I truly have to work on this and it doesn't fit with my personality at all... But today I gave it a try. I have two, but mainly one student in particular who in some cases does everything she is not suppose to do to get attention. For example. We are in group time going over upper and lower case letters. She is behind me with the pointer going over the calendar, walking around basically being a distraction. For the first time I ignored her, turned my back to her every time she tried to get my attention. The students did a great job continuing with me. Guess what she eventually came and sat down and joined in group. I did not call on her when she raised her hand to finally join in. After group I let her know she should have came the first time when all of her friends were in group time. Next time I would love to call on her when she joins group the first time. I believe I am going to have to show tough love with her. But boy did it take some patience for me to ignore her... I even told my assistant this is going to be an interesting school year with her. Would you have done the same? She wasn't very loud behind me, but I can tell that she wanted to get my attention. I have to train my mind to acknowledge the good and stop pointing out the negative so much. I have a group of about 7/19 who I can always count on to do the right thing. Also did I mention she totally knows what she is doing... even my child who is extremely active and busy was in group fiddling around with a chair, but answers questions on topic.
This is something I struggle with. I have a student this year who is very bright and understands her actions fully, but during group time she'll lay down in the floor and roll around, or start touching the materials around her, or fiddle with the posters on the wall...anything but look at me and respond to questions. I guess I feel compelled to say "so and so...I need you to make good choices" but I find myself saying it over and over. Maybe on Monday ill practice ignoring it
I only ignore negative behavior when I can praise someone else's behavior. I have one this year that lies down during carpet time. Honestly, I think he's tired. Anyway, I start praising other students for sitting so nicely and he quickly sits up - and then I praise him, too. With the little girl that finally joined the group, I would have called on her when she put up her hand. She was trying to do the right thing and I would have rewarded that. Otherwise she doesn't get the attention she's looking for either way. Can you make her your example? This week I zeroed in on one little monkey. Every time we are practicing a procedure I have him model for the class how to do the procedure correctly. Then I ask the class, "Who else can do it as well as Timmy?" I've had 0 issues with him... and he was challenging for his kindergarten teachers. We'll see, we could be in a honeymoon, but so far it's working!
I toyed with the idea back and forth with allowing her to share since she did come back to group. I have two students who are both attention seekers and often exhibit negative behavior (rolling around on carpet, being loud, fiddling with things, shouting out etc). We are a PBIS School so anytime I catch positive behavior they are get a ticket that they can collect for a bigger prize. Often times I feel that I allow her to be a model for lots of things allll the time. But I need to continue to push forward with her so she is successful. Thanks for the ideas!
