ALL IN ONE

n obvious fact that we're all aware of as teachers is that a student, when recognized for positive behavior, will feel less inclined to seek attention in inappropriate ways. Conversely, when a pupil's efforts are ignored, the chances of them disrupting the lesson to gain some attention are greatly increased.

Young people need reassurance and encouragement if they are to continue to behave appropriately

The problem we have, as teachers, is that we are told to give out praise as much as possible and that the solution to all our problems lies simply in repeatedly telling pupils how well they are doing. We consequently find ourselves uttering the same tired, weak, comments such as 'well done', 'that's really good!' and 'I like that'.

But these comments are a waste of time in terms of encouraging pupils - they are just too wishy-washy. Praise must be sincere otherwise it is just hollow, worthless and patronizing.

If we want to improve the behavior of pupils in our care we need to fully recognize their individual efforts. Unless we praise effectively the associated benefits will be lost.

The following two tips will help you deliver praise more effectively and thereby reduce disruption in your classroom... 1) When you give verbal praise to a child - make them really feel it. When you praise a child you make them feel your appreciation by telling them exactly WHAT they did and WHY it was good.

True praise comes from genuinely noticing when they put effort into something or have managed to complete something they wouldn't normally manage. When you give thoughtful attention to a student's work like this work it demonstrates that you recognize their work or improved behavior. Such deep appreciation builds self-esteem and encourages continued progress.

"Paul, stand back and look at what you've done... this is a fantastic portrait! What really impresses me is the way you've made that eye come to life by showing the light reflecting here. That really makes it come alive!"

Now, doesn't that sound better than a wishy-washy statement such as "Very good Paul"?

Similarly, when a troublesome child is behaving appropriately, this must be acknowledged.

"John I'm so impressed. You've sat quietly for the last 10 minutes and got on with your work. That's great because I've been able to go and help other pupils and I haven't needed to shout at you. Well done!"

2) Send letters home to praise your pupils effectively... Don't underestimate the power of the letter home as a form of praise and effective behavior management tool. This has such a positive impact on students - I only wish I'd started doing it earlier in my career.

Sending a nice letter home can transform a previously negative child - literally overnight - into one who is motivated and eager to please. This is also one method that works well even with older pupils - right up to age 16 and beyond. It is also very effective for pupils who don't accept public praise very well - a letter home means their mates will never find out!

Letters home can be 'quick-notes' or more formal, traditional letters on school headed paper. You can send out simple postcards for odd pieces of particularly good work or award 'extra special' letters in response to sustained effort such as after a pupil has earned 5 stickers (younger pupils) or 5 merits (older pupils).

Generic letters are very insincere so the best way to organize your praise letters for speed and ease is to have two copies of your letter ready written in a file on your computer - one for girls and one for boys. It's then just a matter of filling in the name, printing it out on headed paper and either giving it to the pupil to take home or posting it.

It is time consuming producing letters and copying them onto headed paper but it definitely has a tremendous impact on individuals as well as helping create a positive classroom atmosphere.

To discover more effective classroom management tools visit www.Classroom-management.org.

Classroom Management Plan - Top 3 Ways to improve your classroom management overnight.

Looking for an effective classroom management plan is hard. Student behaviour is getting worse due to a variety of different factors, so it is no surprise that people everywhere are looking for an effective classroom management plan.

So what should be part of your classroom management plan in your attempt to improve student behavior? Well an effective classroom management plan has many elements, but there are three things that every teacher can do tomorrow to ensure better student behavior.

Number 1. Stay Positive - It is so easy when you are stuck in a rut in the middle of January to become downbeat and negative. If you are negative, then your students will be negative and that can only be a bad thing for your classroom management.

What tends to happen in these situations is that you get yourself into a vicious circle, the more negative that you become, the more badly behaved your students become. Take yourself out of the bubble and try and remember why you became a teacher in the first place. If you can walk into your classroom with a smile on your face you will get a much more positive reaction from your students.

