Challenging as the heat is 110 in our city....HOT HOT HOT and that means HOT headed kids
I had a child today tell me "send me home or I will kill you" and from that point layed on the floor and a full on temper tantrum......movie style
yep! wow ! we had to stop handwork and I took all the kids back to their class and I had another teacher be with that child ( I didn't send that child home)
While in their classroom I told them a pedagogical story about a mouse who's heart was very big and who wanted to go see the great owl. All the animals of the forest warned the mouse not to go because owls EAT mice, but the mouse told the animals that his heart was big enough and he cared for all animals in the forest. The story went on to talk about how he had to find the owl....and finally finding out that the owl lived in the deepest...darkest part of the forest where all the love had been squeezed out of it AND this is where the mouse wanted to go....to call out owl and make him love again. Etc.....the story went on, I made up this story on the spot for the kids.......to help them see that some times we need to love those who are reealllllllly angry.....and help them grow.
Once the child calmed down, the child came back to class and interesting enough, the whole class told this student that it hurt their hearts to hear such words coming from him, the student who was upset apologized to the class .
WOW! and the funny thing is....this child was upset because other students were finishing their project and this student wasn't done yet.
The fear of failure can be such a strong emotion. My little guy used to say "I can't" and quit when he couldn't keep up with the other children. He's getting better about that, but we still have the occasional backsliding. I hope next week is better for you!
ReplyDeleteWow! Congratulation!! I know what it means to have a temper tantrum in class and the way you handle it, you are a true inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!
Thank you for sharing your story! It's so inspiring to see how the children responded.
ReplyDeleteIt is so nice to read these little challenging tales...sometimes I think everyone else has these perfect little classes, when I have children that throw tantrums similar to this fairly regularly...once, a student writhed on the floor telling me she would rather roll in dirt than do cross-stitch...I told her wow, I guess you really hate cross-stitch and gave her a hug, and then she cried and told me what was really going on....thanks for the story!
ReplyDeleteYes thank-you!
ReplyDelete