Quiet kids as table buffers for louder kids

[Anonymous]

Knock, not know

[Anonymous]

Yeah totally different in HS. Everyone is sorted into their tracks. So your quiet/smart/diligent student will be sorted with the same cohort.

Elementary is a totally different animal, where kids on many different learning levels are in the same class.

Hopefully that helps, unless you were just trying to get everyone roiled up? But yes, placement for 16 yr olds getting ready to apply to college is very different from placement for 8 year olds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been on both sides of this.

As a teacher, yes I always did this.

As a parent I have been annoyed as my child has been used as a buffer child consistently.

I am not sure what you think the alternative is though?

I have the kid who won't stop talking and I ask that she not be put near people she would prefer to talk to. Keeps her quiet, she won't bug her neighbor, and everyone can focus on their work better. Why does this bother the "buffer"? They weren't going to misbehave or talk either way so the end result is the same for them. But now the classroom has less chatter.

Did it occur to you to teach your kid how to behave in a classroom setting?

Well, she has ADHD, so how could I "teach" her to do that?

Proper medication.

Gee whiz. If it only it made her shut up and never talk. She already has preferential seating nearest the teacher with other kids like her. We're doing our best. Sorry your goody two shoes has to be inconvenienced once in awhile.

So for those asking, this sounds like one alternative for teachers- put all the kids that talk a lot nearest teacher. That makes more sense to me with idea teacher can have eyes on them v splitting them around room, but admittedly not a teacher.

In the modern classroom there is no “nearest the teacher”. We move. A lot. Small groups meet with teachers while other kids are expected to remain on task elsewhere. Sometimes the lesson is up front on the board, but sometimes it’s walking around teaching from individual desk groups.

And when I have a class of 32 and 7 have “preferential seating away from door and near point of instruction”, it’s physically impossible to accommodate all 7, even if I taught solely from the front of the room 100% of the time.

This is for elementary classrooms, not Ms or hs. Kids that can’t behave need consequences or need to hit the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been on both sides of this.

As a teacher, yes I always did this.

As a parent I have been annoyed as my child has been used as a buffer child consistently.

I am not sure what you think the alternative is though?

I have the kid who won't stop talking and I ask that she not be put near people she would prefer to talk to. Keeps her quiet, she won't bug her neighbor, and everyone can focus on their work better. Why does this bother the "buffer"? They weren't going to misbehave or talk either way so the end result is the same for them. But now the classroom has less chatter.

Did it occur to you to teach your kid how to behave in a classroom setting?

Well, she has ADHD, so how could I "teach" her to do that?

Proper medication.

Why not give your kid anxiety medication if they can’t handle sitting next to a child who talks a lot? Why should we have to medicate our kids to please your kid? (Different poster)

You medicate your kid to help them to focus and learn better. That is in their best interest.

It’s in your child’s best interest to manage her anxiety and learn to deal with uncertain or uncomfortable social situations.

Of course, if you help her do that, she might discover that she can handle difficult things, and she isn’t as “quiet and shy” as her parents always insisted she was.

[Anonymous]

It is interesting because our daughter has ADHD with a preferential seating accommodation and she only uses it to move away from kids that are distracting because they are chatty/not paying attention/etc. As much as your child who is disruptive needs accommodation, others may legitimately need the opposite for the same condition. So while I understand ADHD can be difficult to control even with medication, it is reasonable that other kids need it quiet just as much as your child struggles with not talking. If you don’t want people judging your child it surprising me that you don’t offer the same benefit of the doubt to other kids with similar needs.

[Anonymous]

Your quiet kids are not “buffers” - they are just getting assigned to wherever they get assigned to. I get that you dislike the “loud”
kids and think they get special treatment, but your “quiet” kid does not deserve special treatment either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS teacher here. I stopped assigning groups and seats a lot time ago. There are way too many seat requests, accommodations and then parent emails for any configuration. They can pick their seats and I limit group projects. I prefer the kids who talk sit together. When apart, they still talk and either talk across the room or talk to whoever is near them. If it’s too loud, I politely ask them to take their conversation in the hall to continue talking while the rest of us are working, so we can concentrate. This stops it 99.9% of the time.

What about kids in the class that don’t have any friends to do group projects with in the class?

As I said, I limit group projects. There was one last year. I encouraged ones not in a group of 4 to work together. Often they tell me they prefer to work alone. I let them since forcing them to work in a group will result in more parent complaints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is interesting because our daughter has ADHD with a preferential seating accommodation and she only uses it to move away from kids that are distracting because they are chatty/not paying attention/etc. As much as your child who is disruptive needs accommodation, others may legitimately need the opposite for the same condition. So while I understand ADHD can be difficult to control even with medication, it is reasonable that other kids need it quiet just as much as your child struggles with not talking. If you don’t want people judging your child it surprising me that you don’t offer the same benefit of the doubt to other kids with similar needs.

