how do teachers deal with misbehavior in the classroom?

[bluestateguy]

skip ahead to 3:59

[hunter]

1. Been there, done that. As an urban public school teacher.

Sadly, that video was just the good days.



On the bad days the kids never came back, were expelled, I had to talk to police and juvenile court officers, or the kid was dead.

I had this dream or being "Welcome Back Kotter" but it didn't work out. Life is not a sitcom, and my skin wasn't so thick then.

[LWolf]

2. In a variety of ways

depending on how I read the energy and intent in the moment, and who I'm dealing with.

My students, in general are not defiant. They are impulsive, and are sometimes easily distracted. Practical jokes? Sure, but not mean-spirited jokes, for the most part. They wouldn't dare pull something like that with me, because they'd then spend the rest of the year looking over their shoulders, waiting for my return salvo and wondering what form it might take.

They also read me; we know each other pretty well. They know that the quieter I get, the more irritated I am and the less likely I am to be patient with any forms of disruption. Almost all of the time, all it takes is for me to get quiet, and so do they. I very, very rarely need to apply any extreme measures, but when I do they are memorable enough to serve for a long time after.

The fictional and stereotypical situation in this clip is dated; those characters come from a generation in which getting trouble at school meant worse trouble at home. Those days are, for the majority, long gone.