In the past, we have both witnessed teachers
being overly negative toward their students. Most teachers have a classroom of
students that are at all different levels. If the teacher already has a
negative attitude it will reflect on her students. When teachers with a negative attitude teach a
lesson, they expect for all the children to understand the objectives right
away. Most of the time the teacher teaches in one way and doesn’t take
into consideration the different learning styles of the students. When
the children do not understand, they blame the parents for not raising the
child properly or helping the child or they blame the child for not paying
attention. Instead of making excuses as to why the students don’t
understand, the teacher should reflect on her/his teaching and find a way to address
all of her/his students’ needs.
Having students go up to the board to solve a
problem can be very rewarding for a student or very embarrassing.
If a child makes a mistake on the board, some teachers don’t give
the child enough time to correct himself/herself before the teacher begins to criticize the student, making
comments like, “if you were paying attention, you would know this.” Also,
when a student who never understands the lessons fails a test or a quiz, the
teachers automatically say that they are not surprised and move on with the
lesson. When teachers read test grades out loud to prove that some
students are failing, doesn’t make the students learn from their mistakes. It
makes the students even more scared to ask for help and makes them feel ashamed
that they may not understand a specific lesson. The teacher puts in
requests for students to be aided by the child study team, but tells the
students and says, “I’ll see you next year.”
In our opinion, patterns of this type frequently
come from those that have been teaching for many years and implement the same
lessons year after year without changing any content. These types of teachers are constantly yelling
and become stressed out when they realize their children aren’t understanding
the lessons. These teachers are never calm and because of that, their
classrooms are very hectic, resulting in their students acting out of control. Do you agree?
Have you seen this type of behavior on the
part of some teachers? Where? Do you think that these teachers
affect students negatively or
positively? Do you feel that their age or years of teaching are affecting their
ability to be compassionate towards students? What are some ways that these
teachers can go back to the mind set they had when they just began their
teaching career, or can’t they? How can teachers stay grounded?
As a teacher, it is important to have patience. If one is not patient, then how is your class going to learn? Children are at different learning levels and it is important for a teacher to be understanding that not every child can learn in the same way. That is why differentiation is stressed in our lesson plans--so every child can have a way of learning the lesson by a method that helps THEM learn.
ReplyDeletePositive reinforcement is also very important in a classroom, and a teacher must be careful with their wording—saying something like "no, that's wrong" can really hurt a child and make them feel discouraged.
Last semester, I was in a 5th grade classroom and I did see this type of behavior in the co-teacher. He usually taught math to the children and would get easily frustrated with them since a lot found math to be difficult and it was not easy for them to grasp the concept. In fact, he did make one girl cry during a lesson because she could not understand the lesson while the co-teacher was getting frustrated over her struggling to grasp the concept. The last thing I want to see is a child get upset because they are not understanding the concept; that just breaks my heart. I know as a teacher it is frustrating to have all this differentiation for the children, but with this co-teacher I saw the frustration in his body and verbal language. I’m not sure how long he has been a teacher for, but I can definitely agree that some of the older teachers are so used to repeating the same lesson year after year, some of them do not want to go back to make adjustments. It’s important to always change things up, because every year you get a new group of children with different ways of learning.
If a teacher is not willing to make adjustments in their lessons, especially when it comes to differentiation and assessment, then the teacher is going to have a very tough time teaching it to his or her next group of students.
There are all types of teachers and I believe that some are better than others. Some teachers carry and display positive attitudes in the classroom while others exhibit negative attitudes. Teachers carry a big responsibility and whether they realize it at the time or not, the things they say can impact their students lives. For example, if a teacher has a negative outlook in the classroom, the students may develop an overall negative attitude towards school and may lose passion about learning. On the other hand, if a teacher has a positive attitude and provides encouragement and support, students will probably like school and look forward to learning. Teachers determine the class environment and if an environment is created consisting of positivity and optimism it is likely the students will exhibit positivity as well.
ReplyDeleteI believe teachers develop and grow over many years of training and experience. I have never met a teacher who is an expert on their first day. Classrooms are very diverse and students do not learn in the same way. As a teacher, it is important to have patience and be willing to explain topics in different ways. It is unrealistic to expect students to master a lesson immediately. Teachers need to understand that and work with students until they understand the content and not get frustrated at them.
