[Editor's note: They Call Me Teacher is the pseudonym of a first-year teacher in an elementary school in the Bronx. She blogs at They Call Me Teacher where this post originally appeared.]
Some of our students (most of the boys, actually) act like different people outside of our classroom walls. At lunch and before school they are out of control, rude, disrespectful, and loud. For the third day in a row (in our post-Columbus Day four-day week), my co-teacher and I walked out to pick up our charges from recess only to find mass chaos and fights either taking place or on the verge of erupting.
Wednesday’s fight was going on when we arrived, and sadly, it was between two of our boys. It was the first fight we’ve seen, with our own eyes, involving our students. I was starting to think that our boys were a bit more civilized than the rest of the school… I was wrong.
Thursday, I was able to keep a fight from happening by stepping in front of a student and veering him off track as he headed for the other student he was about to attack. I was careful not to get too much in the middle of the situation, just enough to attempt to direct this visibly mad and upset boy away. He, luckily, walked away with me, after much convincing. I stood with him on the other end of the playground as he worked to calm himself down. I talked to him through his heavy breathing, crying, and shaking, convincing him to take deep breaths. (Later, I found him and thanked him for walking away from the fight. I also asked if the rest of his day went OK. Building relationships with students outside of my room is important to me. I saw this help me last year, as a colleague stepped up and built a relationship with one of my “favorites”.)
Friday, again we were treated with a nice after-lunch dessert of fighting and chaos. This time, a student was knocked to the ground and the boys formed a circle around him and watched as he was being kicked and knocked around. When there’s a fight, most of the boys are egging it on, laughing, and surrounding it faster than shoppers surround merchandise during the Day-After-Thanksgiving sales. It’s so sad to see fighting bring about so much entertainment, enjoyment, and laughter for these 5th-grade boys.
Ideally, it is expected that the students are lined up waiting for us to pick them up from lunch recess, instead of fighting and running around the playground. Our lines are almost always half-lines, as some of our “favorites” are off running around as if they own the place and are above the expectation. When they finally decide to join the line, they do so very slowly and very loudly.
Today, we’d had enough. They realized this too. Upon entering the building, I informed the students that there would be NO talking and only working. I explained that I was completely disappointed at some of our students’ choices not to line up in the line. I then sent them into the classroom to do the Do Now on the board in silence. As Ms. B and I stood in the doorway, watching for the A.P. or some answers to another issue that had taken place while at lunch recess, our students worked in silence. I was surprised, but happy. It was a sign to me that we’ve gotten through to them… in some way they realize when we mean business, we mean business. The rest of our afternoon was a bit easier. The students who usually caused problems seemed to know they couldn’t push us any further. The truth is, I don’t really know what I would have done or could have done as a consequence for any further misbehaving. The fact that their choices disappointed us was enough of a consequence for these students to shape up. I’m starting to feel like they care what we think as their teachers, and they are starting to realize that we, too, care about them.