Number 2. Praise, praise and more praise - If you want good classroom management from your students then praise them whenever you have the opportunity. You need to train your students exactly how you want them to behave, and the use of praise is an excellent way to do this.

With the worst students in your class actively look for them being well behaved. When you find this (even the worst students behave for brief moments!) make sure that you heap praise on them. This is extremely hard to do when you are fed up, and the child in question has made you life hell for weeks, but if you do this you will notice a big improvement in their future behavior.

Number 3. Use the language of choice - I can't overstate this enough. Instead of telling children to do something, explain to them that you would like to them to chose to do something. This subtle change in language is incredibly powerful and is sure to produce positive results.

An example of this would be explaining to John "I would like you to choose to sit down quietly", as opposed to saying "sit down quietly".

These three steps can be an incredibly effective way to improve your classroom management plan quickly. Make these subtle changes now and reap the rewards in your classroom tomorrow.

by Rob Johnson

There is one true key to successful behavior management. It doesn't matter how many effective teaching skills and useful behavior strategies you have in your arsenal; without this, your efforts will eventually come unstuck.

The secret ingredient is... the teacher-pupil relationship.

You see, when you really get to know a pupil you become aware of their triggers - the things that upset them and cause all sorts of problems in class. And when you're dealing with children who carry all kinds of emotional baggage and flare up for no apparent reason, this is valuable knowledge.

After all... stopping behavior problems from occurring is much easier when you know in advance what causes them!

When you take the time to get to know a pupil, you find out what they enjoy, what they like doing and what their interests are. With this information you have the power to make all your lessons instantly appealing and your conversations with them stimulating.

When you reach out and get to know any child in school you show them they're valued as people. Once they learn this, their ability to take an active role in other positive relationship is improved; they fit in better and so are less likely to get into serious trouble and less likely to spoil your lessons. Also, when you show you're actually interested in them as individuals they will respect and trust you. Pupils will behave much better for the teacher they trust and respect.

Once you get to know them anything really is possible; doors are opened to a whole new world of communication, cooperation, fun and mutual respect.

The best technique I've found for helping you discover their likes, dislikes, hobbies, passions and interests is...

...an age-old salesman's tool called the 'Record Card'.

Record cards are used by salesmen to record a client's personal information and so enable him to be more 'familiar' on his next visit. Each time he returns to the same client and has a conversation, more information is recorded on the card. It might be a chat about the football last night - revealing his favorite team for example or a few words about his family.

These tidbits gradually build up and form library of useful information which can be drawn on to deepen the relationship during the next meeting. It's a well known fact that people would rather have a conversation about their own lives and interests than anything else, so the salesman that does this will always make the sale.

The huge benefit of the information on the record card is that it enables the salesman to tailor the conversation, and even new product lines, to the client's interests, needs and desires. When this is done, the client is far more receptive and likely to buy.

We can discover the passions and interests of our students very quickly through our own simple version of the Record Card - a fun questionnaire to give to the worst pupils in class as a fill-in activity.

The information you glean from these completed questionnaires is priceless and these are just some of the ways you can use it...

* Tailor rewards to a pupil's interests making them have more effect. (if you have a pupil who's nuts about a certain breed of dog there's no point in giving him a sticker with a car on it!)

* Provide reading material - magazines, journals and books - that relate to their specific areas of interest - for break times, quiet reading sessions, registration etc.

* Plan really, really interesting lessons! I'm talking about lessons that grab them from the word go and hold their attention all the way through. This is only possible when they're actually interested in what you're talking about. You might choose to plan a series of lessons for the whole class around a topic that several pupils are interested in, or cover a skill such as narrative writing and encourage them to write a story about their subject of interest.

* Use them as a relationship-building tool. They enable you to strike up conversation on a topic you know they're interested in and this is crucial with 'hard to reach' kids - it shows you care about them and are interested in them as people. Being able to chat with a pupil on their level is magical and is the short-cut to having far fewer discipline problems.

