By Helene Ibrahim
It was class 4x, like usual.
I was a co-teacher in the class, working part time.
Place: Big city, from social point of view a "heavily loaded" area.
We had tried what we thought was Everything. (Of course.)
We had got an extra resource: a personal assistant to a child with severe behavial disorders and suspected MBD (Minimal Brain Disorder).
Another child had a very difficult social background. Psycholog help here.
Another yet had recently moved in and was constantly either moaning or joking to get attention.
Bullying occured among boys and girls alike. Every day. Every hour. In front of our eyes. And behind our backs.
It was a quite usual class for the rest. But they just wouldn't work. And they just wouldn't do anything right.
One day I simply took down the list of the 10 rules from the wall.
And noone noticed it was missing.
This is what I had decided to do:
That is the right thing to do!!!
And so had we.
We were nice and firm, didn't tolerate evil, we tried to activate the children - It's easier to say what we HADN'T tried...
It just still didn't work.
And nobody was happy.
Task: Group research in biology. Experiments to be made during 40 minutes, which was quite enough time to get the job done.
(Everyone had a written list of dos. Instructions were very clear.)
They were to report results to class during the next 40 minutes.
Instruction to co-teachers: Don't intervene in anything during 40 minutes unless they try to kill each other or put the school on fire (again)!
The pupils didn't work, they fought over the laboratory materials, they quarrelled, yelled, cried and complained to the teachers.
We took no notice. All we said was: Go back to your work. You are to show a report to the class in ... minutes.
What we most frequently heard - apart from "He took my..." - was that the time was not enough, a statement to which we simply did not agree. (Others have done this before you!)
One group at the time was to report the results to the class.
There were - of course - no results to show, which the pupils clearly stated! They also asked for more time to do the task, which we would not allow.
However, when the first group stepped forth to give the report, my first question to them was - very unexpectedly - THIS:
-WAS EVERYONE IN YOUR GROUP HAPPY? -No.
-WHEN DID THINGS GO WRONG? -When he/she ...
Then we made a new list of rules that would keep everyone happy!
As soon as a problem occurred in class after that, the children themselves would refer to the list. - Do you remember when ...?!