Today I gave my students a consequence for their behavior yesterday. They had to write apology letters to the to teachers whose classes they disrupted and to themselves. In the letters they apologized for behavior, not emotions.
After that I decided I was no longer angry at them and I'd forgive their mistakes. I was going to be cheerful the rest of the day and we'd just have fun and learn.
This lasted until the last hour of the day when some of them decided they were not going to listen to me anymore. So I became Mean Miss Kelsch.
As stated in an earlier post: I do not like Mean Miss Kelsch. I do not enjoy being Mean Miss Kelsch. I do not enjoy raising my voice or giving ultimatums.
I also do not enjoy teaching mean students.
I enjoy being Nice Miss Kelsch. I like Nice Miss Kelsch. I like to have fun with my students and learn.
I enjoy teaching nice students.
I enjoy having a classroom where everyone's rights are upheld and it is a safe learning environment. So tomorrow we are going to have a conversation about that. We'll practice being aware of others and ourselves. We'll talk about the good things that my students have done and do. We'll talk about the ways I've seen them excell. We'll talk about how kind they've been this year and how much they've learned about themselves.
And maybe, just maybe, they'll strive to be their bests.
Balance is key. Without it we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference and we would live in a very monotonous grey area.
ReplyDeleteThat kind of work is called good.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to understand "safe learning environment." I understand it in the physical sense, but emotionally and mentally I still don't completely understand it. That being said, it is important also to gave a safe teaching environment. You are creating one. They are part of that creating. I think a safe learning environment is same as a safe teaching environment?
... Maybe I have a problem with the word "safe?"