Working out pretty well

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Home : 2001 : February : 5

Working out pretty well
By Jody Richardson

I have been sticking with mostly with 8th grade lately and I think I am getting the hang of it. I start off strong, teling them I will not accept talking, getting out of your seat, leaving the class, etc. They seem to resent
this, but I give them the assignment and start a controlled conversation with the class. I have used my young age (20) to my advantage. I listen to the same music they do, watch the same movies, and generally do some of the same things they do. We start on a topic and I have people raise their hand if they want to add to the conversation. I had one student the full-time teacher

described as the worst one getting the rest of the class to be quiet so we could go on with what we were talking about. I usually pick who is the troublemaker and appeal to them. This gets them to quiet down and listen. If there are people talking to each other, rather than to the class, I just stand there and the rest of the class tells them to be quiet so we can keep talking about "cool stuff". I thank everyone for their help so far, I think I am really getting the hang of this.