Year 8 make for a fairly happy classroom, rid of some of its troublemakers and with some others subdued by the sheer weight of constantly followed-up expectation and still others cajoled into compliance with praise and adaptation. We get along pretty well, and they will humour me and laugh with me, and I am some way to figuring out how to get their best out of them. The cycle of demand-denial-demand doesn't happen very often, and there's a fair bit of maths talk, sparks of genuine interest and, every so often, moments of quiet thought. Then there's a new kid.
Maybe I'm naive, but I think of new kids as being initially, at least, quiet and reasonably compliant. That has overwhelmingly been my experience, even if they're just new to the class and not to the school - they're checking the new teacher out. Not this one. I am unaware of his existence until he bursts into the classroom before the lesson begins, then barrels out again. As I step into the corridor, he (let's call him Deep) demands that he sit next to one particular kid, 'Cos he's my only friend, Miss!' I realise he must be new and say that we'll see, and that in this class, students must sit in a seating plan. His voice is, as you may have gathered, quite extraordinarily deep for a 13 year old, and he is very tall and large. When the class enter, he takes himself off and sits next to yet another kid. I have to ask him to stand up and place him somewhere more suitable. I exchange a glance with my TA and we both take a deep breath.
As the lesson starts he begins to make loud and silly comments, stating the obvious. 'Miss, miss, I don't get it, I think it's because, you know, I wasn't here last lesson!' The other kids initially think this is funny, but the repetition soon annoys them. Deep talks really loudly and really deeply, and seems immune to the annoyance of kids around him. When I ask him to stop talking, he apologises then does it again. And again. I give him a warning and put his name on the board. I explain what this means to him and the consequences if he continues, quietly. He argues back, loudly, that he can't have an after school detention! I explain that that is the final sanction, that it would be set for a later date, and anyway, I'm sure he can manage to not get that far. He shouts at full volume as I walk away 'But Miss, are you, like, proper sure?'
Deep improves marginally, but I'm worried by the bizarreness of his behaviour. At one point, in the middle of my explanation to the class he begins to laugh loudly. When I ask him to stop making noise, he explains (again, loudly) that he was 'just laughing at the funny man on the wall', pointing to my small picture of Einstein. He seems genuine in his shock at being reprimanded and sincere in his attempts to behave.
Now you might think that surely, surely I must have had some information, some guidance, before another student was added to quite difficult a class of 32. Our IT system is down, so it wasn't until the next day that I accessed the email. I gave his name and age, and that he would be joining my class. It said that no more information could be given, because his previous school was in Scotland and had not provided any data. They could not get hold of his mother. My TA is specifically trained in autistic-spectrum disorders, and we were both saying 'Asperger's-like?' to ourselves by the end of the lesson. We clearly failed Deep spectacularly, failing to deal appropriately with his behavioural needs or address any maths with him. I still have no idea of his mathematical ability (he has been placed in my set, the middle, for want of information). My only excuse is that I was so surprised by his appearance and behaviour that I found myself unable to judge whether his behaviour was a deliberate challenge or an unfulfilled need.
As to the other 32 students, I feel sorry for them.
Maybe I'm naive, but I think of new kids as being initially, at least, quiet and reasonably compliant. That has overwhelmingly been my experience, even if they're just new to the class and not to the school - they're checking the new teacher out. Not this one. I am unaware of his existence until he bursts into the classroom before the lesson begins, then barrels out again. As I step into the corridor, he (let's call him Deep) demands that he sit next to one particular kid, 'Cos he's my only friend, Miss!' I realise he must be new and say that we'll see, and that in this class, students must sit in a seating plan. His voice is, as you may have gathered, quite extraordinarily deep for a 13 year old, and he is very tall and large. When the class enter, he takes himself off and sits next to yet another kid. I have to ask him to stand up and place him somewhere more suitable. I exchange a glance with my TA and we both take a deep breath.
As the lesson starts he begins to make loud and silly comments, stating the obvious. 'Miss, miss, I don't get it, I think it's because, you know, I wasn't here last lesson!' The other kids initially think this is funny, but the repetition soon annoys them. Deep talks really loudly and really deeply, and seems immune to the annoyance of kids around him. When I ask him to stop talking, he apologises then does it again. And again. I give him a warning and put his name on the board. I explain what this means to him and the consequences if he continues, quietly. He argues back, loudly, that he can't have an after school detention! I explain that that is the final sanction, that it would be set for a later date, and anyway, I'm sure he can manage to not get that far. He shouts at full volume as I walk away 'But Miss, are you, like, proper sure?'
Deep improves marginally, but I'm worried by the bizarreness of his behaviour. At one point, in the middle of my explanation to the class he begins to laugh loudly. When I ask him to stop making noise, he explains (again, loudly) that he was 'just laughing at the funny man on the wall', pointing to my small picture of Einstein. He seems genuine in his shock at being reprimanded and sincere in his attempts to behave.
Now you might think that surely, surely I must have had some information, some guidance, before another student was added to quite difficult a class of 32. Our IT system is down, so it wasn't until the next day that I accessed the email. I gave his name and age, and that he would be joining my class. It said that no more information could be given, because his previous school was in Scotland and had not provided any data. They could not get hold of his mother. My TA is specifically trained in autistic-spectrum disorders, and we were both saying 'Asperger's-like?' to ourselves by the end of the lesson. We clearly failed Deep spectacularly, failing to deal appropriately with his behavioural needs or address any maths with him. I still have no idea of his mathematical ability (he has been placed in my set, the middle, for want of information). My only excuse is that I was so surprised by his appearance and behaviour that I found myself unable to judge whether his behaviour was a deliberate challenge or an unfulfilled need.
As to the other 32 students, I feel sorry for them.
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