how to make students feel miserable...

[xyyz]

i'm teaching at a charter school this year.

in it, there was this arabic teacher. he's one of the most kind hearted people i know. the younger children respond very positively towards him. he doesn't yell, and doesn't belittle anyone. he's always nice and compassionate. he always goes out of his way to help students, especially those who have learning problems.

anyways, he's been under pressure because he needs to draft a non-existant curriculum, and he hasn't received much support from the administration.

long story short, today he was at his breaking point. now the upper grades, are pretty horrible. the kids are sorta burned out, and not very controllable. earlier, he was subbing for the vice principal who deals with the arabic classes for grades 7 and 8. i'm not entirely sure what happened, but as i've been told student was lipping off, and being pretty disruptive. so he told the student off, which prompted the student to get into an argument with him. he told the student to head to the principal's office, to which the student refused. then another student got into the fray by refuting the teacher's authority. the teacher also told that student to go to the principal's office. this caused one of the loudest and at times, extremely disrespective, students to start mouthing off. the teacher told her to head to the principal's office as well. well this turned into an ugly sittuation where the students completely revolted and went off on how he had no principal to send them all to the principal's office.

anyways, he somehow managed to get some of them up and into the office, but the overwhelming majority refused. at this point, he decided he'd had enough and he quit on the spot.

before anyone questions the teacher's role in this, i also teach these 7th and 8th grade classes another subject, and i know the teacher well. i can safely say the teacher was completely deviod of fault, that the students were purely the source of problem.

now the students are screwed, because finding an arabic teacher isn't an easy task.

somehow we need to get that teacher back. i've been told i need to get them to write very sincere appology letters. i plan to personally deliver these letters.

considering i'm going to have a combined class with these students for 1.5 hours tomorrow, i think it'll be the best time to get this done.

to get them to write something with real feeling, i need to get these students to feel right s- for what they've done.

the problem is how to do this. i have a few ideas, but i want the most effective and foolproof method.

any suggestions on the best way? or does anyone else have any other suggestions about how to rectify this problem?

 

[Xylitol]

Cliffs?

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Hard to say without knowing more about the kids and the situation. I wouldn't try to lord it over them though.. don't act like a tough guy... most likely they will just try to act tough back... but then, I again don't know the situation.

 

[hypn0tik]

Fail all of them.

 

[DaWhim]

tell them all of them will be getting a big fat F if they don't write the letter?

 

[sygyzy]

Man, what a bad situation. I assume that you have Arabic at your school because it's a charter school. Admittedly, that's a weird subject. Like Latin. I envy schools that could teach "extra" classes. We didn't have Latin at my H.S. and certainly not Arabic. Anyway, does anyone even care? I mean, do you think the parents are going to be upset their kids are not learning Arabic, especially in today's political climate?

 

[KLin]

Can we bring spanking back to school discipline please?

 

[kirkaptain]

Originally posted by: hypn0tik
Fail all of them.

 

[xyyz]

sittuation is simple.

i can't fail them for no writing the letter. i need to make them feel horrible enough to where they see that they've done wrong.

there is good in the kids; they do have a conscience - no matter how deep seeded.

unfortunately, the kids are brats. they have little respect for anyone or anything. their parents need to better enforce discipline; if they had, this wouldn't be an issue. i dunno, those of you that are in the mid-twenties and older, you know how it was. there was an overall fear of disrespecting the teacher and having them call the parents. these kids, they don't have that same fear.

that's pretty much the gist of the overall sittuation.

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: kirkaptain

Originally posted by: hypn0tik
Fail all of them.

Yep. I would hope that without passing this class that they would be denied moving on to HS. That'll get their attention really quck...

I also think a month of saturday detentions for the whole class is apropriate...

 

[zetto]

suspend all of'em

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: xyyz
sittuation is simple.

i can't fail them for no writing the letter. i need to make them feel horrible enough to where they see that they've done wrong.

there is good in the kids; they do have a conscience - no matter how deep seeded.

unfortunately, the kids are brats. they have little respect for anyone or anything. their parents need to better enforce discipline; if they had, this wouldn't be an issue. i dunno, those of you that are in the mid-twenties and older, you know how it was. there was an overall fear of disrespecting the teacher and having them call the parents. these kids, they don't have that same fear.

that's pretty much the gist of the overall sittuation.

Fail them anyway. Fvck them. I was reading the WSJ when I was their age. If they can't get with the program, at least send them straight to the bottom where they belong. Half of them will probably end up on welfare or in prison anyway. Stop wasting any more taxpayer money on them then you need to and cut them off now.

