Ha ha! Joke's on me
Nothing like a class where you have only 3 students who WANT to learn, and 5 boys who are completely out of control, behavioral/discipline problems, extremely distracting, beyond hyper, and say directly to you as their teacher "I don't want to be here." Great grammar, but makes for an extremely tough job, and I've had a lot of children. I genuinely like the kids...ages 9-13...and at 4 different levels of ability
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However, I actually told my director today, that essentially, I felt like a baby-sitter, not a professional.
Any suggestions for dealing with this? I have 4 more days with these kids, no chance of going outdoors to let them run during breaks, TPR activities only charge them up more instead of wearing them out, games semi-work, but they become too excited (hence extremely loud and bouncing up and down), they will not follow rules, nor remain in their seats. They whip through exercises, projects, drills, faster than I can pass out them out, and role plays are a complete disaster with this group...they decide to do a bit of 'improv' and it's not just language..it's adding running around, hitting, pulling hair and so on!
Plus, they are ready to go home by 1pm, and I have them until 2:30.
I've asked to split the group up, but that is a "no-go".
I want to help those 3 students who WANT to be there, but find myself having to deal with constant distractions by the other students. Apparently, this is 'normal' for the boys. (I asked the mothers after class today.) It's ironic, my younger students (anywhere from 5-9) are exceptionally well behaved, helpful, eager, and productive
Any suggestions, ideas, activities for these guys would be fantastic! I've run the gamut on my 'old reliables and emergency kits', the 'silent treatment', reduction of break time, ticks on the board next to their names, rewards--physical and verbal--and could really use some input if anyone else has experienced this and dealt with it successfully or has any other ideas!
I don't know quite what to do...I have NEVER experienced this before, especially having to run through a complete bag of tricks for management the first day. Exhausting. :|
Again, thanks for any input...I sure could use it! Even my director isn't quite sure what to do at this point...
-at a loss-