Making deals with students

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Making deals with students

by Teachers.Net Gazette

Dec 3, 2014

Teachers are loving people who come into the profession to make a difference in the lives of children. Their intentions are good, but when misbehavior occurs, some teachers will, out of sheer frustration, resort to making deals with the students just to survive. You may find some of the following actions by teachers silly and funny, but they are all actual events that have been observed in the classroom.

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Reality check.. I have NEVER seen or heard of an elementary school teacher who doesn't give students "free time Friday" if they behave (and do their work) of have a "treasure chest" system of some type. I have been both an aide in a K-8 school for many years; I have always floated from classroom to classroom. I have also been a floating Spanish...See MoreI have NEVER seen or heard of an elementary school teacher who doesn't give students "free time Friday" if they behave (and do their work) of have a "treasure chest" system of some type. I have been both an aide in a K-8 school for many years; I have always floated from classroom to classroom. I have also been a floating Spanish teacher where I went into teacher's classrooms and done some K-6 subbing.

Know what? You can't teach at least K-8 and even many high school classes with no deal making! Even saying "if you don't want detention, you need to follow the school rules.." is deal making; admittedly students can't just "reject the deal", but the deal is there: follow the rules and you won't get detention. And that's how the adult world works, too.

To equate telling 5th graders that "if you behave all week and do your work, then on Friday you can have free time for 20 minutes..but if your work isn't finished you'll have to finish it, and if you have misbehaved this week you'll sit out" to "screaming racial slurs at students" is insane!! One is abusing children for what they can not change and should never be ashamed of anyway and will get you fired; the other is a 100&37; acceptable way to encourage students to try their best and behave all week. In one case teachers are trying to control their own classroom effectively; in the other they are just being a--holes for no reason.

Even as an aide I make deals often: If you stay on green (we have a color system for behavior..green is good), I'll eat lunch with you tomorrow.

If your teacher says you were good, yes you can help me pass out balls at recess.

I want to help you, but I won't help you with this if you don't try..try again.

I am not just "not ashamed of this"; it's what I should be doing!

In high school it's not acceptable to give kids every Friday off from class just for having 4 good days, but deals are still not just acceptable but an important part of teaching. I am not necessarily in favor of deals like "if everyone does their homework all week on Friday we'll have 15 minutes of free time" at the 7-12 level, but "if you fail the test I will give you the option of a re-take.. but you have to come after school and do the re-take-- and the new grade counts even if it's lower than the first grade" is a good example of a useful deal. Even my graduate school teachers made deals like "if you do the presentation early I will grade it more leniently". That's how a normal classroom works.

I have been a teacher, and I once had a super smart student let a dumb kid copy off of him. I told him "I gave you the A you had assuming you didn't cheat; in exchange you are going to give me a recess (this school had brief recesses in secondary) and we'll chat..okay?" He "accepted my deal" and I convinced him cheating is bad :); he has told me that he's been asked to cheat but he thinks of me and refuses! NO ONE can tell me the fact that I "made a deal with a student" in this case means I suck as a teacher!

On 12/03/14, Teachers.Net Gazette wrote: > > Teachers are loving people who come into the profession to > make a difference in the lives of children. Their intentions > are good, but when misbehavior occurs, some teachers will, > out of sheer frustration, resort to making deals with the > students just to survive. You may find some of the following > actions by teachers silly and funny, but they are all actual > events that have been observed in the classroom.

Dec 26, 2014

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