To find out more about how to use record cards and relationships to get your worst pupils to behave visit www.classroom-management.Org.

About the Author

Rob Johnson is the author of Magic Classroom Management - How to get the most from the worst kids in school.

He is Deputy Head Teacher at a special school in the UK and has been working with challenging young people for 15 years.

www.classroom-management.org

1. The first thing to remember is that you are the boss.

Self belief is incredibly important in this job. You can’t expect pupils to respond positively to you unless you believe, really believe, that you fully deserve their respect and compliance. The thought that you are the leader in the classroom must be at the forefront of your mind.

If you give any sign at all that you are NOT in FULL CONTROL, children will sense this and exploit your weaknesses. You MUST project strength and the impression that you will not tolerate any disobedience.

All too often a teacher will enter a lesson filled with dread and give out the signal that they are beaten before the lesson even starts. Pupils sense this. If you’ve been having a hard time with a particular group they will come to expect that you will be a walk-over and get into the habit of talking freely with total disregard for your threats.

2. Have definite rules on noise

Once you’ve decided on your rules (preferably with input from the pupils) you need to ensure the pupils are totally clear what those rules are. There must be no ambiguity and therefore no room for argument.

We all know how important consistency is in terms of classroom management but unless you have a clear set of rules to work to in the first place, you can’t consistently apply them.

So, what is your rule on noise?

Mine is simple: If I say there is to be no talking, then there is to be no talking. I will not tolerate being interrupted without taking action. I seldom enforce this rule for longer than a few minutes – just at those key times when I am either explaining something, starting a new task or taking a register etc. - but if I tell a group that I want total silence, then I mean it. And any pupil who ignores this is dealt with straight away.

For example, never let a pupil shout out without reminding them to put up their hand. Never, allow pupils to continue talking at the start of a lesson when you’ve started explaining the objective. Never, let pupils interrupt you without reminding them that it is unacceptable to do so.

If you let them get away with it once, you have effectively trained them to try and get away with it again.

3. Control entry to the classroom

The ideal place to establish control over your pupils is outside the door - before you even let them in the room.You must start the lesson under your terms. And the lesson starts before they enter the room with you having them line up outside the door in an orderly manner.

This is the perfect time to gauge the mood of the group and indeed the individuals in the group. You can easily spot potential problems (unhappy pupils, cases of bullying, arguments etc.) and deal with them rather than letting them go unnoticed and having them escalate into serious disruptions during your lesson.

If the group won’t stand still and quiet don’t let them in the room. They must do EXACTLY as you say before you let them through the door. If they run to a chair bring them back again and make them walk. If you let them get away with anything at this important stage, you will set the tone as being one where they can get away with things. You don’t want that.

4. Have ‘settling work’ ready for them when they enter the room

If you have a group who just won’t settle try presenting them with some of the following ‘settling work’ as soon as they enter the room. But… make sure you add this little twist to ensure the pupils get stuck into it straight away…

On your board have the following written up…

“Complete the work detailed below. You have ten minutes. If you don’t finish it, you will return at break to complete it.”

Obviously you need to adjust individual work targets for less able pupils to make it fair. Once they’ve started you can go round the slow workers very quietly, out of earshot of the others, and tell them where to stop. i.e. give them a work target which requires less writing than the others –

“James, you can stop when you get to the end of this sentence”. (And put a pencil mark where you want them to get up to.)

The great advantage of this strategy is that it gives you a few minutes to get your resources sorted out. I do use this if I want to show a DVD clip and haven’t had time to set the AV equipment up for example.

On each desk you could have a quick topic-related puzzle, a review quiz of last lesson’s work, a cloze exercise or some text copying work. Nothing too difficult – you don’t want to confuse them because they’ll spend ten minutes asking questions instead of settling down. Choose something simple (and preferably light-hearted or fun) that requires no explanation or fuss.

As well as having the instructions written on the board, greet them at the door and say…

“Get started on the simple task on your desk – you have ten minutes to finish it.”

