Have your children ever had an extremely disruptive child in elementary class?

[Anonymous]

Send the other kids to a quiet place while you deal with the disruptive child? Really? That must be pretty disruptive to the school day. And, where do you find the space? Especially if you are in a trailer?

[Anonymous]

Aides would be great but school systems refuse to provide 1:1 aides.

[Anonymous]

The real problem is there is no alternative appropriate classroom for a lot of these children. Very few elementary schools have separate "special needs" classrooms any more-and if they did, it wouldn't be an improvement to be disrupting that class vs. disrupting the general ed class. It just relocates the problem. And it is way too expensive to assign a separate classroom just for this one child, with his own personal teacher.

Lots of naysayers on the teacher's approach but I haven't seen any posters offering a decent solution.

[Anonymous]

I still draw the line at physical violence. Yes, it's not fair that the rest of the class has to wait while the teacher deals with the offender, or has to go to a 'quiet place', or whatever other techniques you use.. but when it comes to another child hitting my child, I don't give a crap about 'giving that other child a chance now that he is in elementary school'. The school should be a safe environment, if the kids don't learn much, well, we'd just have to supplement at home, but hitting-spitting-biting.. you've got to be kidding me!

And, for the record, my child has never hit or bit another child, and I'm watching him very closely on the playground. He is 4, and we do not tolerate violence toward anyone, family or, even worse, strangers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still draw the line at physical violence. Yes, it's not fair that the rest of the class has to wait while the teacher deals with the offender, or has to go to a 'quiet place', or whatever other techniques you use.. but when it comes to another child hitting my child, I don't give a crap about 'giving that other child a chance now that he is in elementary school'. The school should be a safe environment, if the kids don't learn much, well, we'd just have to supplement at home, but hitting-spitting-biting.. you've got to be kidding me!

And, for the record, my child has never hit or bit another child, and I'm watching him very closely on the playground. He is 4, and we do not tolerate violence toward anyone, family or, even worse, strangers.

Draw the line how? Kick the kid out of school? What is your solution?

[Anonymous]

When I taught school, we sent kids home for biting. Period. For a day, at least. I taught young children. Never had a kid do it more than once.

[Anonymous]

Hitting was different. We dealt with that at school--unless kids were really hurt. The worst was in the "70's when Kung Fu was on tv.......playground time was a trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Send the other kids to a quiet place while you deal with the disruptive child? Really? That must be pretty disruptive to the school day. And, where do you find the space? Especially if you are in a trailer?

Less then 5 minutes is hardly that disruptive. Its like a bathroom break.

I'm not in the DC area - so no trailers. The elementary school I work at has a common area and that is where the students go (its right outside our classroom).

For those criticizing my approach - I welcome suggestions. The approach I take is based on feedback and approaches used by previous teachers and what the school counselor recommended.

He was disruptive today. But not for long. He was verbally aggressive as soon as he walked into class in the afternoon and when I gave a warning he had a meltdown and crashed on a beanbag by the book corner. I gave him a few minutes then left my other students to do independent work at a table while I went to talk to him and he vented about how he was feeling frustrated. I told him I understood and I talked to him about how his behavior affected his friends. Then I kept going with class and less then 5 minutes later he joined and was back to normal. No big deal, honestly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone here with an elementary kid remember having a toddler? Remember how unreasonable their tantrums were? Remember how hard you had to work as a parent to help them understand what expectations for appropriate behavior were? For those of you with more than one child, did you have one toddler who was more willful, had more trouble with self-control? For the more "difficult" of your two children, did you just say, "unacceptable, s/he needs to figure this out" and then just leave it at that? No, you didn't because you couldn't. You modify some of your techniques, and the kid did eventually figure it out.

Yes. But when I bring my willful toddler say to a library and he's acting disruptive - I take him out. I do it for the sake of other people around us, who do not have to put up with toddler's tantrum even though he's very special and has emotional problems.

I should have been like "Oh, sorry, he's having a meltdown here, at the library. But you understand, he's special - so just sit and don't mind the screaming, kicking, and books flying around."

My point is if you want to work on your child's behavior it shouldn't be done at other people's expense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
He was disruptive today. But not for long. He was verbally aggressive as soon as he walked into class in the afternoon and when I gave a warning he had a meltdown and crashed on a beanbag by the book corner. I gave him a few minutes then left my other students to do independent work at a table while I went to talk to him and he vented about how he was feeling frustrated. I told him I understood and I talked to him about how his behavior affected his friends. Then I kept going with class and less then 5 minutes later he joined and was back to normal. No big deal, honestly.

so the whole thing took what, 10 minutes? Out of a 45 minute class? Who cares, really, it's only 22% of the class time.

[Anonymous]

I taught school for a number of years. I don't think I ever knew a teacher who operated on a daily basis as the teacher above claims. Frankly, I think the poster is a parent of a disruptive child who is writing a fairy tale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
He was disruptive today. But not for long. He was verbally aggressive as soon as he walked into class in the afternoon and when I gave a warning he had a meltdown and crashed on a beanbag by the book corner. I gave him a few minutes then left my other students to do independent work at a table while I went to talk to him and he vented about how he was feeling frustrated. I told him I understood and I talked to him about how his behavior affected his friends. Then I kept going with class and less then 5 minutes later he joined and was back to normal. No big deal, honestly.

so the whole thing took what, 10 minutes? Out of a 45 minute class? Who cares, really, it's only 22% of the class time.

Brilliant thought! Those kids will only get 22% behind their peers, but who cares really? Certainly not, apparently, the parents whose kids is impacting learning for the whole class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
He was disruptive today. But not for long. He was verbally aggressive as soon as he walked into class in the afternoon and when I gave a warning he had a meltdown and crashed on a beanbag by the book corner. I gave him a few minutes then left my other students to do independent work at a table while I went to talk to him and he vented about how he was feeling frustrated. I told him I understood and I talked to him about how his behavior affected his friends. Then I kept going with class and less then 5 minutes later he joined and was back to normal. No big deal, honestly.

so the whole thing took what, 10 minutes? Out of a 45 minute class? Who cares, really, it's only 22% of the class time.

It affected him for about 10-15 minutes. It affected the rest of the class for the less then 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I taught school for a number of years. I don't think I ever knew a teacher who operated on a daily basis as the teacher above claims. Frankly, I think the poster is a parent of a disruptive child who is writing a fairy tale.

You're welcome to fly out here and ask to observe in my school. It is run very differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I taught school for a number of years. I don't think I ever knew a teacher who operated on a daily basis as the teacher above claims. Frankly, I think the poster is a parent of a disruptive child who is writing a fairy tale.

You're welcome to fly out here and ask to observe in my school. It is run very differently.

Also - things probably have changed in general for every school and teacher.