OH, AIGHT [GIVING THEM THE FIRST WORD]
A little noise. A small plastic flick. A few curses. A thwop. A burst of laughter. A myriad of ways for Student X to distract themselves from the classroom activity of the moment.
I put up one finger, give myself a three-second time out and say, “I’ll be patient with you.” Student X does Action Y again. “That’s twice now and I’m asking you to please focus on the Do Now / Objective / Lesson for now.” But, but, but … “I’m not blaming you or anything like that, and if you’d like some time to discuss, we can make time for it during classwork, but not right now.” Then Student X does Action Y for the third time. “Aight, cool, let me finish what I’m doing now and I’ll deal with it then.”
The students start taking out looseleaf or get handed a sheet of problems to work on together and I look back at the student who thought I forgot. “Can we speak outside?” My firm and dulcet tone belie my sharp and directive eyes. The student usually obliges out of respect and, for a moment, we’ve suspended the routine for a quick relationship refresher.
“OK, you first. How you feeling, you good?”
[silence]
“What’s up today? How are we doing?”
[puts their head down or paces around a few tiles in the hallway looking like they just learned another pee-pee dance]
“You have nothing to say now?”
“OK, Mr. Vilson, so what happened was …”
[silence]
“What’s up today? How are we doing?”
[puts their head down or paces around a few tiles in the hallway looking like they just learned another pee-pee dance]
“You have nothing to say now?”
“OK, Mr. Vilson, so what happened was …”
He did. She did. They did. They shouldn’t have. I was just trying to. I don’t know, it’s just that.
“I hear you, and I don’t want to take CONTINUE READING: Oh, Aight [Giving Them The First Word] | The Jose Vilson