Once they’re in the room you can then add…

“Anyone not finishing this little task will finish it at break – there should be no talking. If you talk you’ll come back at break and do it in silence then.”

If you want them to copy notes from the board (or a book) make sure there isn’t a huge amount of text otherwise you will provoke complaints. You can ‘hide’ extra work by having five or ten lines of text for them to copy and then a note at the end saying “Now answer question 2 on page 46” which could be another five or ten lines of notes.

Comments like…

“It is entirely your choice as to whether or not you get break. If you want break, do the work. If you don’t want break, sit and chat.”

…can be used if they don’t settle straight away.

5. The Right Way To Ask For Silence

You may have been told that an alternative to shouting for silence is to simply wait for rowdy pupils to calm down.

And wait… And wait… And wait…

Teachers have mixed views as to the effectiveness of waiting for silence before continuing with the lesson because in many cases it just doesn’t work.

Some classes will respond positively to this strategy almost straight away but a hard class will test your mettle and try to push you way beyond 5 or 10 minutes.

They’ll enjoy watching your expression turn to desperation and laugh at the fact that your plan isn’t working.

At a time like this you need to bring in sanctions and make them see that their continuous disobedience will not be tolerated.

If you have a strong, commanding voice you can shout for quiet and explain what the sanctions will be if they continue talking. If you can’t be sure that your voice will cut through the noise sufficiently, you can communicate via the board by writing your instructions. Write up your instructions in bold, capital letters. You may need to give them slightly longer time to comply – allowing for the fact that they may not all read your instructions straight away.

This is what to say…

(You may think that these sanctions won’t work with your toughest class but they are phrased in a very specific manner as you’ll soon see. If you rigorously and consistently apply them you will win. Your class will settle. I’ve never known it fail).

“If you wish to continue talking during my lesson I will have to take time off you at break. By the time I‘ve written the title on the board you need to be sitting in silence. Anyone who is still talking after that will be kept behind for 5 minutes.”

Phrasing your instructions in this way when you want a class to be quiet is very powerful and almost always guarantees success.

Let’s examine why:

Firstly, you are being very fair and giving the pupils a warning…

“If you wish to continue talking during my lesson I will have to take time off you at break.”

When teachers try to issue a punishment without a warning…

“Right you’ve just lost your break!”

…they are often met with a torrent of abuse…

“No way, that’s not fair – we weren’t doing anything!!!”

I always find that giving pupils a fair warning about an impending sanction takes the sting out of a confrontational situation.

Secondly, you are telling them exactly what they are doing wrong, and exactly how to put it right…

“…you need to be sitting in silence.”

Thirdly, you are giving them a clear time by which you expect full compliance…

“By the time I‘ve written the title on the board you need to be sitting in silence.”

Fourthly, and very importantly, you are telling them exactly what will happen to them if they don’t do as you ask…

“Anyone who is still talking after that will be kept behind for 5 minutes.”

These key features are important if you want pupils to follow your instructions because they leave no room for questions, debates, arguments or confusion. The pupils know exactly what they’re doing wrong, what will happen if they continue and how to correct their behavior so as to evade a sanction.

N.B. I’m fully aware that timetable constraints do not allow teachers to keep pupils back after each and every lesson. For that reason you need to think about the sanctions you will issue. You could for example hit the class hard and tell them that any pupils still talking will receive a letter home but it may be better to start off with a small sanction (such as staying behind after school for 5 minutes) because you can then add to it if and when the behavior continues.

1 comments
by Rob Johnson

When we are put in stressful situations the directions and instructions we give out to pupils who are annoying us are often very unclear and often impulsive. As such they virtually guarantee conflict when they are stated.

Children become confused unless the instructions we give them are very specific - especially when they are in a state of anxiety themselves.

Vague instructions give them choice, and if you want them to behave in a certain, specific way, you need to tell them exactly what that specific way entails - choice is the last thing you want to give them.

