I am a brand new teacher and my first assignment is a Kindergarten class. I have a class of 19 and most of my students seem to be catching quickly. I have a student I am very concerned in a behavior way and would like some advice. The first student is female and has a rough background. From what I have been told she and her twin have been removed from several preschools. This student has already hit other students and left marks on them, randomly screams at the top of her lungs, called me a curse word and hit me 3 times before I was able to call for removal. She also sucks her thumb and her clothing and is revealing her chest to the class while crawling on the floor. I am worried about breaking the relationship with child before the year is really started. She makes extremely difficult to teach and hard for other students on the carpet. I'm not receiving the support I feel I need from admin and was told not to call home. When she was removed she wrote a note saying sorry and came back to class. She's told me she's going to be bad until she kicked out of school and never has to come back. I'm lost what to do with this child.
Does your school have an RTI system for behavior or social/emotional needs? If so, you need get the process started for this student.
What have you tried so far with this student, as far as: ignoring bad behavior consequences such as loss of activity rewards such as prizes or stickers praising on-task behavior Any of those, or other things? Also, why did the school tell you not to call home?
She should be referred for an evaluation for an IEP - it might not be a disability, but the work that goes into an IEP in kindergarten, like social history and family situation (at least that is done around here), the social worker should be able to root out
Protecting the students from physical danger should be the first priority. I agree, this student needs evaluated. I would be extremely concerned if the admin told me not to contact the parents; school is not a clandestine society. Parents need to be made aware of what occurs in school. Often new teachers are told to do this or that and the problem will be solved--not so; there are no magic formulas in teaching. She is exhibiting learned behavior. (Not that I'm a behaviorist, but behaviorism does explain what is occurring in situations such as this). Her actions either provide her with positive reinforcement or, very possibly, her actions are a lower brain automatic response to stimuli. Since she is able to verbalize reasons for her actions, she is either parroting something she's heard or, more likely, thinking through her actions with her upper brain. When she is having a meltdown, that is the worst time to counsel with her. If possible, a time out to calm down is a helpful first response. Then discuss the situation and perhaps role play a more appropriate response; this will be teaching the upper brain to control the lower brain. Sometimes it helps to also role play the incorrect response that needs to be avoided, too, but I've always played that by ear, since sometimes it's best to just stick with the appropriate response. It's especially helpful to be on guard that you are not only responding to her during crisis periods. She is like the boy who asked the zebra if he was black with white stripes or white with black stripes. The zebra asked if the boy was bad with some good times or good with some bad times. Constructive conversations about other aspects of her day work wonders. I find smiling to be my most effective tool. Smiles are contagious. A smile is more contagious than a cold and once a student catches this virus, it transforms her outlook on her school day.
My admin doesn't like to call home this early in the year unless it's good news. I've tried ignoring the behavior but it gets worse and worse until I intervene, I"ve praised her when she is doing it right I like the way you are sitting, raising your hand etc. I've made her practice sitting nice while everyone is doing a fun activity such as whiteboards
thank you for your suggestions. i feel better walking into with some more strategies. I will make sure to only talk to her after she's has time to calm herself
Does your district have a "right to teach" policy? When I taught kinder, I had a student swat at me when I tried to remove materials he was using incorrectly from his hand after he refused to put them down. We had to have an expulsion hearing because it's district policy that if a student strikes a teacher they may be removed from that school for as long as the teacher remains at the school. In the end he was transferred to another classroom for the school year, and the policy seemed silly, but now that I teach high school the policy makes much more sense.
Most schools aren't going to jump quickly into a child study team action.(and parents would generally not react well to such hasty IEP action) Most protocols require documentation of behaviors, strategies used and results data, consulting with guidance/LDTC/behaviorist/I&RS type committees for strategies to try...a conference with parents is important as well.
