Monday, August 16, 2010

Anthony, Good teaching

Yup, Anthony was his real name. Since this won't be published, I guess it's okay to say his name.
I had a student named Anthony and I'm not sure if I've written about him before, I find myself too lazy to go back through all of my entries, with their illusive titles and labels and see if I've written this before or not. I suppose if I have and if anyone is diligent enough to have read my entries and notices, please let me know and I'll delete either this or that entry. I just feel it is something that should be written, as one of my proudest moments as a teacher.

Anthony was one of my fourth graders. Almost infamous for how many times he'd gotten in trouble and one of the two least favorite of the third grade teacher who was handing him over to me (along with the rest of the students that year fondly called "the class from hell" by the elective teachers). He got into a lot of fights with other kids, if something bothered him, he would become very angry and fist his hands at his sides and make an angry face and chase the offender and proceed to pound him. This led to obvious problems at recess. A basketball argument would lead to a kid being chased around the small playground by an upset Anthony, and if there was no teacher intervention, a fight ensued. By about 4/5 of the way through the school year, I was at my wits end. I told Anthony that I had talked to the assistant principal and that he would need to sit in the office from now on through the daily 20 minute recess if a big change wasn't made. He obviously didn't want that. I didn't either, knowing that it was the only time he had to get out and run around and get all of the natural energy out of his little 9 year old body.

I had thought long and hard about giving my students recess. Something that was not provided at my school, had to be provided by the teacher, and was thought to be optional for fourth graders. After a long talk with my kindergarten assistant over a visit to Columbus, she had very soundly convinced me that recess is vitally important and should be provided. After many talks with my rowdy students and problem solving sessions, recess became one of the best parts of our day; time I could sit and talk with various students at the picnic table or walk among them as they played or just observe their behavior, as kids are so very interesting.

I had recently read "Teaching with Love and Logic" and wanted to try out a method given in the book. I so did not want to deprive Anthony from recess, but there seemed to be no other option. We talked about it and as I was offering him a solution he jumped at the chance to save himself from a very boring daily office sit. I told him that he had to come up with something to do once he began to get angry that would help him stop before chasing around a culprit and beating him up. He gave it a little thought and I offered him a suggestion (almost verbatim from the book I'd been reading). He wrote on an index card that when he became angry he would sit down on the bench and count to 100 to calm himself down. He signed it and I signed it too and put it on my desk. I convinced him that this was his idea and if it didn't work we would come up with something else but I hoped it would work because I knew how much he wanted to play with the other kids at recess. It worked. When he began to display the fists and the mad face I intercepted him and yelled, "Anthony, the bench" and he would immediately come over to the bench and count to 100. I saw him visibly calm down and his breath return to normal. When he got up, he would calmly walk over to do a different activity with different kids, knowing that if he went back to the group he was with before he might be provoked again. Sometimes, the students missing the expected fight, would try to provoke him to anger again, but he would calmly ignore them and walk around them to another activity. I'd say that this happened about 15 times throughout the rest of the school year. Sometimes I would need to remind him by helping him to the bench and other times just make eye contact and verbally remind him. There were times it became comical and times I thought his reaction deemed him to take a sitting break when he didn't feel it was necessary. Once he asked if he could count by 10's and I realized I had been mistaken to intervene and he had just been having fun. We laughed and I consented. He never missed another recess!

I was so happy to see his intervention technique become applicable to him in other situations. One policy of the school was that for every three conduct forms a student would have to serve an afterschool detention. I kept track of the conduct forms on a folder of mine but it was common for a student to lose track of how many conduct forms there had been. Anthony was not new to serving detentions, he had probably served at least 5 that year, but when I mentioned this one to him, you could tell it had taken him unawares and that he did not want to tell his mother who was not going to be happy about having to rearrange transportation for yet another infraction of his. He yelled "What, I haven't had three conduct forms yet" and shoved his folder off of his desk and kicked at it. Then, realizing his reaction, his demeanor changed and he asked if he could be excused to the hallway. I said sure. He stood outside of the door and began counting to calm himself down. One of the office assistants who was walking through the school noticed him out there and asked if he was in trouble again. He told her what he was doing. She told him she was proud of him and you could see the pride on his face as he realized he was proud of himself too. He came back in and calmly asked me to remind him of the dates of the three conduct forms and I told him. He then said thank you and picked up his folder and sat back down.

I think that this is the place where a teacher can change a child's life. Good explanations are nice as are fun activities and well laid out plans, but when a teacher can help a child learn how to control his own behavior and be in charge of his own reactions, that becomes a life long lesson. I hope wherever Anthony is, that he remembers to take time out and count to 100 before letting his anger take over. I am still proud of him.