Let's not also forget that a large proportion of pupils in our classes are EBD, ADHD or on the autistic spectrum and as such, have a genuine need for unambiguous, precise instructions.

The following example illustrates this need perfectly:

At the first EBD centre I taught in, the pupils (11-14yrs) were allowed on the yard at break to play football.

These sessions were a living nightmare for whoever was on duty because even when the boys were given explicit instructions to "walk down to the yard quietly", they were unable to contain themselves for more than a few steps before tearing off shouting and yelling at the tops of their voices and running wild in the school grounds.

The solution to this problem came when I remembered that the same 'chunking' method I used in class with these boys, whereby their work was broken down into smaller, more manageable tasks, would be necessary in all their activities if they were to be kept under control.

The instructions, which sound incredibly pedantic, broke the short 200 yard journey into very small segments and went something like this...

"Stand silently behind your chairs." (wait for them to stand in silence before giving next instruction) "Walk across the hall to the fire door and wait in line." "Go though the doors and walk down the corridor to the outside doors. Wait in line at the doors, don't go through them." "Now walk to the gate and wait in line."

.. and so on.

At every stage, if a child misbehaved in any way they were sent back to the previous door to have another go at following the instructions properly. And in their eagerness to get to the yard, they complied every time!

Whenever a child continued to play up, they were calmly reminded that the consequence of their silliness was that they were missing their break. Again, this usually resulted in a compliant child without the need for tantrums from either the staff or the pupil concerned.

These extremely tight, precise instructions transformed break-times from a living hell into an enjoyable activity for everyone. The boys appreciated the tight boundaries because they could have a full 20 minutes of football - whereas before, they weren't even getting a game started; and the staff were no longer having to spend 20 very stressful minutes chasing wild boys round the grounds, and then a further hour calming them down in class.

By giving directions that are specific and unambiguous, we alleviate the need for us to raise our voices or get annoyed and we eliminate all tension from the situation.

The key is that the child's options are reduced to a minimum and they know exactly what is expected of them and exactly what they have to do in order to succeed. Isn't that better than repeating a vague command over and over again, becoming more exasperated and frustrated each time we are ignored?

Here's another example to show how vague instructions are such a waste of time...

On the way back from the yard at break one day, Mark was deliberately lagging behind, bouncing the football.

"Come on Mark, quick... Hurry up Mark, lessons have started... Mark! Break's over Mark!... Come on... Quickly Mark!... Mark!... Stop that and hurry up!"

After a few minutes of totally ignoring the first yells from the teacher Mark eventually complied perfectly with the final request - "Stop that and hurry up" - by standing still and bouncing the ball as fast as he could, with a sly grin!

Mark then proceeded to enjoy the undivided attention of two members of staff as they altered their approach from friendly cajoling and encouragement to aggressive shouting and frustrated threats. The incident tied up all three of them for the whole morning as Mark became more and more abusive and aggressive - incensed at the unfair punishment he believed he was receiving.

Had the teacher altered her instruction slightly at the beginning, the situation could have been very different. By giving one clear, specific direction and an explanation of the consequence for not complying, she could have remained in total control, Mark could have returned to lessons and the other member of staff would have been free to teach his lesson.

"Mark break is over. You need to bring the ball here now otherwise you will be paying time back next break."

You'll see how this incident could have been resolved calmly and efficiently - even if Mark had still refused to follow the instructions when you read The Three Requests Technique in my new ebook - "Magic Classroom Management - How To Get The Most From The Worst Kids In School"

To discover more effective classroom management tools as well as a free mini-course visit www.Classroom-management.org.

About the Author

Rob Johnson is the author of Magic Classroom Management - How to get the most from the worst kids in school.

He is Deputy Head Teacher at a special school in the UK and has been working with challenging young people for 15 years. Copyright 2007 Rob Johnson www.classroom-management.org.

