line between humor and innapropriateness
I have an amazing group of 25 students. I recognize and appreciate them all even the students who have a lot more behavior and personality to manage. I like to think that I have a good connection to my students due to my age and the manner in which I can relate to a lotof them. I also take pride in my libril sense of humor, I use comedy in my presentation regularly which has worked in my advantage until recently. I have a pair of students who have worked there way from audience to R or x rated commedians. I realize that my management skills or lack there of have allowed for this transition. I'm extremely new to instructing, I'm still working towards applying all the new info I'm recieving/absorbing. I will be utilizing various techniques from 104 to resolve and control the behaviors that are adversly affecting the learning environment. Any similar experiences or advise helps
Sara,
Having been in the military, I understand how a few folks can quickly take the group down into the "cesspool" or "garbage dump" with their language. I think you are doing good using humor, but maybe suggest to the students that you want to keep the classroom "at the professional level" and must keep language and references clean since you are responsible for preparing them for their careers. Also, you may want to let them know that their language may be considered vulgar to some people/cultures. By not correcting this, each person in the room is guilty of what Edmund Burke said, "all it takes for evil to succeed is for good men/women to do nothing." Good luck with this, thank you for teaching...we need more good ones!
Hi Sara,
I like how you even care for the hard to manage students. Students need to know that we truly care about them. It is good for students to see our personalities, yet we maintain professionalism. It sounds like you have a ball in class.
Patricia Scales