Overall, I have been fortunate in that the majority of my cooperating teachers have had a positive attitude towards teaching. However, last semester I observed a teacher who had a short temper and often got aggravated when students did not understand the material. I remember one day she correlated a girl’s confusion in math to the fact that she was twirling her hair. Multiple times during the lesson, she called out the girl, in front of her classmates, and told her to stop. I could tell that the student was embarrassed and did not like that fact that the teacher was drawing attention to her. The girl was sincerely trying to follow the lesson but did not understand comparing fractions. Next thing I knew, my cooperating teacher went to the back of the room, grabbed a rubber band, and put the child’s hair in pig-tails against her will. My cooperating teacher had officially lost her temper and in a nasty tone told the student that she could no longer twirl her hair. The girl was nearly in tears and later told me that she was twirling her hair because she was getting frustrated with herself that she did not understand the lesson. My cooperating teacher did not differentiate her teaching and expected her students to understand it immediately. This girl will probably never forget this incident and her education career might have been negatively altered because of it.
I have witnessed teachers singling children out however it was because of their behavior. I see more of teachers saying "you're not behaving today" or "you haven't listened all week" than I do with academics. I don't believe this is the proper way to handle it, and for some kids who are aiming to be the "Class Clown" you are achieving their goal by giving them that attention. I think sometimes teacher lose sight of the fact that kids are kids. They want to act like kids and forget all about school work sometimes.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue is, when having a bad day as the teacher, it gets pushed on our students. We take it out on them. While it may be human nature to lash out on someone, it is important that we remember to leave the frustrations outside the door of our classrooms. The classroom is meant to be a comfortable place for the kids.
I too agree, that constant routine of the same lessons can get very boring and sometimes teachers lose sight of the new interesting things that can be learned, or styles in which to teach them. Using old strategies gets boring because you have different students every year and the old ways don't always work with the new students. Its most important to adapt!
I think part of the frustration is, teachers are learning new assessments and new SGO's and a new curriculum and its an overwhelming year however it is most important not to forget why we are doing what we do... the love of the kids.
I observed in a class for upper elementary students with intermediate emotional and behavioral disturbances. The teacher had an extremely negative attitude toward the students. There was constantly yelling and the teacher frequently made statements such as, "I'm so done with you" or "No! Don't talk to me!" if the students were asking her questions, talking back, or were annoying her. The environment in the classroom was most definitely not a learning one. The students seemed to have as much contempt for the teacher as she did for them.
ReplyDeleteThe teacher had been teaching exceptional students for a very long time, and had taught in all kind of situations and environments. I think she was just tired of dealing with challenging students and instead of retiring, considering other options, or thinking of ways to work with the students, she took out her anger and frustration on them.
I will not deny that the students were challening and sometimes violent and being in the classroom could easily turn into a very stressful situation. However, that does not warrant a lack in compassion and a learning environment. As a teacher, it is your responsbility to respect your students and figure out a way to reach them.
To stay grounded when teachers are tempted to be negative toward their students, they need to figure out why they are developing negative attitudes toward their students. Do they fit in this type of classroom? Is there stress at home that is behind this negativity? Do they want to be a teacher anymore? I also think that teachers should talk to family, friends, and especially other teachers to talk about solutions, collaboration, and just to help them figure their situation out to help them avoid being negative toward their students and therefore having a long-lasting negative impact not only on their education career but also on their view of themselves overall.
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ReplyDeleteI have witnessed teachers and aides both have negative attitudes in their classroom and also towards their students. When a teacher is not positive throughout the day, it is going to reflect on the students without a doubt. Many teachers are stressed out today for so many reasons I understand that, but the number one thing to have as a teacher is patience! If you do not have patience, I honestly do not think you are cut out to be a teacher. My coop teacher has only 6 students out of 29 on second grade reading level, and all though she is stressed about it, she does not go about it in a negative way; she constantly is making changes and working with the different levels of the students. There is no reason to take your negativity out on the student who is taking too much time on his work, or the student who got the answer wrong on the board; you must work with them to fix it and not moan that it is wrong. If the class does not understand a particular lesson, try new ways to go about it; don’t automatically assume that this is it. if you are having a bad day, week, month as soon as you enter that classroom you need to leave your negative attitude at the door and put a smile on for your students because every action will reflect on them.
