While chapter three focused on misbehavior and classroom management, the most surprising and helpful advice I received was actually in the form of ignorance (to an extent). The heading was Don’t Overreact and several students voiced their opinions on this, especially in terms of involving parents or placing blame on the wrong person.
These two comments jumped out for me because I completely agree with them and have experienced similar (even identical) situations through my seven years in middle and high school. Overreacting by placing blame where it is not warranted will ruin the teacher/student relationship. This happened to me when I was accused of fighting and I abruptly transferred schools, a decision that I now sincerely regret. Also, if you involve parents and higher-ups before talking with students it further severs the relationship by acknowledging that students are not mature enough to have a serious conversation about inappropriate actions. The overarching theme that I picked up on is that students are impulsive and do not think long term, thus overreacting to misbehavior can cause drastic consequences on students that in the overall scheme of things are much more damaging than the behavioral problem.
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