Lessons In Education: Don't Yell
When I first started teaching (and I struggled like most new teachers until I mastered how to be a teacher over time) it was customary of the higher ups to be to tell teachers that you are not the friends of the kids, that you shouldn't smile until December, that you are in charge and you need to be "strong" (I.e. yell), blah blah blah. For the most part, this approach is horseshit.
While I did raise my voice and quote "yell" on a few occasions in the classroom in my earlier years, I haven't yelled in a classroom in at least 6 years. And my advice to any teacher, new or experienced, is NEVER YELL AT THE KIDS.
No matter what they say or do, DON'T YELL. If you promise yourself this, you'll follow it.
For me I have the knack to keep things interesting. I sing, dance, draw lousy pictures, do impersonations, make up games, etc... I've sung opera and done extemporaneous rap in front of the class. (I'm lousy at all these things but I'm so bad it becomes funny to watch) I can pull off the Rodney Dangerfield routine, not all teachers can. So maybe I don't have to yell.
But even if you would be uncomfortable being Seinfeld in the classroom, there is still never a reason to yell. The trick is that when they get loud, you get SOFTER. If they stay loud, stay soft.
Never confuse lack of yelling with lack of discipline. When a point needs to be made or a wrong corrected (and best to do it casually, as a "general" point, etc....) you can be firm but your voice does not have to be loud. In fact you can even practice how to say things in a firm but gentle voice. (Use as few as words as possible - EX: "Excuse me, that's the 2nd time I told you to take out your notes, I don't like repeating things more than once.")
Too often in education there are people teaching and administrating who are there because they had miserable childhoods and they then take out their misery on kids by yelling at them unnecessarily and bullying them. Don't be one of those teachers. Don't yell.
While I did raise my voice and quote "yell" on a few occasions in the classroom in my earlier years, I haven't yelled in a classroom in at least 6 years. And my advice to any teacher, new or experienced, is NEVER YELL AT THE KIDS.
No matter what they say or do, DON'T YELL. If you promise yourself this, you'll follow it.
For me I have the knack to keep things interesting. I sing, dance, draw lousy pictures, do impersonations, make up games, etc... I've sung opera and done extemporaneous rap in front of the class. (I'm lousy at all these things but I'm so bad it becomes funny to watch) I can pull off the Rodney Dangerfield routine, not all teachers can. So maybe I don't have to yell.
But even if you would be uncomfortable being Seinfeld in the classroom, there is still never a reason to yell. The trick is that when they get loud, you get SOFTER. If they stay loud, stay soft.
Never confuse lack of yelling with lack of discipline. When a point needs to be made or a wrong corrected (and best to do it casually, as a "general" point, etc....) you can be firm but your voice does not have to be loud. In fact you can even practice how to say things in a firm but gentle voice. (Use as few as words as possible - EX: "Excuse me, that's the 2nd time I told you to take out your notes, I don't like repeating things more than once.")
Too often in education there are people teaching and administrating who are there because they had miserable childhoods and they then take out their misery on kids by yelling at them unnecessarily and bullying them. Don't be one of those teachers. Don't yell.
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