ReplyDeleteDuring my first week of observations this semester, I had the privilege of meeting 29 rambunctious, nervous, chatty, crying, loving, adorable kindergarteners. Many of my new friends had no clue when to raise their hands, when it was time to pay attention, or that it would be ok to stop crying and just have fun because school always ends at 3:15 and they would definitely see their parents again eventually! My patient, kind, cooperating teacher expected nothing more from them, she knew it was the very first time in a classroom for many of the children and she by no means expected them to be perfect right away. She knew that teaching them what to do in school would take time, and that it would be her responsibility.
ReplyDeleteThe kindergarteners have ‘specials’ every day. On Tuesday, they have media/ library class. The first time they had this special, I stayed behind and helped my cooperating teacher give extra help to an ESL student. The second time they had this special, in the five or so minutes leading up to it, I didn’t even recognize the kindergarteners! The enthusiastic, hyper, silly kindergarteners that I knew and loved were terrified. They kept asking me: "Do we really need to go there again? When will it be over? You’re coming with us, right? Can I go to the bathroom??, I think I need to try to go again before we get there. You won’t yell at me if I cry, right?" I was so confused about what brought about this change in the children, but when I joined them in the library/media room it was obvious.
Their library/media teacher greeted them with a not-so-warm welcome of: "I HOPE you are all better behaved today than last time. We did not get anything done or get to do anything fun because you were so bad!" Then, she proceeded to tell me, as though I would agree with her and as if the students were not listening, how terribly behaved my precious little kindergarteners are. She told me all about these so-called ‘terrors’ that I knew and loved: "All they did was cry! I TOLD them to sit in boy-girl-boy-girl order on the rug and they just did not GET IT. How hard is that to understand?? THEN, it was as if they never used the restrooms before. One after another after another they kept interrupting me to ask to use the bathroom".
As she criticized them, they listened with wide eyes and expressions that silently said: "Why did you make us come here Miss R?" It all made sense to me. These innocent children were actually AFRAID that they might need to use the bathroom again. They did not want me to leave them because they felt scared.
I felt helpless. I was scared myself of talking back to a full-time teacher in the school where I want to be respectful and make a good impression. But at the same time I wanted nothing more than to tell her to be kinder to my gentle little kindergarteners. How could she yell at them for crying? It was their first week of school!
I can confidently say that during media that day, the kindergarteners did not learn much of anything. If they even moved the wrong way, they were scolded. Between their scoldings, the teacher LOUDLY confided in me that she wishes she retired and she is sick of teaching. How wonderful, right?
To answer your question, I do agree with you. I observed the epitome of a patient, positive teaching in my cooperating teacher. Sadly, in their media teacher I saw the opposite. Like you said, the teacher’s negative attitude certainly affected the students’ learning.
I am actually experiencing this type of impatient and negative teaching now in the fourth grade class that I am observing. Like many of you have said about your co-op teachers that weren’t so nice, there was a lot of “ Why aren’t you getting this? It’s because you’re not listening!” or “I don’t know what they taught you in third grade, but I’m not having it here. Grow! Up!” or “This is so easy to understand, you must not be listening.” She would also single out people and make a spectacle about how their bad behavior is affecting the class. There were several times when this one boy would cry after she does this.
ReplyDeleteMy co-op teacher is pregnant, so I’m not sure if she’s normally like this or if her hormones are causing her to be more irritable towards the children. Whatever the real reason is, she gives them busy work in the form of thousands of worksheets and teaches by the book. There is no differentiation whatsoever, and she yells at them for asking for help. I think she gets exactly what she puts out to them. She gives them less than half the effort and that’s what she gets back. As difficult as it is sometimes, differentiation is very important and so is being patient.
The students could get rambunctious at times, and I think Jessica Amador made a great point in saying that kids are kids, and they will forget about school sometimes and just act like a kid. However, this doesn’t mean they have the right to act out in class, and there are not any alternative ways in handling behavior other than sarcasm and yelling. Sometimes, I feel like teachers need to step back and have the kids work with them. They can be part of the teaching process. A mutual respect and care between teacher and class is important. When that is established, I feel like it would help teachers stay grounded and have an easier time. It’s not like this isn’t possible. I observed this smooth cooperation between class and teacher in my previous field placement. I feel like both the teacher and class sometimes forget that they’re in school because they have so much fun together while learning.
