Friday, September 05, 2008

The Student Whisperer


They're back! Yep, a new batch of little devils, I mean lovely students. I have to say so far I have been impressed with my new batch of kids this year. I had heard some horror stories about their behavior and well I am just hoping that the honeymoon period lasts a while longer before I run into problems.
One goal I had at the beginning of the year was to get a handle on the kids talking in class from day one. I have the biggest problem with this in 6th hour when the kids come for academic support. Basically this is an hour for them to get one on one help from me with work they didn't finish in their classes.
However they seem to think this is the social hour and always want to talk to the kid sitting next to them. So I had this brilliant idea to come up with some kind of verbal cue to get them to stop talking, and I thought I'd just go all dog whisperer on them and make that annoying noise that Cesar Millan makes when he's trying to get a dog that is yipping to quit barking.
Yeah it sounds like I am being inhumane but you know what it works. For instance today, a student initiated a conversation with a student next to him and every time he said a word I piped up with that annoying "pssshhhh," till he finally just gave up the conversation knowing I wasn't going to allow him to finish his sentence.
It's kinda funny because just as I was in the midst of "psssshhhhing" the chatty student the school counselor came in the room to rinse out her coffee cup in my sink. She kind of flashed me a weird look when she heard me and that's when I told her I was the student whisperer, she immediately chuckled and got my point, then asked me if I needed any choker collars....lol, hopefully not.
 
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