I had one student in particular who used this, Jazzy. Jazzy was one of the more challenging students this summer. She most likely had an IEP and yet we had no access to it. She also was supposed to have glasses, but somewhere shuffling back and forth between her parents she lost them. Over the course of the summer, we learned different things to say and do to help Jazzy focus but one of her biggest issues was how she interacted with her peers. After one particularly rough day, her father told her "you're here to learn, you're not here to make friends". While I appreciated the sentiment, I honestly think some of her issues would have been easier had she had more friends.
Instead, when she had any kind of negative interaction with another student, she would say things like "little boy, don't touch my pencils" or "little girl, don't look at me."
Really? The boy is a head taller than you. That girl? She's a year older than you and she's following directions like a good student.
It's one of those mysteries like why they always say "I need to use it" when they mean that they need to go to the bathroom.
My mind seems to wander back to my kids from this summer as I get started planning for this coming year. Even though I'll be teaching 4th not 2nd, its so much easier to think about what I'm doing when I've got actual kids in mind. Who knows? Maybe I'll have another Jazzy in my class.
My school's not finished yet, so I haven't seen my classroom at all. I have no idea what I will have or what I won't, how much wall space I'll have or what kinds of things I'll need to have before school starts. Buuuut, in theory, we're moving in next Tuesday!
All my kids would do the "little girl/little boy" thing too. You just have to let them know what language is acceptable in your classroom. If they say, "I have to use it" I would say, "Use what?" Or I would be funny and say "Use my car? You aren't old enough to drive!" I would always tell the kids that we call each other by our names and nothing else. It didn't always work because they still did that, but you just have to let them know its unacceptable. Also, think about the root cause- why is she saying this? Maybe she doesn't know what to do when she is pissed at someone besides to insult them. Might have to teach her how to identify her feelings and express them in a different way.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on being so close to setting up your classroom! I can't wait to see pictures of it all. It's going to be awesome.
Its slang, in a way. I grew up using the phrase and still tend to use it even now. I like how Kara approached it-- there will be slang thats acceptable and slang thats not acceptable. Just don't get caught blind; if you don't know what something means, ask someone you trust. I remember when I first came to WashU I had no idea what was going on half the time, trying to catch up with all ya'lls east coast fancy wordings :)
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