Oooh, yes, I've done that one!

Hit 'em 'cos you like 'em... never worked.

hey there studentteacher83

i want to coment on your problem you face in schools. i believe my comments have some substancial value because i am a 4th year student teacher and have recently taught in a high school in a rather dodgy area where kids come from a very checkered background. i have also taught in the rather affluent communities but this experiance transsended all my expectations.

gathering from what you have written i can assume that you are female. what year are you in and what grade do you teach?

being a male i have always experienced discipline easier than my fellow female student teachers but this was a shock to the system. at one stage i turned my back to the class and a learner shouted Asshole. well how do you handle a situation like that? fortunately i handled it in the best way possible when it was just me against 45 pubescent delinquents.

this method doesn't work in all cases but in this one it did.

you have to try and get the rest of the class or innocent learners (if there is such a thing) to turn against the culpret and embarras him or her infront of the class then it prevents a similar occurance in the future by 90%. what i did was to tell the learners that i do not know who the culpret was, but that they do, so untill someone has the guts to tell me who it was or that person has the guts to own up, the whole class will be exempt from priviledges such as intervals.

this worked suprisingly well. at first there was a bit of mayhem when they were all blamming each other but then they realised that i was serious as i didnot let anybody leave the class till this person was identified. amoungst the moaning and bickering i heard them say that if Jason - the culpret didnt own up they were going to do something realy nasty to him when then they saw him again. because this was a dodgy school i dont know what they had in mind but whatever it was it worked. he immeadiatly owned up and the rest of the class were free to go except for him untill i drained him psychologically with guilt. worked like a bomb.

admittedly he never liked me but hey are we there to educate these kids or to be liked.

that is my advice but like i say it doesn't work in all situations but it is worth a try. i was complimented by the principal afterwards for the way in which i handled the situation because that class hass a reputation for being a particularly unruly bunch

hope it helps
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hey dude my greatest appologies - should have just checked out your profile befor i commented. sorry man for the mistaken identity.

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I love your instincts - sadly though, your little 'angels' will have to learn it all for themselves and think that they got there first.