'Survivor Classroom'
I’ve been thinking today about a particularly high maintenance student in my class. Until this morning, I was ready to go into the office and say to the principal that it was either A. or me -- that he (the principal) would have to choose. I work in a school that offers individualized learning programs to students -- many of whom have been asked to leave mainstream high schools for a host of reasons or who chose to leave on their own because the fit was not good. This lad’s way of not fitting is to exercise his right to self-determination by skipping class, coming late on the days he does show up, and by endlessly arguing every answer and decision I make or answer I give. After 6 months of 3 hours a day, he’s nearly made me give in and give up.
A., who’s taking Science 10, sees himself as a deep thinker. His answer to a simple question about what a cell is like during a particular stage of mitosis is: “Everything is lined up and in the right place to go onto the next stage.” In his mind I can’t mark that wrong or even ask him to be more specific because ‘everything’ says it all. When asked the difference between matter and energy, he takes the cosmological approach of: “Everything is energy.” When told settle down and get back to work, he looks up with his puzzled expression of incomprehension and asks: “But what did I do?” If I recount what occurred and miss even one detail, he’s all over it. I know he knows what transpired.
Now, under different circumstances if I truly believed this student wanted to learn about spirituality, I would love to explore the cosmic implications of his statements. If I really believed he did not understand how his behavior was inappropriate, I’d go over it again for the 20th time. But frankly I have come accept that these are A.’s ways of manipulating and bullying teachers and other adults into just giving in because we’re too tired or have too many other students who truly want our help and our time.
For this student to ultimately win in life, I have to win at this game he enjoys so much. By clutching so tightly to victory over little moments, he’s missing the greater joys that await if he can just get out of his own way and get past having to trump everything I say or do. What this student doesn’t realize is that in me he’s met his match. I’m known for not giving up and there are lots of former Surrey students who will tell him that when it comes to persistence and accountability, I have 35 years of experience to put up against his 5.
Source: http://www.superchefblog.com/2005/05/iron-chef-america-meets-survivor.html
Also, I’ve had an inspiration. I’m opting out of the dance. I’m taking back my hot buttons. I’m going to get my blood pressure back down. Whenever this student lets fly with an inappropriate remark or argumentative behaviour, this will be my reply:
“You see yourself as a deep thinker, A., so I’m turning this one over to you. I’ve tried explaining in the past, but you don’t hear me, so now you will have time to reflect and figure out for yourself what I’m looking for. You’re not welcome in my class unless you’re willing to be respectful of my and the other students’ time and of our desire to get our work done. You’ll have to sit upstairs alone and when you think you’ve figured it out, you can come back. If you haven’t got it right, you’ll know because I’ll take you back upstairs. If you have it right, you’ll know because you’ll be permitted to stay. The control over your destiny in science and math is now in your own hands.” [I will mime putting the control into his hands as I say that last line.]
The sad thing about this whole situation is that A. has recently missed a deadline that was really important to him. He wanted to write the Science 10 provincial last week, but did not complete the course in time. He really thought he could take last Thursday off with 2 units and a mock final to go and be done before Wednesday morning . He has not yet realized that the greater control is knowing when & how to turn tactics on and off. To paraphrase Longfellow: “It takes less time to do things right than [for me] to explain [to you] why you did it wrong.” When he figures that one out, A. will be on his way to becoming the kind of man who could truly change the world.
Here is a website packed with tools and ideas to help you survive your classroom technology challenges. Education World's goal is to make it easy to integrate the Internet into the classroom. It’s resources include:
- a search engine for educational Web sites only; site reviews
- original content (lesson plans; practical information on how to integrate technology)
- daily features and articles written by education experts
- teacher and principal profiles
- 'Wire Side Chats’ with important educators
- employment listings
To subscribe, go to their Contact Us page and scroll down and click on Mailing Lists. They have a number of different newsletters that you can sign up for. One particularly interesting tool referred to in an Education World article is ArtRage 2.5. It’s cheap ($25) to download and is supposed to work well on interactive whiteboards.
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