Imagine a classroom busy with children, arriving one by one to attend a day's class or workshop, as in the home school set-up. At the door way, a child lingers and hesitates to come in while she or he hangs on to mom's skirt or dad's shirt. Teacher looks on, approaches the child and encourages the child to come in , hoping that the child will readily agree to enter the room, hoping that not too much time will be spent doing this. There are children already inside the classroom and cannot be left for long. Imagine this scenario happening over and over during the first few weeks of classes. It is at this crucial period when, sometimes, even the teacher may be the cause of a child refusing to go to school for good! This kind of teacher - child struggle is so common in the regular school setting. And yet, year after year, this event becomes an anticipated ritual, a dreaded one by the teacher and child. How creative should a teacher be to avoid this kind of school opening "rigodon?"

To a child who is about to enter an unfamiliar environment, bringing along an item that belongs to a special family member like mom or dad, will feel more secure. That special item provides the link to the familiar upon entering the unfamiliar. It provides the child some degree of comfort and assurance that the familiar is still there. The very wise teacher, therefore, would best let the child hang on to that special item to keep the tears from flowing. And so during the rest of the day, this special item becomes a fixture throughout the child's activities among the rest of the children.

Imagine if all children , on their first few days of classes would have to bring a special item from their home. This is perfectly alright! What a sight to behold to see the children with all kinds of personal items attached to themselves. Won't it make you, the teacher curious enough to ask about such items? If it does make you curious, don't you think each little child would also be just as curious? I have seen such curiosity occur time and again ! And I have seen a child or two attempt to hide their precious items from overly curious classmates! I have not mentioned grabbing yet! But when grabbing occurs, the already settled child once again gets unsettled and cries. Now the teacher has to find ways once again to deal with a new situation in the classroom. It seems like an endless cycle.

Show and Tell ! Children simply love to show off their personal effects and they also love to tell about these! On the very first weeks of classes,engage the children and their families to show and tell about their favorite items. Before the children show up for a class or workshop, notify the family that they would be encouraged to bring a special object, safe and manageable, to show and tell about. Just the prospect of bringing a favorite toy or item would already excite the child about going to school. The thought of having new friends be curious about something owned by the child already adds to the confidence the child should muster to enter the room full of new friends. The attention given by the teacher and classmates to each child and that special object , turn by turn, would significantly contribute to the child's growing self-esteem in that new environment.

Teacher now be very careful about this important event in the new classroom. The goal of show and tell is to help each child settle in with a growing sense of confidence in his classmates, teacher and environment. It is not a show off and tell about event, it is not a competition. A child who brings in mommy's handkerchief should receive significant attention as would the child who brings in a colorful book. Whatever item brought in by each child must be used as a springboard for the child to feel more secure about the environment and thus, be eager to come back the next day, the next day, and so on...

Oh by the way, teacher must also join in and show and tell !

After a day's event of show and tell, each child has not only learned about and appreciate their classmates' uniqueness, but each child has also learned to speak in front of an audience. Each child has also learned to be an attentive audience.But the most significant lesson of all after a show and tell event, is that the child feels valuable, important among his group of friends and teachers.

One of the most difficult skills to master as a teacher is classroom management. Unfortunately, if you can not master this skill you are not going to survive as a teacher, especially as a middle school teacher.

However, when the school year starts, many first-year middle school teachers are pleasantly surprised. All through their teacher training they were told how difficult classroom management at the middle school level can be and how important it is to have effective classroom management skills in order to be a successful teacher.

Yet, during the first days of school there doesn't seem to be much of a problem...students seem fairly attentive, no one is really talking or passing notes, there certainly hasn't been anyone talking back or any fights during the first few days...but then things start to change.

You see, those first few days are the honeymoon period...students are nervous and many are a little scared so they sit back and wait. However, by the end of the first week of school, or certainly by the second week of school, middle school students start to feel more comfortable, they start to test the teacher's limits and classroom management becomes more and more difficult.

It is at this point that many teachers start to panic and immediately resort to various reward/punishment systems, or as Alfie Kohn refers to them..."carrot and stick" systems.

