How Often Do You Raise Your Voice?

Question

I feel like I'm consistently raising my voice to my students. They have become unresponsive to anything else. They don't care if they miss recess, they don't care if they miss fun activities, class trips or anything else "fun" or "enjoyable" They don't even care about getting a sad face on a paper, if they don't listen or do their work.

They are Kindergarteners and they are always talking back.

I feel like they only understand something when I yell?

Do any other teacher's feel this way? I also teach in an inner city school and sometimes I wonder if some of the parents enforce rules at home. Someone kids have no concept of consquences.

Answer 1

You are not alone in this.  Many inner city teachers experience the same thing.  The reason for this is because the only form of communication heard in your kids' homes (for a lot of them) is yelling.  Also, many inner city parents don't take the time to deal with their kids at home because of long hours at work, drug usage, etc.  Some of the parents have no concept of conscequences, too.  The parents are totally at fault, but unfortunately, you have to deal with this.

You're in a very difficult situation, but I would do a few things.

1) Ask a colleague.  They know your school and the practices in them.  Fellow teachers at a school are a great source of advice.

2) Try rewarding those kids who do well with a snack or a prize or something.  Then, when the other kids wonder why they didn't get something, you can explain how they have to behave in order to get the prize.  There is a lot to be said for the effect of peer rewarding.

3) Make the kid sit facing a wall as punishment for backtalk.  Sometimes this can make a big difference, and you can do it to several students.

4)  If it is really unbearable QUIT, and go to a suburb school.  You will be happier in the long run, and get to work with higher quality students anyway.

Answer 2

It is getting harder and harder to teach.   I teach in a Christian school and even there the parents don't enforce anything with the children.   You are right that children today have no concept of consquences.    The complaints I get are not about what I'm teaching or that there kid isn't getting the subjects!   It's you didn't give them all their recess, we don't agree with that.   Blah, blah, blah.   What else do I have to take away?   One parent complained I didn't give the kids enough time to talk to each other!!!!   School is for learning not talking.   I teach third graders -- bless your heart for teaching the K5.  

One thing I always try to remember is "a soft answer turneth away wrath".    When  I just get real quiet and wait for them to calm themselves, it is more effective.   I never raise my voice (I'm right next to the offices and the principal's).     I found that giving a simple paper coupon that they can exchange (after 20) for a "no homework pass) has helped them improve so much.   I also have row contests with which row is quieter first gets 500 points.   Row with most points at the end of the day gets a piece of candy or first to go at recess or able to talk at lunch (school policy for a 15 minutes no talk so they will eat then they get to talk), etc., you know what will reach your students.  

Remember, school is coming to an end for this year.   The kids checked out just after spring break.....

Answer 3

I find that speaking softly encourages kids to speak softly also.  If I need a child's attention, I walk across the room and touch him (or her) on the shoulder with a smile.  If I want class attention, I flip the light switch.  If I am calm and collected, the kids tend to be calm and collected also.  If I get emotional, so do they.  They are, at this level, responding more to emotions than to words in any case.  They have already been trained, by unresponsive television sets, to ignore words.

See if you can find a copy of "Controls from Within" by Fritz Redl and David Wineman.  It is sometimes combined with a companion volume, "Children Who Hate."  Redl and Wineman dealt with much older, hyperactive, aggressive children, but they came up with a list of eighteen different ways to control inappropriate behavior beginning with #1 (Is it something trivial that you can ignore?) and ending with #18 (rewards and punishment).  There is a heavy psychoanalytical basis underlying their recommendations, but this can be ignored.  They were dealing with very difficult kids, they learned how to do it, and they are passing on how it is done.

Kindergarten children often have parents who are young and who are learning themselves.  By tradition, parents either repeat the mistakes of their own parents or, by avoiding those, repeat the mistakes their grandparents made with their parents.  

Parents goof.  So do teachers.  Do what feels right to you, and you will succeed more often than you will fail.  No one ever said teaching young kids was easy.  More power to you!

Answer 4

I agree with those who mentioned to speak softly.

There is a wonderful quote that I love to use by Gandhi: be the change you wish to see in the world.

Are the kids reacting to your energy?  Are you stressed and short tempered and that's what they give you?  Are they coming from a stressed and unstable homelife, and entering a classroom that is the same?

I know from personal experience that when I am stressed, I am short tempered and have little patience with my students.  They know how I am feeling without me saying anything.  When I'm calm, they are calm.  I know it sounds too easy to work, but after a while, it does!

I actually spend a lot of time at the beginning of the school year modeling for my students what I expect from them.  What you model, you will receive.  Recently, I had a health issue that kept me out of the classroom for 9 out of 15 school days and my students had a plethora of substitute teachers.  The first 2 days I was back, the kids were absolutely awful.  I  was ready to scream (but I didn't!)

We decided to start over.  Mind you, this is last week, where we only have 3 weeks left of school, so many teachers would give up.  It was about 2:30 in the afternoon and we had only an hour left in the day.  I couldn't take it anymore - the talking, the rudeness, the yelling, name calling, etc.  I had taken away recess, taken away time from lunch, had silent work time, you name it, I tried it.

At 2:30 we erased our agenda for the day, stacked our chairs, and got ready to go home - only to start our day brand new at 2:35 - complete with their morning routine and a new (albiet much shorter!) agenda.  Taking the time to start over showed the kids that teachers can make mistakes, and despite what might happen at home (or not happen - as I know many parents give great lip service to what they are doing, but don't follow through with anything) things at school CAN be calm. They CAN be respectful, and they can have boundaries that are worth sticking to, because it means we can all learn and have fun.

Hope this helps, and good luck!