Cool Cat Teacher Blog: 10 Ways for Living Large in Lunch Duty Land →
A great read for the K-12 crowd! Here are two:
3 - Meet and Greet
I don’t “butt in” to student groups that are doing just fine, but I do say hello by name to those student who walk past me, particularly those in ones and two’s.
To understand the mind of a child who has been bullied, you have to have been one like me. When you’re alone and feel like you have no friends, when someone calls your name in a kind way, it is like a drop of water on the tongue of a person dying of thirst.
You are not ominpotent and you don’t know who the person is who is having a bad day. Teenagers have a secret world and there is the world they let us see in the classroom and the real world. Don’t think for a second you have a finger on the pulse of their real world because you see what they want you to see. Be kind to everyone. Say “hi.”
4 - Look at body language and speak with your location
You don’t have to hear conversations to know what is happening. Good teachers are masterful readers of body language. If you see a kid with a head down leaning against a wall with arms crossed and several other kids gathered around him talking at him, it is time to move closer to see what is going on.