Unfortunately, these elaborate systems are a mistake. They provide only temporary solutions to an ongoing problem. Students who respond to the rewards begin to do their work and behave ONLY if a reward is involved, while at the same time many students who thrive on negative attention actually begin to seek out the punishment.

The better plan is the "proactive approach" to classroom management. The proactive approach is based on the premise that the best classroom management plan is a strong instructional plan...that the key to middle school classroom management is to keep all of your students actively involved in all of your lessons.

Unfortunately, there are times when teachers are still forced to REact. There are times when the teacher has used every proactive trick in the book and still a student does something that requires the teacher to react.

HOWEVER, just because a teacher must react to a situation does mean the teacher must punish the student. The teacher must still save punishment as a last resort only!

So, what's a teacher to do?

Well here's an idea...create a "behavior action plan". Better yet, have the student create the "behavior action plan".

The key to changing inappropriate student behavior is to have the *student* take responsibility for his actions. First, the student must identify the inappropriate behavior, and then determine why it is inappropriate, and finally, how he plans to stop the inappropriate behavior.

All the teacher needs to do is have the student complete a "behavior action plan". The plan calls for the student to complete the following three statements:

1. I am writing this plan because I...

2. This behavior was not appropriate because...

3. To prevent this from happening again, I plan to...

Then, at the bottom of the handout make sure to have the student sign his or her name. By signing their name the student is making a promise to follow through with their plan.

In the end, this classroom management approach is significantly better than simply punishing the student for the misbehavior. This classroom management approach has long-term results.

Hello! Do you know my name? I always think my name is unique. Is it in your notebook? Do you have notes about my family background?I have a great family,surely you have one,too. Do you know our family culture and bits and pieces of my heritage that is a strong influence in the way I am? Are you familiar with my family traditions? Are you even interested in some? By the way teacher, do you know what community I come from? Do you know what the good points of my community are? Or have you just heard of how notorious it is? Do you know my role in my community? Or are you planning to tell me what my role should be?

By the way teacher, since I am in your class now, do you happen to know my learning styles? Would you know what senses I use to learn? Can you tell how I process information I gather? Even if you did, do you know how to enhance it? And even if you know how to enhance it, would you really have time to do it? Do you think my personality can help me learn more? Or is my personality getting in the way? What do you think teacher? Would you like to hear from me?

Oh yes teacher, when you stand in front of the class and you are quiet, is that a good thing? When you smile, is that genuine? When you avoid my eyes, does that mean something that's not good? When you say something about me about what I did not do well and you look at my friends with a smile, are you telling my friends 'it's alright' or are you meaning the opposite? I get confused sometimes,specially when they laugh. Oh yes, when I raise my hands all the time and you don't call me, is it because I know so much? I wish you would explain. Sometimes when I am thinking about your question and suddenly you call me to answer and I can't just yet, and you roll your eyes, does that mean I am not thinking? My classmates laugh when you do that all the time! And teacher, when you sometimes raise your voice, is it because my friends at the back can't hear you? How come I tremble with fear each time you do so? And each time we part ways, what are you not saying to me when you are not saying anything at all except for 'goodbye!' ?

On very light days teacher when you crack jokes, does it always have to be about a classmate? I guess it has to be because everybody laughs out loud when you do so. Sometimes I wish the joke would be about me to make everyone focus on me. And those reprimands! Do you always have to announce it to everyone? Did you know that there are no more time outs but only time in? I could teach you that teacher. When you scold a classmate , does it make you feel good? I know how to scold my classmates, I just follow what you do!

One more thing teacher, each day I go to school, did you know that my parents send me off with hugs and kisses? Do you know that each time I come home from a day with you, I feel weird, sometimes hurt, sometimes confused? It's just weird because during my summer breaks teacher, when I get into scuffles with my playmates, I hear the same things you say about me. Oh well, anyway, those were just words.

Have a great day teacher! I still love you!