Shouting at the children

I'm in the infants at the moment and have seen many teachers shouting and being negative towards the children. It's really got me down today and I'm having doubts. It is a 'tough' school and there is challenging behaviour amongst the children, but I still feel there must be other ways of dealing with it. Please tell me it's not like this everywhere!!!!!

 

I'm in the infants at the moment and have seen many teachers shouting and being negative towards the children. It's really got me down today and I'm having doubts. It is a 'tough' school and there is challenging behaviour amongst the children, but I still feel there must be other ways of dealing with it. Please tell me it's not like this everywhere!!!!!

 

It's NOT! and this should help you decide the sort of teacher you want to be. I help out in a difficult class, year 2, and the teacher has the patience of a saint, she never shouts, though does shake her bell rather fiercely at times! Don't let it worry you, just treat it as part of the learning curve, though I'm sure we all may shout on the occassional BAD day.

RB

 

Thanks Racing Boots. This experience really is helping me to have a clear idea about the kind of teacher I hope to be. The other thing that's really getting me down is the negativity from all areas. Has anybody ever met a happy teacher?!

 

YES, maybe you've been reading too much on TES!!! When I sit in the staffroom at the school I help in the majority of the teachers seem relaxed and happy. The class that I help in, with the very patient teacher, has a very tough time and I have spoke to her about her enjoyment, she has said it's tough and teaching does dominate her life at times, but she loves it, even though she has already spotted a rather quiet year 1 class that she is hoping to acquire in September.

Try to ignore all the negativity, there's plenty of it where ever you work.

Look forward to September and finding out for yourself, I hate moaney, miserable people and believe if you're really not that happy you would change career, so teachers can't really be that unhappy, just enjoy moaning! (probably going to get shot down by a load of teachers now!)

RB xx

 

Thanks RB. Believe it or not, I met two teachers with positive attitudes today! Like you say, we'll find out for ourselves in September

 

Shouting by teachers usually is a result of frustration and running out of ideas about what else to do to resolve a situation - usually a noisy class who won't settle.

Shouting rarely (if ever) achieves anything other than making the children either (a) resentful, (b) feeling that they have 'won' because they made teacher lose his/her cool.

Shouting is, essentially, a symbol of 'failure' at that moment.

However, it's easy to say "I'll never shout", harder to do ... because we all 'fail' in the classroom from time to time, and we all suffer these frustrations.

If occasionally you shout .... then go away and think through how you got into that situation ... how you could avoid it/do different next time.

Your resolution should be "I will try never to shout ... I will try to reduce the number of occasions I shout ...."

Occasionally you will 'fail' ... don't beat yourself up, you're human!

 

In my first placement my teacher shouted all the time and I refused to do it but I was only there for a short time. I am in my final placement now and find I have to shout at this particular class at least once a day, I hate it but I do use a lot of positive praise and stickers too. I hope that when I get my own class I can be firm from the start so that I don't have to shout in the future although I think it depends on the class....

 

Interesting reading all this, but does anyone think there are times when it is ok to shout?

I mean, I think it's obviously wrong to shout out of frustration that the kids aren't understanding you (as I have heard some do), - as that's your fault. But, what if the kids are being deliberately naughty? - What if they persistently talk over you, or answer back, or even something like get into a fight or start throwing things round the room. - What then?

Personally, I think in severe situations like this, shouting is ok, - maybe even necessary. You have to maintain control of your class at all times, and the principle way to do this is to make sure they know when their behaviour is unacceptable. - If you don't let them know this, they will never learn and end up walking all over you. - It's kind of like parent who refuse to discipline their child; they might have the best intentions, but the child is rarely better off for it in the long run.

 

I think back to my school days and there is such a difference between the teacher who shouted 24/7 vs the teacher who rarely shouted. If the teacher who rarely shouted did so, the class would immediately stop, and pay attention. The teacher who always shouted particularly at individuals had very little respect. I base the premise that I will never shout at my class on this, classroom control comes from respect not whose the loudest.

In my opinion there is also a BIG difference in shouting and changing the tone of your voice to show them you not playing, they will soon pay attention, a quiet but firm teacher gets the message accross better than a loud erratic one!

 

you shouldn't be shouting all the time....but if you do it once in a blue moon it is incredibly effective.

My class were being absolute ******* one day, no amount of praise, stickers, hands on your head stuff etc would work, so out came the 'big scary voice'.

Made every single one of them cry and from that point on we had a lovely day.

Sometimes you need to make the tough ones cry....then youve 'broken' them so to speak

 

Happy Teachers=Deluded Fools who havent taught for long enough!

 

I know this is an old post but any advice would be good. The other day I had a child push another child into a door and he hurt his back. I organised first aid and spoke to the child who pushed him. He has adhd (easy to say i know but he does) and anger issues and anything makes him esculate into terrible temper tantrums. As I have no help or TA, even though this has been noted by Ofsted and any other visitors that a TA is needed in my class (oh and i got goods on my obs), all I can do is send him out the class to calm down. Because of this i was speaking to him in a calm manner and he started his rant and I said no this is not acceptable. I said this in a firm manner but didnt raise my voice. The child obviously didnt like this and started shouting and again I kept calm and everytime he spoke I said in a firm way that this was not acceptable.
I have to point out that his brother who is in the school is prone to running out of the property and I thought being calm was the best policy.
Subsequently the headmistress walked past shouted at him for being disrespectful to a member of staff and every time he spoke shouted at him until he shut up. She then lectured me stating that I should have shouted at the child, really ripping into him school because of his actions. I explained because of his needs I didnt want to esculate the situation and that I had other children to think off. She said no this was totally wrong and I really need to start getting a grip of this child.
So my question is this should I have ripped into him shouting at him making him be quiet and thus go down to his level or did i do the right thing?