In University I learned about self-fullfilling prophesies and how harmful labelling children can be. As I continue to be in the school environment I continue to hear statements that label children including:
"Make sure you keep your eye on ___"
"Watch out for____"
"He/she is challenging or difficult"
"Make sure you are firm with___"
The list goes on.
At the same time, I am constantly being challenged because there are certain students who are usually the ones off task, causing problems, or not listening. One cannot help but direct extra attention to these students because they demand it. So what to do?
Here are some ideas I can think of...
Avoid negatively labelling students and talking about them in negative ways.
If students are purposely seeking attention we need to find out why this is as a first step in solving the problem.
Using statements like I know you are smart, I know you are a good child etc. are important for these students to hear.
Finding something these students are good at and celebrate it.
Any others ideas or comments? Please share!