PS: I have no problem with teachers having handguns in their desks to assist in this process of weeding out the scum of society before they try to spread their misery.

 

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
Man, what a bad situation. I assume that you have Arabic at your school because it's a charter school. Admittedly, that's a weird subject. Like Latin. I envy schools that could teach "extra" classes. We didn't have Latin at my H.S. and certainly not Arabic. Anyway, does anyone even care? I mean, do you think the parents are going to be upset their kids are not learning Arabic, especially in today's political climate?

the kids can work for FBI and CIA.

Your school offers Arabic? That is amazing, my high school went from Spanish French and German to just Spanish.

 

[xyyz]

it's funny though.

the approach is entirely different. this teacher who quit, he'd urge compassion and would appeal to them as children. with me, i think the harsh approach is the way, and that they should be belittled and made to feel small for what they've done.

it's a matter of deciding which is the best way to proceed.

 

[hjo3]

You don't know how to use commas properly... I'm going to have to call shens on you being a teacher.

 

[iamtrout]

Gunpoint.

 

[Lyfer]

Originally posted by: hjo3
You don't know how to use commas properly... I'm going to have to call shens on you being a teacher.

 

[Colt45]

Originally posted by: Lyfer

Originally posted by: hjo3
You don't know how to use commas properly... I'm going to have to call shens on you being a teacher.

 

[xyyz]

ummm yeah... thanks for your value added service there.

while you're at it, learn how to use ellipses properly.

Ellipses.
The ellipsis (plural ellipses) is the mark that indicates the omission of quoted material, as in "Brevity is . . . wit" (stolen shamelessly from an episode of ). Note two things: first, most typing manuals and house styles prefer the periods to be spaced, thus:

Brevity is . . . wit.

(In electronic communication it's sometimes convenient, even necessary, to run them together, since line-wrap can be unpredictable.) Second, and more important, is the number of periods. The ellipsis itself is three periods (always); it can appear next to other punctuation, including an end-of-sentence period (resulting in four periods). Use four only when the words on either side of the ellipsis make full sentences. You should never use fewer than three or more than four periods, with only a single exception: when entire lines of poetry are omitted in a block quotation, it's a common practice to replace them with a full line of spaced periods.

One other thing. Although it's a matter of house style, note that it's usually unnecessary to have ellipses at the beginning or end of a quotation; they're essential only when something's omitted in the middle. There's no need for ". . . this . . ." when "this" will do: readers will understand you're not quoting everything the source ever said, and that there will be material before and after the quotation you give. The only time it's advisable is when the bit you're quoting isn't grammatical when it's standing on its own: "When I was a boy . . ." ? that sort of thing. [Entry revised 12 July 2005.]

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/e.html

anyways, i see the thread crappers have arrived, so i guess this topic is offically dead.

btw, if i did use them in error, why don't you correct me?

 

[Medea]

I understand what you're saying, but I think you shouldn't try the letters of apologies to get the teacher back. Unfortunately, if he did come back, he'd have the reputation of having been "run out of the school" by the little darlings - and that would only make it harder for him in the future and prey for some other up and coming smart-as$ to see if he could repeat it.

What I would do is discuss it with them. Raise the fact that they lost a good teacher who always respected, and how they disrespected him without cause. Maybe they'll learn a lesson.

 

[chcarnage]

It would be a good thing if an external person or two persons stay in front of the classroom to underscore the importance of what happened.

Keep the message and your demand simple.

Put on the most serious face you've got.

Balance the talk about the consequences for them (because there aren't that many, apparently) and arguments why their behavior was wrong.

(Only) if they don't regret anything, flex the muscles a bit and make them understand that the next few weeks of your course aren't going to be a cakewalk. The teachers I've encountered have legal methods to send this signal

 

[Stuxnet]

This is exactly why I changed my mind about teaching. Students these days, enabled by their idiotic sue-happy parents, are disgusting little twists of self-righteous pond scum, with some exceptions.

If I ever hear of my son or daughter treating a teacher like this, I'll have their asses for lunch.

 

[chcarnage]

*pushes thread*

Anything new?

 

[Red Dawn]

If their disruption causes the other students to miss out then I'd just expel them.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
If their disruption causes the other students to miss out then I'd just expel them.

Yeah, no kidding. We live in a world where students have gotten expelled for the T-shirts they wear... I'd think that you should suspend these students until the teacher comes back. If he doesn't come back then... TOO BAD. At the minimum do that with detentions.

Take away any sort of break they have. Make them eat lunch in total silence in a classroom where they can't sit with their friends. Make certain they know that if they are going to things too far and be offensive enough to make someone quit their job, you can do the same to them.