When OP right out the gate calls these kids misbehavers, they don’t get much benefit of the doubt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your quiet kids are not “buffers” - they are just getting assigned to wherever they get assigned to. I get that you dislike the “loud”
kids and think they get special treatment, but your “quiet” kid does not deserve special treatment either.

Well, no. Kids are sent to school to learn. Your loud kid has no right to keep my kid from hearing the teacher. My quiet child is not keeping your child from learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your quiet kids are not “buffers” - they are just getting assigned to wherever they get assigned to. I get that you dislike the “loud”
kids and think they get special treatment, but your “quiet” kid does not deserve special treatment either.

Well, no. Kids are sent to school to learn. Your loud kid has no right to keep my kid from hearing the teacher. My quiet child is not keeping your child from learning.

Your boring kid isn’t contributing much to the discussion so they aren’t helping my kid learn either

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS teacher here. I stopped assigning groups and seats a lot time ago. There are way too many seat requests, accommodations and then parent emails for any configuration. They can pick their seats and I limit group projects. I prefer the kids who talk sit together. When apart, they still talk and either talk across the room or talk to whoever is near them. If it’s too loud, I politely ask them to take their conversation in the hall to continue talking while the rest of us are working, so we can concentrate. This stops it 99.9% of the time.

What about kids in the class that don’t have any friends to do group projects with in the class?

I’m a different teacher.

I limit groups now. Remember when we were in high school? One kid did all the work and the other 2-3 benefited. It’s the same now, and even worse. One kid looks up the answers online and the other 2-3 watch YouTube. I have classes of 36 or more. I can’t adequately monitor all groups, so I do it as little as possible.

I also agree with the teacher above. Loud kids can sit together. I spent years doing the buffer method and decided everyone loses. Now that classes can have 10 or more disruptive students each, I would run out of buffers anyway.

And to the people above criticizing teachers for their management, know that school isn’t what it used to be. Teachers can’t have control of their classrooms because every tool we had has been taken away. And the kids know it.

OT, but what does this mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS teacher here. I stopped assigning groups and seats a lot time ago. There are way too many seat requests, accommodations and then parent emails for any configuration. They can pick their seats and I limit group projects. I prefer the kids who talk sit together. When apart, they still talk and either talk across the room or talk to whoever is near them. If it’s too loud, I politely ask them to take their conversation in the hall to continue talking while the rest of us are working, so we can concentrate. This stops it 99.9% of the time.

What about kids in the class that don’t have any friends to do group projects with in the class?

I’m a different teacher.

I limit groups now. Remember when we were in high school? One kid did all the work and the other 2-3 benefited. It’s the same now, and even worse. One kid looks up the answers online and the other 2-3 watch YouTube. I have classes of 36 or more. I can’t adequately monitor all groups, so I do it as little as possible.

I also agree with the teacher above. Loud kids can sit together. I spent years doing the buffer method and decided everyone loses. Now that classes can have 10 or more disruptive students each, I would run out of buffers anyway.

And to the people above criticizing teachers for their management, know that school isn’t what it used to be. Teachers can’t have control of their classrooms because every tool we had has been taken away. And the kids know it.

OT, but what does this mean?

DP here but teachers can’t discipline kids anymore. They can’t make them stay after, give them extra assignments or detention, or send them to the principal unless they basically threaten to kill someone. Other than repeatedly asking them to stop, they can’t do anything about it.

[Anonymous]

Good topic for an Onion article

Breaking News, children act like children at school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been on both sides of this.

As a teacher, yes I always did this.

As a parent I have been annoyed as my child has been used as a buffer child consistently.

I am not sure what you think the alternative is though?

I have the kid who won't stop talking and I ask that she not be put near people she would prefer to talk to. Keeps her quiet, she won't bug her neighbor, and everyone can focus on their work better. Why does this bother the "buffer"? They weren't going to misbehave or talk either way so the end result is the same for them. But now the classroom has less chatter.

Did it occur to you to teach your kid how to behave in a classroom setting?

Well, she has ADHD, so how could I "teach" her to do that?

Proper medication.

Why not give your kid anxiety medication if they can’t handle sitting next to a child who talks a lot? Why should we have to medicate our kids to please your kid? (Different poster)

You medicate your kid to help them to focus and learn better. That is in their best interest.

+1

Terrible parenting to ignore ADD/ADHD or any similar issue. I have never heard of a medication to give anyone "selective listening" skills. PP sounds nuts. I feel bad for her kid, who does not seem to have a sane advocate for them.

Np. Do you have a child with ADHD or are you an adult with ADHD? Medication can help but a medicated child may still not have the same focus as a child without ADHD.

Also, what pp is discribing could absolutely happen to a child with ADHD. A child with ADHD may struggle to focus when there are more distractions around, such as friends that they want to talk to.

If it’s that bad, they need to be in a special Ed classroom. NP.

[Anonymous]

Listening to all these parents in here defending their kid’s poor behavior is exactly why great teachers are leaving the profession in droves and education is going in the toilet.