Kid Whisperer Nation Teacher Tips #152-156

Kid Whisperer Nation Teacher Tip Number #152

NEVER ALLOW STUDENTS TO CHANGE THEIR PERMANENT SEAT BECAUSE THEY DON’T GET ALONG WITH SOMEONE

No matter how well you arrange your students, there will be difficulties between them throughout the year. Of course, this is normal and healthy. From time to time, parents will become frustrated that their child is having difficulties with another student who sits next to them and wants their kid to be moved. The short answer to this request is “No.”

The reason for this is that students need to figure out how to deal with difficult people, and the price tag for doing so is as low today as it will ever be. It is better that students learn strategies for dealing with people whom they are different from or have different values than, in a safe environment now, rather than having them learn this in a bar when they are 21.

Teacher Tip #153

GET BIGGER, FASTER, AND MORE INTENSE

With teachers having less and less time to create quality, engaging lesson plans, we often have to rely on things that take little or no time to get kids more engaged. This one takes literally no time. Simply become emotionally charged in your teaching. Jump around. Safely throw stuff. Stand on a desk. Get LOUD. Don’t plan it (you don’t have time to anyway). Just do it.

Teacher Tip #154

ACT AS TIRED AS YOU FEEL

Especially in the spring, you are tired. Act like it. Moving slowly, talking with a soft voice and taking deep breaths before answering questions are all great ways to slow down the pace of your classroom, draw students in, and hit Control-Alt-Delete on your own hard drive.

Teacher Tip #155

RUN IN SCHOOL, TALK IN THE HALLWAY, DRINK POP

You are not subject to school rules. Those rules are for children. We have really gone over to the dark side of crazy when teachers think they have to follow rules made for students. You are an adult. There is an entirely different set of rules for you in and outside of your school.

Teacher Tip #156

DO NOT PICK YOUR BATTLES

Teachers who “pick their battles” with kids have far more battles from which to pick. If a kid exhibits a behavior that needs to stop in order for your classroom to function effectively and for that kid to avoid prison, that kid needs to learn, through consequences, that exhibiting the behavior in question will not get him what he wants.