What would you do, Anne?

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What would you do, Anne?
By Fed Up

Anne, I am interested in hearing more about what you have to say. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt and hoping you posted because you want to help, not just because you wanted to be critical. I am unclear as to WHY
you were so appalled at the other posts and as to WHY you are so vehemently opposed to "fun friday." As a new teacher, I love hearing different perspectives and gaining all the information and suggestions I can, so I do sincerely hope you will respond more in detail about your opinions. I hope you will respond and prove that your critism can be constructive.
To respond to your post,

yes, I have a very good relationship with my students. I have gone above and beyond to establish positive, caring, respectful relationships with all my students. I agree with you that teachers need to work "with" students, which I believe I have also been doing. However, I also believe it is crucial that students be held accountable for their actions. Kids need structure, especially if they don't have any at home, and they need to realize that there are positive and negative consequences for their actions. I agree with the previous poster. Isn't the point of school to prepare students for the "real world"? Well, in the "real world" held accountable and punished for their crimes...why shouldn't students be treated the same? How are they going to learn this if it is never exposed to them in school?

Just so you know, yes, I do believe you should have personal relationships with your students and you SHOULD try to talk with students to understand what is motivating their behavior. In this particular situation, however, I spoke for over an hour (yes, an hour!!) with these students and still did not feel they were remorseful or had given me any inclination that they understood the severity of what they had done. I agree with J that it would have negated the seriousness of what they had done if I did not give them any sort of consequence. You seemed to be quick to critize the suggestions of consequences that others had made...so what would YOU have done in this situation?

Also, could you please inform me about the research you had mentioned? I am unclear as to what you were referring to. I am not familiar with the book you mentioned (though I am planning to read it. You've peaked my curiousity!!), so I would appreciate it if you rely a little more specific information about this.

Anne, I am sincerely interested in hearing what you have to say. As you can tell, my opinion coincides very closely with the above posters, but I am interested in hearing all perspectives. I hope others will share their thoughts, also.