.....students who talk back, roll eyes, and are disrespectful. I am in my 4th year of teaching 5th grade and this seems to be 5th graders biggest problem. I am usually pretty successful about getting this habit broken, but I was wanting some new ideas and wanted to know how you deal with them.
I am starting my twelfth year and will have a few students this year who may have some respect issues-not necessarily with me but with each other. I am going to try having them copy a respect essay and fill out a think sheet. I have a third/fourth/fifth grade class. I went online and found a lot of ideas when I googled "classroom behavior management". I plan to have students copy this short 5-6 sentence "essay" during their recess time if they are continuing to be disrespectful. Parents will sign it also. If they finish before recess time is over they can get up. If not they will take it home as homework.
Love and Logic has some pretty good catch phrases for the eye-rolling. Things like "Wow! Can you see the back of your head when you do that?" or "When you do that you're telling me more about you than about me!" or getting down so you can whisper in their ear and say "I don't want to embarrass you, but that is disrespectful, and it needs to stop so I don't have to!..Thank you", and then just walk away. You give the student the chance to stop the behavior without embarrassing themselves, which, we all know, if a 5th grader is embarrassed, the behavior won't stop...it'll probably turn into a power struggle.
LOVE That phrase!!!! I am laughing my butt off!:lol: Thank yall for your responses. If anyone else has anything let me know:2up:
I'd love to hear more suggestions on this....attitude (especially that pre-teen girl attitude) can be awful!
I enjoy saying something outrageous and humorous. It takes the pressure off and puts a smile on their face. That's for eye-rolling and attitude without mouth. But mouth? I'm not very patient about that. I usually freeze them with a look, and in a deadly tone of voice, say "Are you talking back to me?" If that doesn't make them zip it, then it's the dreaded lecture, said at 100 miles per hour, full of eye squints, snorts, head shakes, and flying spittle.
