How Teachers Trap Themselves

A couple of weeks ago I posted a video of a turtle to the blog. I found this turtle so entertaining, watching him trap himself after trying to get out of a huge blue bowl is still so hilarious to me.

After watching it a couple of times, I realized that sometimes teachers are like this turtle - well at least I was. We work so hard to improve student behavior, but sometimes we end up trapping ourselves once again. We trap ourselves because we break down the rapport that we work so hard to establish.

There are several traps that a teacher can easily fall into. One of the biggest traps is the trap of using sarcasm to get a student to comply. I have a very quick/very sarcastic wit. I often found myself making a smart-alec remarks to students to get them to be quiet and do their work.

I am ashamed to admit it.

Here I am, the adult/professional in the classroom, I should be an example of how to interact as a member of society and all I could do was be sarcastic to my students. The truth was I wanted to show the students that I could out wit them, I wanted to back any disobeying student into a corner so that the only option for him/her was to comply with my expectations.

I quickly saw the results of my tactics. I saw the students being more sarcastic to one another. I saw their trust in me dwindle. Fewer students stayed after class "needing to talk" to someone, fewer looked me in the eye. After realizing this, I changed right then. I vowed to never be sarcastic to a student again.

I'm proud to say that it made a huge difference! We need less sarcasm in the world and more sincerity. Will you join me in this cause? Let me know the results you see of using less sarcasm in the classroom!