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Anger in the Classroom III

Back in July, I promised that every month on the first Monday, I'd post about how I was doing managing my anger. Yelling, screaming, getting mad in general.

So far....

It's going really well. I think.

I haven't yelled at a single kid. I've definitely had some conversations with a few (like my habitually tardy friend - who WAS on time on Friday!), but no yelling.

Wait, that's not quite true. I do yell in the hallways. Hallways were my department's teaching area for PBS this year, and when I went over expectations, I talked about voice levels. Hallway voice levels are supposed to be 0 to 2 - silent, whisper, or small group level. Which is valid. Except that my voice level is naturally about a 6, and in the hall especially I'm going to be loud to get the attention of the kids who are making inappropriate choices. So I yell out there, to try to get them to move along or stop whacking each other over the head.

Plus, let's be realistic. I'm loud all.the.time. I yell sometimes, just 'cause.

But in the classroom, in my teaching....I haven't yelled in anger. As far as I recall....

I think I'm going to have my kids do periodic evaluations of me and how I'm doing as a teacher. I've done the end-of-year thing, and even end-of-trimester, but if I did it a bit more often, then maybe I'd have an even better sense of things. So perhaps I'll have them do one this week, just to check in and see if I"m actually doing as well as I think I am.

Because I think I'm doing really well!

(Photo credit to StickBus)

2 comments:

Miss Eyre said...

This was an area I worked on a lot last year. By the end of the year, I could honestly say that I'd raised my voice in anger less than half a dozen times. Not perfect, but definitely better. My classroom management was a million times better on 2008-09 than it was in 2007-08, and I have a few new tricks up my sleeve for 2009-10, so I look forward to the number of yelling incidents asymptotically approaching zero.

teachin' said...

That's awesome - I will strive to reach that level. And check out the big brain on you: asymptotically!

"I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one Got problems but we love to have fun" -K'naan, "Dreamer"

I teach eighth grade Language Arts at an urban school. My kids kick ass and will change the world. I want everyone to know.
 
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