staying seated

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staying seated
By KT

I have taught 3rd for many years and found my self going crazy trying to keep the "squirrely" kids seated. After several workshops and reading research I have come to realize that some kids learning styles are quite different
than mine (I am a sit still, absolute quiet kind of learner). So to save my sanity I had to teach myself to overlook many things as long as the student was working and not disturbing others.(It was not easy!)That does not mean they get to misbehave. I usually use hand signals to remind kids to sit down, turn around or get back to work. They know when they are out of line, but it is

sometimes a fine line and it is our job as professionals to determine where to draw that line for each individual student. Each case is different and you will have to determine how much reminding this child actually needs. A 1:1 talk with him to tell him that he distracts others and distracts you from teaching may help. I recently told a child he was distracting me and he was quite surprised...he had not ever thought of that before. I don't think I had ever told the students that I get distracted from doing MY work when they behave that way. I also tell the kids that they may notice that I overlooked a behavior etc. because I thought the lesson or whatever we were doing was more important. Just some thoughts that may help. Good luck.