Secondary school teachers- describe the worst situation that you've ever encountered in your classroom.

Question

I'm a high school administrator who is working on a classroom management presentation for first year teachers. Part of what I'd like to do would be to present our new teachers with real life experiences--- give them different scenarios that deal with troublesome student(s) behaving badly. So, please provide me with some of your scenarios--- tell me what happened (how many were involved, what they were doing wrong, etc.) and tell me how you handled this situation. I GREATLY appreciate your taking the time to respond. (Those who aren't teachers can respond as well--- if you're a high school student, I'm sure you can think of a sitaution where a classmate challenged a teacher! Feel free to share!)

Answer 1

I had a scary experience. A student with anger control concerns came to class already upset about a conflict. Someone called him a "pu$$y" for getting upset. That was the last straw and the student starting flipping desks and throwing whatever he could find.

My response was to get all my students and myself out of the classroom and notify administration and campus security. The student (luckily) remained inside and destroyed the room and cost the school a great deal of money. But, no students were seriously hurt (a book to the thigh was the worst of it) and things can be replaced.

Answer 2

I am an elementary teacher but when I was subbing at a middle school I had a girl who as soon as she entered the room said "oh great a substitute teacher- this is going to be great!" I ignored it and started the lesson which called for round robin reading- when it was her turn she just said blah blah blah... and wouldn't stop.  I had someone else read for her.   Then  as I was passing out the worksheets the kids were in rows so I gave 7 papers to the first person to take one and pass them back, when the girl got the papers she ripped them all up and passed them back.  I asked her to pick up the scraps on the third time she picked them up ripped them into smaller piece and sprinkled them on a student next to her, then she shoved books off the student’s desk.  I told her to put her head down if she wasn’t going to do the work.  (I had more worksheets for the next class so I used those).  

Upon leaving she swung from the doorway...

She was caught by her homeroom teacher- whom I spoke with about her behavior...

I had her for study hall two periods later she showed up with a written apology and completed the assignment.  She was given 3 days detention.  

I'm so happy I teach elementary school... :) Good Luck!!

Answer 3

I do a workshop for new teachers on the philosophy of Cooperative Discpline, and honestly, I wouldn't give them the worst situations... Those are few and far between.  Give them the real situations that happen everyday; students talking, out of seat behaviors, talking back, etc.  Most teachers out of college don't know how to deal with those things, and those are the tools they will need the most!

There are a lot of great websites that talk about why students exhibit behaviors.  If I was at my school computer I would give you the web sites... sorry!  But use a search engine and type in any of these key words.  Good luck!

Answer 4

one kid took out a lighter and tried to light the room on fire

starting with a student and desks..

by the way i teach in a very ritzy area so i expected more from these kids.

(they were juniors)