2nd day of school

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Disruptive Students Chatboard

2nd day of school

by Where's the honeymoon?

Aug 19, 2014

I have a child in my class (10 years old, fifth grade) who is already giving me a run for my money on the 2nd day of school. It is all sorts of crazy - attention seeking behaviors (loud belching, making strange noises with her throat, shouting out, weird, random shout-outs when I am talking.) The kids are extremely put off by her, but they are also 5th graders, and, therefore, immature and laugh sometimes when she performs these odd antics. I know that adds fuel to the fire, so I let them know we don't laugh when people are inappropriate (they stop - I can tell that the rest of the class will come around). We worked on our class norms as a class, have been illustrating and spending time to get the students really invested in the 'raise responsibility' method of discipline (levels of behavior), and the class is really receptive. Except for this girl. After we got to the point where we had discussed the expectations for behavior and the consequences for misbehavior (and gone through all ...See MoreI have a child in my class (10 years old, fifth grade) who is already giving me a run for my money on the 2nd day of school. It is all sorts of crazy - attention seeking behaviors (loud belching, making strange noises with her throat, shouting out, weird, random shout-outs when I am talking.) The kids are extremely put off by her, but they are also 5th graders, and, therefore, immature and laugh sometimes when she performs these odd antics. I know that adds fuel to the fire, so I let them know we don't laugh when people are inappropriate (they stop - I can tell that the rest of the class will come around). We worked on our class norms as a class, have been illustrating and spending time to get the students really invested in the 'raise responsibility' method of discipline (levels of behavior), and the class is really receptive. Except for this girl. After we got to the point where we had discussed the expectations for behavior and the consequences for misbehavior (and gone through all of the "if it is making it hard for someone else to learn, it needs to stop), this girl started in again, and I said "We need you to stop; you are disrupting the class's learning" She deflected (it's so and so's fault!) and argued, and I said "You need to move to (cool down spot) for a few minutes." I waited, and she decided to power struggle. Since I will not power struggle in front of the class, I said "I can see you are choosing to not move, so we will talk about this later" -- that has ALWAYS worked for power struggle kids in the past. This kid sat quietly for a minute or two (the ultimate goal), then started being disruptive again. Without saying another word to her, I moved her desk away from her group, and gave the kids around her the clear eye-contact message to NOT engage her. They did not. When it was time for lunch, I sent the rest of the class to lunch and asked her to stay so we could talk, 'As I had promised we would" She waited for the class to leave, then shut down and refused to talk. She then became verbally combative and began yelling. "I didn't do anything, youre picking on me!" I told her I could not talk if she was going to yell. I waited. I asked her if she understood our class expectations. She yelled and said "I didn't do anything." I waited again. I then came back and explained the expectations. She yelled "I didn't do anything." I waited again. I stated the expectations again "In our school, we follow directions and allow others to learn" She again yelled "I didn't do anything. I hate you, I don't want to be in your class. I'm going to recess and I don't care what you say!" At that point I got ahold of the office and asked them to send help. The principal came and had me sit and attempt to conference with the child (as I had already been doing), but when she continued to yell, the principal told me to go to lunch. It was day 2, and already, I lost my ENTIRE lunch dealing with a disruptive student. I can foresee a long year ahead. The child is fine as long as she is allowed to do what she wants in the classroom. The minute she is given directions - or even choices - she becomes disruptive. Once she crosses the line, she will not accept the classroom discipline plan that has basically been agreen upon by all the students in the class (including her). From what I understand by past teachers, this girl and her older brother have "held every class hostage" that they have been in on a regular basis, and there is little to no support from home. My principal wants me to "handle" these disruptions in class. I have been teaching for over 10 years and have always handled disruption in class using a discipline plan that very much follows love and logic - I do not get into arguments with kids, I will not engage in power struggles - I give a direction, if they choose to up the ante, I let them (and the class) know that we will deal with it later (when the audience is gone!) Typically just being held back a few minutes from recess gets these kids talking and coming around....but this kid refuses to accept any responsibility and will not go through the process without shutting down and yelling. I can foresee a LONG year ahead if this doesn't stop. I've never had a child be so combative in the first few days of school in the upper grades. (I once had a little one in 2nd grade go rogue on the first day of school, but he and I came to an understanding by day 3 and he was fairly OK the rest of the year!). Any suggestions? I won't get much help from my administration in this manner, and I KNOW I won't get help from this child's home.

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