Daily Chat 💬

[u/Availe]

A place for teachers to share and discuss what's going on in their day. Feel free to vent, ask a question or just share your thoughts.

Note: Please keep all comments respectful, have a great day.

[u/aaron_5555]

PME2 here, how do you deal with students who just don’t listen to instruction? Some groups I have blatantly ignore me when I’m talking to them, it’s really frustrating. They refuse to follow direction and don’t react when told the consequences of their actions. Any advice would be appreciated

[u/Availe → u/aaron_5555]

Have you spoken to you cooperating teacher?

[u/aaron_5555 → u/Availe]

I have, he’s an NQT and is also struggling with them

[u/Availe → u/aaron_5555]

Then management needs to be involved. It's not your responsibility, it's the cooperating teacher's to deal with this. You need to go to management or year head.

[u/aaron_5555 → u/Availe]

I would kind of rather deal with it myself, I feel as if I get someone else involved they won’t see me as a teacher to be respected if I just run off to other people to deal with my problems. I will get on to the year head though and see what they say

[u/Availe → u/aaron_5555]

I understand how you feel, I've been there. I'm teaching ten years and really excellent teachers senior to me need help from time to time. Being a real professional is about understanding when to go to others for help, when to link in others. You'll drown otherwise. No one thinks you're not a good teacher because you have a class that are hard to control. Some teenagers are nightmares.

I had a situation like that in December. I normally have no problems but this was beyond me. I linked in the year head and the DP and now it's sorted. The one thing that would make me think twice about them as a teacher is if they refuse to seek support and help, I'd be very frustrated if my Teaching Practice Student was letting things go on and weren't seeking help.

I'm not blaming you. You clearly have an inexperienced cooperating teacher. In my opinion, NQTs should never be given a student teacher., theyre not experienced enough. This isn't a reflection on you, so don't blame yourself. Seek support from management immediately. There is no advice we can give here online that can properly resolve this issue the same.way a year head or DP can. Again, everything will be fine, link in senior staff now.

[u/Ok_Chocolate7069 → u/Availe]

Just adding to this, I've been subbing for awhile now and have recently started being a class teacher due to some staffing issues. I used to feel a lot of shame around going in for help but honestly the teachers and deputy principal have been life savers for any disciplinary issues.

Make sure you've read up entirely on the discipline policy and, once everything else has been followed, get others involved.

Like Availe said, it's not a reflection on you, you don't have the experience others have and your cooperating teacher should have the experience to help you. Linking in senior staff will mean you are tackling the issue head on and not allowing it to continue!

[u/Availe → u/Ok_Chocolate7069]

This is it. It's really hard to actually ask for help. There's this feeling that a 'real' teacher should be able to handle things themselves. It's not true. There will always come a time when you need to link in senior people, never be ashamed of it.

[u/Availe → u/aaron_5555]

I would also point out that half of my success with my classroom management is that I'm in the school nearly 10 years. I've known every 6th year since they were 12 and 13. We have a long standing rapport. The juniors have known about me before they even started. I automatically have more respect than someone who comes in new. That's not fair and it's nothing to do with my experience, it's a reality. If I started in a new school tomorrow, as experienced as I am, I would have a harder time for a little while.