Teaching Health Class

schoolnurse1001 · Oct 21, 2009

I teach a human growth and development class twice a year and I don't do the discipline. I may tell them to be quiet but the main teacher is always in there and will take care of anyone who needs to be calmed down.

I'm like you. I like to be a safe place for the kids to come to.

bergren · Oct 23, 2009

How many kids are in the class? What are you needing to dicipline them for? Are you a guest teacher, or is this a regular assignment? What is the teacher doing while you are teaching? It is more than the teacher can handle on their own?

What do the kids want to learn? Is that what you are teaching? Why should they want to listen?

The main way to keep control of 12 - 14 year olds is to keep the class as interactive as possible and avoid lecturing. Games, contests, ask them to turn in questions to be answered anonymously, ask the students to present on some topics, ask them what they already know about a topic before you start, conduct a pretest to identify what they already know, etc. Use humor

gatherswool · Nov 1, 2009

schoolnurse1001--thank you; it's helpful to hear your experience!

bergren--that's a lot of questions! Forgive me if you were just being Socratic; I'll answer them here in case:

There are anywhere from 20-25 kids in each class.

The class follows the school-wide standardized discipline program,which means they get "checks" for talking over the teacher(s), side conversations, getting out of their seats inappropriately, throwing things, laying hands on each other (roughhousing/fighting), using racial/ethnic/sex/gender slurs, jumping on the furniture, sucking teeth, stealing, chewing gum, eating, and dancing during class. Not always stuff I care about personally, but the school wants consistency across classes. The things I personally run into a lot are noisy side conversations, name calling, noises, and verbal and physical fights. It's an integrated class with a number of students with ADD/HD, a few with bipolar and a few with autism--that I know of; there's no list circulated.

I teach the class for the whole session, which is part of an "enrichment" block, three days a week with a different group of students each day.

The teacher generally circulates through the room, giving out checks or referring especially unruly students either to a "reflection corner" where they write a reflection, or to student support. I think it is a bit much for him. All classes are taught by two teachers; this is the only one without two "official" teachers.

The kids want to learn about sex, and I'm using the King's County FLASH curriculum,which addresses it as the core (but not the only focus) of the curriculum. I like the curriculum a lot, and so do 2 of my 4 classes. A good example is the module on "touch" -- it covers abstinence, but also touch as a basic human need and what happens when we don't get good touch (hugs from friends, parents), or when we get touch we don't want (violence, sexual harassment, etc). Every module has about 10 total minutes of lecturing, 10-15 minutes of discussion, and a written and/or hands-on activity for the rest of class. I haven't done any competitive games yet, though; I'll try to think some up! Thanks for your guidance.

bergren · Nov 1, 2009

Very interesting, sounds like you have your hands full.