From: Shannon <WWJDShannon2002@yahoo.com>
To: Teacher2Teacher Public Discussion
Date: 2002061107:03:16
Subject: Re: Respect for different answers--in ALL classes

	I can nearly always find something right about the person's answer;
sometimes, the best I can find to say is, "ok, tell me more about what
you mean; (then when I see that the person really doesn't understand,
I may say, "not quite, but you're doing a great job by thinking about
it, participating, and paying attention.  Also, I know others are
thinking the same, but you are being a very good student by
participating out loud!  And you are also helping me be a better
teacher because now I know a little more about what I need to teach to
the kids!  Thank you! :-)  "  
        When a student is constantly destructive or critical of
others' work, I'd say if after speaking to the student a few times
both publicly and privately, send the kid to the counsling or
psychologist's office or ask for a "Burks" form, a Behavior Rating
Scale that will help the School Psychologist triage the student.
        If the student publicly berates a classmate, I usually turn
around, look directly into the person's eyes, and scold them clearly
in front of everybody else, "I am 31 years old and I am learning how
to skateboard.  Think about that for a minute.  What's going to happen
do you think?  They always say, "fall down."  I say, "that's correct,
and guess what, I don't want a bunch of people laughing at me.  How
about you come up here, I give you a calculus problem or a sentence to
diagram and then I'll laugh at you in front of the whole class, ok? 
You want to do that?"  They usually say no, for which I'm glad, since
I don't remember how to diagram a sentence or how to do calculus,
LOL...
     It usually wrks; I just have to really jump on certain kids
sometinmes.

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