I had a breakthrough with middle schoolers while subbing today. I lost the anxiety that I've experienced in the past with this age group. Were the students different than others for whom I've subbed? No. The difference is in me. Two experiences within the last month have contributed to this.
The first was a nine-day assignment at a high school before spring break when I had to put the Serenity Prayer into practice.* ("God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference." Reinhold Niebuhr) I realized that I was not in a position to expect students to change behaviors for me if the behaviors were acceptable to the teacher for whom I was subbing even though I might dislike the behaviors. There are harmful behaviors that must be addressed. Most of the adolescent behaviors that "bug" me are not harmful.
The second experience was participation in a two-day Oregon Intervention Strategies (OIS) training. OIS advocates the use of positive behavior supports (PBS). PBS requires that adult educators interact with students in ways that contribute to student quality of life and that means affirming students for who they are in their "biopsychosocial" (biological, psycholological, social) development.
Middle schoolers will be middle schoolers. I'm not going to change that. I can change how I interact with them...and I did.
*Even though I'm neither a pray-er nor a believer in a deity.
3 comments:
I'm happy for you, Patrick! That would be good for me to remember if I ever subbed for middle school again!
There's a great book just out: the social neuroscience of education, by Luis cozolino, with a great section on the adolescent brain and much more.
Thank you for the book recommendation notaslavetofashion. I'll be sure to take a look at it.
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