Dealing with defiance

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Home : 2004 : September : 18

Dealing with defiance
By Jilian

In response to Heather H., I have to say that you're not being unnecessarily callous as far as I'm concerned. I feel the same way myself, even though when I was still in college I always said that I'd be more 'compassionate'
(which I now realize is pretty tough where we are).
This is my first year teaching AND I'm in a tough inner city elementary school in which I see one section each of K-5 EVERY day. I have at least one case of outrageous behavior in every class, from the simple - children who talk to themselves or hum/tap/make noise consistently - to the severe - children who shout/kick/punch/bite/scratch.

I actually have one Kindergarten section with FOUR moderate to severe cases in it. The best thing I can do is move those children where they cannot do harm to themselves, me, or others; be sure to keep reiterating my expectations to them; and just try my best to ignore the distrcations.

Those children should, ideally, have counseling and other support, and the administration and parents should be involved and updated. In my school, we teachers are required to make specific time/date logs of the specific behaviors taking place.

If all else fails, I live by 'my way or the highway' - as a teacher I have the ultimate say in my classroom (even if 'my' classroom is really the kids' homeroom that I visit once a week), and if any child cannot/will not follow my directions after the situation has been addressed through all of the aforementioned channels, then that child will not pass my class.