I also don’t think that the number of years teaching has a big impact in a teacher’s attitude. There are some older teachers who can effectively still connect and teach the material by making it fun and interesting. On the other hand, my co-op teacher has been teaching for seven years, and has already burnt out. I think it all depends on how much work and passion the teacher will give her students.
A teacher is the center of the classroom. The teacher is the foundation for learning. Everything begins and ends with the center of the class. A teacher has the responsibility to create the best environment for learning. The class is not about the teacher but the students and should be established as such. I have seen classes where the teacher will go out of their way to inspire motivation in students for learning and the whole class gains from the attitude of the teacher. The main point I am trying to convey is that a teacher's job is to help students learn for their sake despite what the students may want. If a teacher no longer feels that the main motivation to help students learn, the teacher should move on to other areas. At the very least, teachers should periodically reevaluate themselves to see where their priorities lie.
ReplyDeleteI have experienced these types of close-minded teachers in my experience as a student and as a student placed in another teacher's classroom. I agree with the notion that if a teacher is not presenting material in a calm and rational manner, than he/she cannot expect the students to be receptive to the lesson calmly or rationally either. I can distinctly remember specific teachers of mine who who yell to get a point across. It seems me that yelling is a last resort to gain compliance or attention. If that method is what the teacher is sinking to, the students are likely to see the teacher as either being domineering or they may not take the teacher seriously at all. Surely there's a better way than yelling and threatening. Or job is to teach, not control. These controlling teachers, young or old, should act as a role model and as someone who is sharing knowledge rather than shoving it down students' throats.
ReplyDeleteI have never experienced this type of negative teaching. I have seen teachers have a bad day and lose their patience, but it was not a consistent attitude. However, I agree completely that the negative attitude will reflect onto the students. If the teacher has a negative attitude then the students will have a negative attitude toward school. I have experienced teachers who have positive attitudes and are passionate about what they teach. My high school English teacher had a great attitude, wanted every student to succeed, and was passionate about English. She made English come to life and as a result every student who had her enjoyed being in her class. I have yet to hear a negative comment about her. This is what teaching should be like.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that patience is key! Teachers need to be patient with their students, especially those who are struggling and need that extra support. I think it is important for teachers to recognize when their teaching styles or lesson plans are not working and for the teachers to step back and reflect. Teachers cannot be afraid of change because change is key in helping ALL students learn! I think these teachers can get back to the mindset they had when they started their teaching career; however they have to want to do that. They need to have the initiative to step back from the situation, reflect, be open-minded, and have the courage to change their ways.
I think it is safe to say, and we can all share an agreement, that this type of behavior is unacceptable from any teacher, wether they have had years of expierence, or are brand new.
ReplyDeleteI have seen many teacher like this, and have also shared the expierence of being in a classroom as a student and an observer. It is not pleasing, on either part. A positive attitude can reflect a positive classroom. Come to think of it, why would any teacher want to construct a negative classroom ?
We are also all aware that teaching is not an easy job, and there are better days than others, but through those tough days, the teacher who shows positivity and compassion for what he/she does will end up leading their class in a positive reinforcment.
I totally agree with Zeth's idea about how all instruction and behavior is modeled by the teacher. It is he/she who is the center of the classroom enviornment, and their daily attitude controls the outcome of classroom behavior, from each student.
I do agree that teachers who are not understanding create hectic classrooms. If a student knows that they will not understand the lesson and knows the teacher is not willing to help, why not act out? Make the class fun. I have seen this type of behavior when I was in high school, particularly my U.S. History I class. The teacher was quite old and was definitely set in his teaching method. He did not even change the lesson from class to class. We were always able to ask another class what they did during the period, and we did the same exact thing; whether we learned at a slower pace or not. When we asked a question about a topic we were learning about, the teacher would never really answer the question. Another famous line was, “Read the textbook.”
ReplyDeleteI do not feel like his age or experience affected his ability to be compassionate towards students. There were many other teachers in the school who were the same age and had the same number of years experience who were great teachers and were very compassionate. They tried their best to keep up with current educational studies, and wanted every student to succeed.
One way teachers can get back to their younger mindset of teaching is by conducting surveys with their students to find out ways they can improve. These teachers can also be observed and instructed on ways to improve their teaching and success of students. I have seen more and more younger teachers in the school systems and think that some of the reason relates to this post. New teachers have new ideas and are ready to implement them and take risks. For the older teachers in the school, who are grumpy and not compassionate, they should receive additional training and be prepared to implement new strategies.