OK, I totally feel better now! What a day I had at school today! As many of you know I am a TA for a Pre-K class. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job and I know now that I definitely DO want to be a teacher and have found my calling. I work with the best teacher anyone could ask for. However, today was a day from HELL!! 2 weeks off of school was rough on the 4 year olds and they all seemed to have forgotten A LOT over the break. We took it easy last week and it was pretty mellow. Now I know why...... We have a little girl(she's the youngest in the class) that just whines and cries ALL DAY LONG!!!! She cries if she does not want to do something, if she cannot find something, or if she thinks it's too hard.. It's not really a cry...more like a high pitched whiny voice that says "I can't" and then starts to cry. UUUHHHH I cannot stand whining! This little girl was very spoiled by grandma and grandpa over the break and pretty much did not have to do anything for herself. Now the parents have resorted to also doing it for her so that she will stop crying because they do not want to hear it. But, what they fail to realize is that they are not actually teaching her anything by doing it for her and it only going to get worse. I kind of had a melt down at school today.. I told her to stop whining because I was sick of it..I then had to leave the room and take a few BIG DEEP breaths!!! There were kids in the class holding their ears because they are sick of it!!
So, my moms and teachers out there that read this..... What's your advice? We have mentioned the whining to mom and dad and encouraged them to let her do things for herself but I feel it's getting worse...NOT better! Now what?
Also any advice on keeping my sanity??
TTYL,
Roxxi
3 comments:
I ignore Aiden when he whines, because it drives me crazy and I want him to figure out that whining is the quickest way for him to get me to NOT do something for him. So far it's working, he's whining less and less. Not sure if you can really do that in the classroom though, since it's disrupting the other children.
And this might help to keep your sanity - remember that you don't have to take this kid home with you, you get to GIVE HER BACK at the end of the day. So she might drive you nuts for a few hours each day, but she's going to drive her parents crazy for the rest of their lives if they don't do something about it!
Hope it gets better!! :-)
One trick that works for me is to whine back at them. For some reason, hearing how silly I sound and letting them know that that's how they sound gets them to giggling and stops the whining. This might not work at school though. The parents might think you're mocking their daughter.
Time-out chair? Preferably one that's in another room or very far away. You get the benefit of ignoring the whining while (maybe) making it a bit quieter for the rest of the kids.
Lastly, peer pressure works wonders. If the kids hate the whining, maybe they could tell her in their own way to put a lid on it!
Good luck! You are great at a job that I could never do.
Whining is truly my biggest pet peeve. I get the best results from my kids when I say "You are too big to use that voice. Talk to me in a normal voice with normal words and then we can have a conversation." I don't say "big boy voice" or whatever. I want them to talk like adults, so I use adult words. They get it pretty quick. After just a couple of times with all 3 of them, they knew what I meant right away. As soon as I say it to them, they start trying to get it together, because they know they are likely to get "rewarded" for it. Meaning, they get what they are asking for, or at least a compromise.
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