Don't Squeal...

...Unless it's a Big Deal! I am having a tattling problem in my class; my students really like to tell on each other for the most silly things! I am going to be trying some lessons this week to get our class perspective changed. My students need to understand what warrants telling the teacher, and what is just tattling for tattling's sake. I have been trying to combat this with compliments. During Community Circle for the last week, they have been practicing complimenting each other on doing good or appropriate things during class. I have been really surprised and pleased to hear them say very specific examples of classmates following rules or being kind to others.

On Friday, I had the best Community Circle yet. One of my problem students who can be incredibly defiant and when he puts his mind to it he can completely derail a lesson, apologized to his fellow students for his behavior that day. He had been pretty defiant and had caused a lot of problems in the morning; my other students have gotten very good at ignoring him, but it is obvious when he is annoying the other students. This was the first time he has ever apologized for his behavior without prompting; usually his apologies are in response to punishment. This time, he wasn't even in trouble! He decided to apologize all on his own! He looked at his classmates during Community Circle and said, "I want to say I'm sorry for how I acted. I'm sorry. Next time I'll be good. I will work on it." I don't think I hid my shock very well, and when I looked at my students, they were just as surprised. Then we all started smiling, and there was a chorus of, "Thanks, C!" It was the best moment of my teaching career so far. I think I am actually starting to get through to him!

Later that afternoon, he tried to talk another student - who had hit two students and pushed me - into calming down and going to the office because he really shouldn't do this "the hard way." He said, "Hey, you can do this the hard way or the easy way. I did it the hard way and I had to stare at the wall in MRC all day. You don't want to do that. Just go to the office and you won't be in as much trouble. If you keep doing this, you'll get in more trouble!" C was a completely different student all of a sudden! I left school on Friday walking on clouds because I was feeling like I might actually be making a difference in this student's life. I hope to see my students make more and more strides in their ability to be human with each other; I want to see them actually treating each other with respect.

That's all for now...

♥