I've seen a theme on Teacher Twitter lately- how the Students are misbehaving, bold, disrespectful, defiant. It's a month or two into school, students have settled in and are feeling comfortable in your class. It may seem as if it's time to taper off on the community building and social emotional learning. Time to hunker down and learn the "real, important" stuff. I want to challenge this notion. Instead of tapering off on it, now is when social emotional learning is the most important!
It seems counter-intuitive. In any other year, now is when we might really start nudging our students to more academic learning. But this year, especially if your students were online last year, try something different. Try thinking about your classroom expectations from the perspective of your student. They were home, learning through a small screen last year, or they were face to face, socially distanced, in the same room as others, but not sharing the same space. Or, in the case of most kindergarteners, not in school in the first place.
Last year our provincial school board operated face to face all year. What we noticed was the behaviours we started to see taper off at the end of September were still being dealt with, long into the late fall and winter. Six months home, in a very small bubble of people impacted our social skills more than we had anticipated. We spent most of last year really dealing with big emotions from young learners. In a scary world, even if we aren't sure why it's scary, we just "feel" like it's scary, sometimes the only way we know how to react is defiantly. That self-preservation mode is strong, even in little humans.
While this year may seem a little different, our kids are still learning in the middle of a pandemic. If your students were online last year, then they have been in a small bubble for a long time! Things like that take their toll on us. Humans are tribal creatures. We work best when we work in community with other humans. Even the most introverted of us needs other people. Add this stress to seeing adults around them losing their minds over things like vaccination mandates and mask mandates. They see the anger, they hear parents and other adults talking, kids are observant. They know things we think they don't. And no one is asking them what they think. How many students have truly been asked their opinion of wearing a mask in school? The entire conversation has been around adults feelings and opinions, not on the actual ones who are directly affected.
Are your students talking back to you? Ask yourself what that motivation is. Are they getting up and walking around? Remember last year they could do that whenever they wanted. Maybe build that into your day (confession: if you were to ask my opinion, chances are they are sitting way too long in the first place. Not a slight against any individual teacher, but against a system that expects children to sit still for hours while adults are up walking around).
Think about their behaviour from an out of body perspective. Whatever the reason for their actions, it's probably not even about you as the teacher, but about their reaction to living in an unpredictable world where too many adults aren't doing their job protecting the children.
So, instead of blaming the kids, find ways to work with them. Be the adult leader they so desperately need. Smile with them. Laugh. Play games. Have FUN! Even when- especially when- they may seem like they are coming apart at the seams. The only way to stitch them back together is through love and understanding.
The world is a harsh and scary place right about now. Don't you think it's time we lead with love?
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