During my fourth year of teaching, I had a student who I’ll just call Gregory. This little guy proved to be quite a handful. He had recently gone through some tough times in his family and was on a mission to get attention in all the wrong ways. When I would have a talk with him, he would bolt out of the classroom and head outside. My principal, a great guy who had just finished working in administration in a junior high, found himself doing a daily sprint outside to go and fetch my angry student. We all worked together to help Gregory, but our plans were cut short when his mother decided to move him to a parochial school that had a very small class size. (My class had 30 kindergartners. I heard he did better at his new school.)
I can’t help but feel that I failed Gregory, even though I tried everything in my teacher repertoire. But I was frustrated, and to be honest there were times when I took his anger personally. That’s why this article caught my attention. I love what the author has to say about fixing classroom issues for the children and not for herself. So I thought I would bring it to your attention with the hope that it will help you with your own special Gregory.
Happy Teaching!
thank you for sharing your experience. i feel for children, no school system should have 30 students in al class but I suppose it can’t be helped at timesGlad to hear about gregory .I feel frustrated when I can’t see how to handle a behavioral issue