Investigate before a decision

Modern teachers have our hands tied up in many ways.

We need to handle the constant changes of our pupils as well as many over-protective parents.

Without finding out the facts, some parents may bring their complaints directly to the ministry of education resulting in negative impacts to the career of their children’s teachers.

The fact is most children are harder to handle due to the influence of modern technology like internet and mobile phones.

They also know their rights and they know who to approach when they do not like how a teacher may have treated them.

Most children sleep a lot later at night. By the time a child grows into a teenager, many of them may only sleep around 2 am and they would argue that all teenagers are sleeping at that hour despite the constant nagging from parents and caregivers.

With the lack of sleep, many of their temper becomes worst with lack of patience as well as concentration in class.

Crashes with your children

It is very easy to have a conflict with your child or pupil.

The tendency to shout and scold a child immediately is the normal reaction of a teacher.

The present century children would not necessary just be passive takers but they would talk back and argue back.

In the end, the lesson is disrupted with an argument with the other pupils as active audience.

Traditional respect from parents and pupils is no longer the same.

Every child as well as parent knows their rights and they would aggressively demand their own justice even if they may be in the wrong.

We should avoid unnecessary argument and lose our cool regardless of being a parent at home or a teacher in school as it does not really help in this age of strong influence by external factors from our society.

Respect to expect respect

As a classroom teacher, I have also emphasized that I will respect my pupils and they are expected to respect me as well.

It is really like a fair trade. I have to treat my pupils almost like equal. It is important to make friends with them whenever we can find the opportunities.

Spend time with them outside the classroom during break time in school to chat with them about general issues like their hobbies, things that happen at home, boy-girl relationship issues etc.

With time invested and relationship established, most children are easier to handle as we managed to gain their likings and they are more willing to cooperate with us.

I personally teach with a friendly tone and make a lot of jokes during my lesson to make it interesting since I am usually given the weakest class of the level.

Most of the pupils that I am teaching may come from broken families and the existence of both parents may not even be there. I even had a pupil where both parents were in prison.

These children just need the respect and care from the caregiver as well as teacher since they lack the security.

As the caregiving or teacher, we may just be the turning point of their lives. If there is no turning point, children from broken families may end up walking the same route as their parents even though they may have hated their parents when they were young.

Investigate before a decision

I am regularly handling discipline cases that happened in other subjects and outside the classroom since I am the form teacher of the class.

It is always important to hear the two sides of the stories rather than just believe the story of the more well-behaved ones.

Teachers have become detectives as when discipline cases arise, we still need to get witnesses to ensure the statements given by the involved parties are accurate.

In my school, pupils had to write down statement individually without discussion so that we can compare the statements accuracy as well as preventing them from changing what they said earlier when their parents are being informed. This would form part of the evidence to avoid them changing what they said.

Talking to the affected parties should be in a calm voice without passing judgement of who is right or wrong first even the fact is obvious so that children will know that everyone is fairly treated and the conclusion will be an accurate one after all evidences are gathered.

It is wrong to start scolding before investigating as we may not see the other side of the story or underlying issue.

Sometimes, children may cause problems in school due to an outburst of emotion as a result of a situation at home where they cannot find an avenue for outpour.

There are many may need counselling or even psychological help to have their situation improved. Home visit may also be one of the possible ways.

A classroom teacher cannot work alone but would require the school leader as well as the discipline committee to make a decision mainly for the well-being of the pupil as well as his/her future development.

Remember that we as teachers are really in the frontline to mould the future generations.

Regardless of the challenges that we may face daily, we have the direct contact to make a difference that we may only see it after our ex-students come back as adults to thank us.

Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that. All images and pictures were taken from google images that are free from copyright under labelled for reuse.