This Teacher’s Recent Experience Of Throwing Things Against A Wall To See What Sticks

 

I’m adding this post to Best Posts On Classroom Management:

1 student is very unfocused, tho has good days. When he has a good day, he’s unable to tell me what has made difference. Last week, after he had good day, I gave him some food, asked him 2 sit outside at a picnic table,& think for 10 min about what may have made difference 2/13

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) March 3, 2022

Since then, when we do activities, he works with students he chooses (& they tell us privately they like working with him), he is much more focused & his group produces excellent work. 4/13

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) March 3, 2022

He said he gets hungry, and food would help. Okay, I say, I keep graham crackers in this draw. Come here at the beginning of class, get a couple of crackers, eat them outside, & come back in. Great, he says. 6/13

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) March 3, 2022

Point of this thread is not that first student was good & second student was bad. Tomorrow, the second student will come back, apologize, we’ll both laugh about it, and see if we can come up with a new strategy that might help. 8/13

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) March 3, 2022

If we show we care & we invite students to problem-solve WITH us (instead of doing TO them), I find that it generally works enough of the time to give me the energy & sense of optimism to keep on trying when one, two, three things don’t work. 10/13

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) March 3, 2022

What Joanne points out is that the real lesson is that when people feel that others care about them, when others think they are important, that they often want to do better. 12/13

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) March 3, 2022

So, tomorrow, I’ll continue caring & valuing my students, including the ones that drive me batty, & see what the next thing is that I can throw against the wall to see what might stick. 13/13

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) March 3, 2022