First time teaching a class today. Please kill me.

[Illyrian]

This is probably a cliche but when I was a kid if I screwed about or answered back I'd be immediately told off or worse. My dad is South African and came from a fairly conservative South African family, albeit one that spoke against the apartheit.

If I was too insolent I was spanked. Not hard, certainly not enough to leave a mark but given a whack around the back of the legs. When I was too young to properly understand WHY certain things weren't allowed this made it pretty clear when I had screwed up. At the same time though good behaviour was rewarded and there was a balance. Either way I learned respect for authority. Young people today seem to think, and be told that they just deserve respect for nothing, as if just by virtue of being alive they are a special snowflake who deserve the respect of adults. This is just not the case, and certainly wasn't the case with me for a lot of my childhood.

You aren't allowed to discipline school kids anymore. I'm not talking about caning in schools, as was the case when my parents were in school but actual severe punishment like Saturday detention etc. Kids don't seem to learn respect for teachers and teachers can't instill respect through action without having shitty parents, who were themselves raised as entitled brats getting angry with them.

I learned a lot about work ethic from watching my Dad, as he always worked hard and tried to do his best. These kids today get raised by lazy parents who care more about who is winning on Xfactor than anything else and all of that seeps into their minds.

I am glad I wasn't born in the early or mid 90's quite frankly.

[Xyga]

I agree with you but IMHO there's another aspect explaining part of why they look down so hard on adults, it's that they also mimic the disrespect adults are showing between them today.
Current society in too many countries is a growing clusterfuck of issues and anger, kids watch adults cursing one-another for their increasing misery every damn day.
Adults who don't get a thing about their reality, and who are apparently too irresponisble and weak to prevent society from falling apart.
Seeing those daily displays of weakness, resentment and irresponsibility, from the street to national elite levels, why should they respect adults ?
To highlight this I don't know elsewhere but in France lots of parents think ill of teachers in general and don't refrain from telling it in front of their kids.

[Obiwanshinobi]

People corporally punished by their parents tend to be defensive of this way of parenting because everybody wants to believe theirs were right (as even if you can still have more kids, you'll never have any more parents).

[MintyTheCat]

Indeed, physically discipling children only really 'works' with certain types of people and does not work with all types.

[Illyrian]

I am not really being overly defensive about that style of parenting. My upbringing was far from perfect but I don't think smacking caused me any harm.

Furthermore all of my uncles where smacked/caned at school and they always said it was a horrible experience so not everyone who experienced stuff like that always develops it.

I think there is a big difference between a smack to the legs and what some parents did, like taking a belt to someone, which is reprehensible.

[NickPalmerDegica]

I'd say its not as new as people are acting. I remember one teacher when I was in high school (and that has been a number of years, I have a daughter about to go into high school myself) that we had one teacher literally leave for 3 days because of a nervous breakdown caused by a crazy crazy class full of every jerk in the school. I had her for two different classes (creative writing in the morning, English in the evening), and when I talked to her in the morning and she was fine. And then got there in the evening and she was nowhere to be found. They hadn't even managed to pull in a substitute yet so the principal was there. Three days later she came in during the middle of my creative writing class. "Where've you been?" "I was driving, see the countryside" "Its Oglethorpe (the county I grew up in), you see a cow, a fence, and a horse and you've seen the whole thing, how can you do that for three days?"

We also had our band director literally freak out and respond to a girl saying she couldn't play her clarinet because her lips were hurt with "Pain, that isn't pain, this is pain" and pull out a knife and start cutting his arm. He was crazy overworked, did middle and high school band, and high school chorus, and had no planning period and an average of 50 kids per class, and some of them were particularly hellish.

And this was in a smaller rural high school (I grew up in the sticks, if its not obvious, thank god I don't live there anymore), not an inner city or anything. I've heard worse stories from inner city schools from people around my age.

[Arthurnottheking]

Hello everyone,
My first lesson today in a full classroom (27 kids, private primary school, my first teaching experience).. During the pandemic outbreak.. My head is spinning. I can't concentrate on the lesson plan either, just random thoughts about the virus and the whole situaion. How did you manage your first lesson? Any recommendations? Thoughts?
Thank you beforehand. Just a bit nervous..

Arthur

[Blinge]

I've taught English a bit. I laugh at the teens, and get them to entertain me, somehow...

Ultimately there's no tips that'll do any better than just getting experience.

Also what a first post to make on the shmups forum

if all else fails, try this.. https://youtu.be/TbKNnJVjt7M

[Stevens]

Oh Arthur I saw this yesterday and totally forgot to respond.

I've taught middle school PE in NYC for 18 years. Generally if has been awesome, but this is clearly a year like no other.

I'm going to sound less than humble for a moment, but I have greatly refined my business over the years. Although I like to joke that when I started teaching I sucked at it and now I'm mediocre, the truth is that I've become damn good at what I do.

For PE that has come down to two things:

1 - Never yell. Yelling is reserved for times when a kids safety is in jeopardy.

2 - Lead by example.

Few questions if I may? Age if the kids and where are you teaching? Really just curious more than anything else.

Number one above is the best piece if advice they don't tell you. I spent years doing if wrong until I decided I wasn't going to be another asshole that yells at the kids for no reason.

Praise in the same voice you reprimand, both should be calm. I've made kids cry simply by telling them I was disappointed in them. Never blow a kid up in front of their class. No good will come from it.

Find some common ground with the kids. How can you connect with them? My students know I love video games/board games, but they also know I take fitness seriously. I make jokes with the girls that like K pop (75% Asian population), I talk cricket and kabbadi with the kids from that part if the world and so on. All of that comes from building rapport. Building rapport starts with learning names. I can't stress enough how important that is.

Don't worry about following your lesson plan verbatim. It should be written properly, but consider it more of a ...loose outline for the class. Don't sweat going off script, especially if they learn something.

Last thing I'll mention is the environment you create. If you're good to the kids they will mostly be good to one another. If you're negative all the time? That will trickle down too.

Don't be shy. You can holler with more questions.

Good luck kid.

[chempop]

snip..
1 - Never yell. Yelling is reserved for times when a kids safety is in jeopardy.

2 - Lead by example.

Great advice, Stevens. Been at it +20 years, mostly performing and visual arts (all ages), this year is going to be interesting. Our public elementary schools are remote (zoom) 1st-12th, some surrounding districts are hybrid but our schools are too old to refurbish up to code with enough ventilation, etc.

I'd like to add

3 - Connection before correction.

Example - correction first:
Action: Billy is throwing sidewalk chalk pretending they are missiles.
Reaction: "Billy, stop throwing the chalk, throw a ball instead."

Example - connection first:
Reaction: "Kablamo! Wow, you threw that far. But the chalk isn't meant for that, it could break or hurt someone. Come on, let's find a ball to throw instead."

4 - Be yourself. Be honest (within reason).

Example: You just had a rough morning, but decide to put on your game face and act like a professional teacher who knows what they are doing.

or

You could tell your students how you're doing, let them get to know you a little better. Ask them if anyone wants to share how their morning was before starting to dig into the curriculum.

5 - Balance perseverance and fun.

Honestly, kid can be extremely lazy - but it's usually not their fault. School is so often dirt-boring to them compared to their interests, entertainment, and social lives. Or they simply have other things on their mind that is too distracting, preventing them from focussing. Often, the key to get them motivated is to make things fun and meaningful to them.

Let us know how it goes Arthur!