect me any more. They were still obnoxious jerks in the same exact ways. Grades didn't improve. What exactly did I accomplish? My guess is that I just took about 3 years off the end of my life with undue stress. Oh, and I was accused of being mean amongst many other things.
I was a moron.
These days I resort to long-term secret alliances. I pull kids out of other classes under the guise that I have some important business and then discuss their rude behavior in a personal "It hurts my feelings that you don't respect me like I respect you" kinda way. The kid feels both excited to be pulled out of class and upset that they missed the mark on this 'friendship' with a teacher. The most bad-ass kids in school now give me covert nods and quiet hellos when they're pretty sure nobody else will notice. And they do show me respect in the halls and in class.
My question to you is this:
How would you have treated this jerkwad if you were:
a) the reporter
b) his teacher
c) his parents
d) an acquaintance/neighbor.
Pick one or all.
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6 comments:
I am SO EXCITED about your joining PBswap! No seriously! I am telling everyone about this...
Enjoy your day off on MLK day! This was always like, my favorite holiday while teaching... it was just what I needed to get through the month of January!
That link didn't seem to work for me. I turned up the volume on my computer and still didn't hear anything, and it didn't really look like a classroom video.
Hmmm. The link worked for me though the background of the pages is different than it was before so maybe they fixed it? It's not a classroom video. It's an interview with an arrogant/ignorant newscaster who tries to discipline the young man.
Okay, now I've got it. Apparently my daughter had been fooling with the sound on my laptop, but fortunately I won't have to pay 20 thousand bucks to fix the damage.
There's a perfect example of someone who takes no responsibility whatsoever for his actions. I'm heartened, as much as I can be, to see that he isn't American, and that we aren't the only ones doing such a bad job raising our kids.
I'd take him to the top ropes and tombstone piledrive him from the turnbuckle. In the classroom though, I'm not sure. Haven't gotten it figured out for every case.
What parents go off and leave a slacker 16-year-old in charge of himself?
Ms. Tsouris
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