The teen years are full of drama and staring at one’s self in the mirror – for hours. It’s also about socializing. When I was a teen, I remember sneaking up to the den to make a covert phone call to a boy late on a school night. We had a code: one ring and hang up meant call me. It drove my parents nuts.
Now as a parent, I race my daughter to the bathroom in the morning and I feel around her pillow at night for the contraband cell phone.
We all know that the time between the 7:30 morning bell and the 3 p.m. dismissal bell is pretty short. We try to make our classes, our rooms, our schools welcoming, safe, student-focused, and full of learning.
But when the final bell rings, the students exit the double doors and return to the world where they spend two-thirds of their time. If the students are urban Black males, chances are that they won’t graduate from high school (Livingston & Nahimana, 2006). There’s also a good chance that many of them have had a disciplinary referral this year (1 in 4), take remedial reading lessons, are enrolled in special education, have been expelled, score low on standardized tests, and have never seen the inside of a Gifted and Talented classroom (Whiting, 2006).
Your students are spending a lot of their free time online. Think of the number of hours you estimate they spend online. Double it. The doubled number is probably closer to the truth.
According to the Norton Online Living Report 2009, parents believe their children spend 21 hours online. The reality is that students in twelve countries reported spending 39 hours online. Don’t tell me these kids don’t have time to finish their assignments or clean their rooms.
Social aggression among girls includes behaviors such as social ostracism, gossip, talking behind backs, verbal attacks, glaring and eye-rolling, and manipulating relationships. Victimization is related to a number of mental health outcomes such as depression, loneliness, and poor self-concept (Crick & Bigbee, 1998; Crick & Gropeter, 1996; Paquette & Underwood, 1999). Teachers are all too familiar with the impact that outcomes such as these can have on students’ school performance and attendance.
Do you watch the TV show House? It’s the one with the brilliant, but irascible doctor who diagnoses mysterious illnesses. The other doctors on the show play the Watson to his Sherlock.
But, at least, Sherlock was friendly. House is temperamental, opinionated, and sometimes cruel. I think the TV hospital staff hang out with him because it’s in their contracts.
Did you know that…
In an attempt to prevent bullying, Florida’s Broward County Schools have adopted a new district-wide anti-bullying policy that will attempt to protect both student and adult victims.
According to the Broward County Schools Website (www.browardcounty.com), the district was forming the policy before the state legislature voted on the new anti—bullying state law. Broward’s policy takes into account not only the traditional name-calling but also the bullying that occurs outside school walls. Any abusive behavior that affects students or adult employees is subject to the policy.
Brad was a pill in fourth period. You talked with him, you moved his seat, and you kept him after the bell rang. That was yesterday. And today. It was last week, too. Brad’s behavior is disrupting learning in your classroom and you need to call home. Now.
No one wants this phone call, not you and Brad’s mom. The longer you wait, the worse the situation becomes, though, so don’t postpone parent contact.
Should we publicly praise students?
Many teachers believe that if they publicly praise a student that is doing very well, it will motivate others to be like that student.
In fact, often the opposite is true.
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