This week, I observed a fourth grade teacher in the library with his students. What I noticed is that this teacher was yelling at children, which I find completely unacceptable. Never once did he go over and talk to a child directly or make eye contact. He simply stood across the room and yelled out people’s names and told them to be quiet and sit down. It was ironic since libraries are often viewed as quiet places. The children were not listening to him and he had to make several demands and very loudly. His communication was not effective at all. The children continued to talk and simply seemed to ignore him. The teacher should have stopped, walked across the room and dealt with each child on an individual basis. He needed to make eye contact, be gentle and voice his specific expectations. As far as I was concerned, the children were not being rowdy or out of control, they were simply talking. Talking in his own quiet voice could have resulted in his wanting the children to be quiet. In my opinion, his treatment of the students was quite demeaning. I thought about myself when I was a young girl. I would have been mortified if a teacher was yelling my name across the room, especially since there were other teachers and students in the library at that time. One girl made eye contact with me and then hung her head low. I felt that she was ashamed or embarrassed. I also thought of all the children who were not talking and doing the right thing, how they must have felt about their teacher embarrassing the class as a whole. I think this kind of treatment from a teacher gives the child a feeling of worthlessness, shame and embarrassment. I can appreciate the fact that I do walk over to children, look them in the eye, sometimes put my hand on their shoulder and address them by name. I make eye contact with children and listen to their concerns. I try to focus on the conversation or problem, without taking it in a whole new direction. I often ask children questions and try to get them to work out their concerns in their own minds. I then encourage them to do whatever it is they have resolved to do. This teacher could learn a lot from this week’s resources. Maybe I’ll put copies in his staff mailbox!
Carole,
ReplyDeleteI have a fouth grade teacher in my school that yells at everyone. There is another one, that speaks kindly and quietly to her students. You can guess who has better classroom management. The quiet one. She says "In 5-4-3-2-1", and all is quiet. The other one screams and threatens. Lots of her students are in my office with "stomach aches". I'm afraid of her, I can only imagine how those poor children feel! I watched a video on this subject at http://www.tolerance.org/activity/addressing-teacher-bullies
If you have a chance, watch it.
Susan, What a shame that the teacher who should be modeling is showing all inappropriate communication skills. Doesn't he realize that the yelling will shut the kids off. They will tune him out. I have seen plenty in my day and I have to admit my first year of teaching I did a lot of yelling. I did learn from my mistakes and have become a much quieter teacher that uses eye contact and raised eyebrows to get behavior I expect.
DeleteIt's very difficult to see educators treat children unfairly. Sadly it happens more often then we think or should. Everytime we communicate with children, we are sending messages to them that will effect them throughout their lives. It is so important to communicate effectively with not only our peers but the children we work with as well. Teachers who show respect to their students will more likely get more from their student. And the student will get out of their teacher.
ReplyDeleteThe worst part is that this teacher was yelling like this publicly, and in a library, no less. I think that people usually treat children better when they know others may be watching them, imagine how he treats the children while in the classroom. Professional teachers yelling at children is definitely unacceptable.
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