This morning, I started volunteering in my son's class. He is in second grade. I spent over two hours working with the kids on a paragraph they were typing and adding a piece of clip art to. It was pretty interesting to watch them. I learned a lot about how they construct their sentences, picked out some patterns in their (mis)spelling of words, and some other stuff that I find interesting (partly because I'm a nerd and partly because of my future as a teacher). One child was pretty challenging. I'm fairly certain that he has ADD. However, I managed to keep him on task (sorta) and not lose my mind during the hour it took him to type four sentences. As much as I enjoyed working with the little people, I was pretty excited when they were all done and I could go home. As I was getting ready to leave, the teacher asked if she could talk to me for a minute.
We stepped out the door. Apparently, a couple little girls have come to her saying that my kiddo has been flipping them the bird (she actually said sticking up his middle finger, but let's call it what it really is, people) and saying some not nice things (I don't even want to imagine what lovely things he's saying in conjunction with his bird flying). She said at first she just blew it off because my son is a good kid and never gives her any problems. However, when these girls came to her a few more times, she said she couldn't keep ignoring it. I agree. And I tend to believe that he is doing this because I've gotten on to him a few times at home for letting the bird out of the cage.
So, here's my question...short of cutting the kid's middle fingers off (which I think is probably a little drastic and possibly illegal in most states), how do I get him to stop it? I'm not even sure where he learned to do that because it's not something the hubby and I do. I do so love being a parent...
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I was a first grade teacher for 3 years... if this happened in my class, I would probably start by asking if he knows what sticking up the middle finger means..most likely he doesn't right? Then I would let him know that it is like saying something really mean using a finger instead of words. I wouldn't get into what it means, just say that it's not nice and that when you do it to someone, it hurts their feelings or makes them upset. (The other kids probably don't know what it means either). Then I would let him know that since he is such a nice little boy, that is not something that he should be doing because it will make other people/classmates/his teacher think that he is not nice.
ReplyDeleteSounds so corny, but just telling him to stop won't be effective unless he understands why.
-Katie
I mostly agree with KT...I taught before I became ill. I would definitely ask him about it, and ask him to stop. If he doesn't, I would either have him write lines using his fingers, or take away a privilege. I'm sure he will stop.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog!
Kerri from SITS