Ms Dryg Teaches

I wanna be a better teacher :-) dryggirl.com/msdrygteaches.swf

Monday, October 09, 2006

Remembering The Apology

There was a great moment for me involving a student last Friday.
On a bus trip this otherwise nice, coperative student called me a name, I gave him detention, and immediately felt guilty. Why? He's a nice kid, I was acting out of anger and frustration and I don't want to be that way...I was hoping to let it slide and that he would pretend he forgot and not show up like some kids do, but he showed up. I said " oh yeah" and sat down next to him to talk about it. I asked him what he thought about the situation and I sensed that he was trying to figure out what I was wanting him to say. I fed him some lines, like "well, why are you here?"" how do you feel about that?" and he said " I'm sorry" almost in question form. I said, "thank you, and I have to be honest with you, I wasn't feeling so well today, and I was annoyed with some other kids on the bus more than you, and I probably came down harder on you than I should have. I didn't think it was quite like you to call me a name, but i understand that you were angry and didn't like being talked to in that way just like I probably wouldn't have liked it either. So I'm sorry too and hopefully we can both do better next time." He looked at me with wide eyes and said "well that's a first". I asked "what?". He said "a teacher apologizing to a kid". I asked "what do they usually do?". He said, "they usually say they were right". I said " well, if I'm not acting in a way that I want to, I want to be able to see where I made a mistake and do better next time"
I think this was a first for me too.

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