Today I had the experience of subbing in a classroom full of eighth graders. The classes were large, and the kids were very rowdy. I learned after my first class to have a “Don’t Touch Another Student Under Any Circumstances” rule, and that was the only warning I would give. Eighth graders are always picking on each other, and what starts out as a tap eventually turns into a fight, so I now enforced my rule at the beginning of class.
The great thing about a small school is the coaches are always right down the hall. Today the junior high football team had a home game, and were all wearing their jerseys. This was a great benefit to me because I knew who they were and the coach came in my class at the beginning to tell them all to behave or they would deal with him, especially his football boys.
Well, everything went great until the end of class when two boys decided to jokingly hit each other, and it turned into a fight. As soon as I yelled, “Stop” both boys immediately realized their mistake, and broke apart, but it was to late. They had been warned, and that didn’t stop them, so after writing their names down (they were both football players), I sent them to their next class and immediately went to the football coach’s classroom. He assured me it would be taken care of, and I believed him.
The next day I had to sub for a different teacher and was met by both the teacher whose class I had been in previously (which just happens to be the senior high football coach), and the junior high coach. They both assured me that they had handled the matter and I didn’t have to put up with it. They also assured me that I did the right thing by telling them because they could punish them using something that mattered to them.
Apparently coaches expect more from their athletes, as teachers we can use their expectations in our classrooms and if those expectations are not being met, we can go to the coaches (if they are willing to expect this from their players). It doesn’t work for all of the students, but it sure has an impact on those it works on.
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