My only experiences are on hiring committees. Had a guy tells us that his ideal classroom was one where "no child ever speaks."
Yikes, ya, that is odd. It is closer to the opposite of that...
Four questions jump out to me:
1. Employer: I have a closed fist. How can you get me to open it?
Me: Open it....
Employer: No
Me: Ok....
Employer: Anything else?
Me: If you open it I have something to give to you....?
Employer:
shrugs shoulders, I don't want it.
Me:
High five
Employer: *Give me a fist bump with a closed fist
Me: ......*awkward silence for about half a minute...
Employer: Have you tried simply saying "Please"?
Me: ....Please.... open your hand....
Employer: Ok....
Me: So, has anyone ever, uh, got that right?
Employer
chuckles I had one guy try to pry my fist open, another one who threatened me, and another one who tried to bribe me with money just to open it. See, here we don't believe in coercion or bribes. Please is so simple, but it works! You see?
Me: Thanks for that interesting exercise.
2. Same employer: Let me be your silverback gorilla
Me: What do you mean?
Employer: What do you think it means?
Me: ..... I don't know
Employer: Trust me!
3. Same employer: (After asking about my experience with teenagers). Describe a difficult situation you had with a teen student and what did you do?
Me: (explains a situation)
Employer: The thing you have to understand about teens is,
pause, they have no soul.
chuckles. Here, they do what they want because they have the choice to explore their actions and reactions and we trust they will make the choice they need to.
Me: And if a student makes the wrong choice?
Employer: Wrong? That sounds judgemental.
Me: Sorry
Employer: Here, we don't judge a student in their process and if they need help in regard to their choices, we have the connecting room. If children need to reflect on their choice, they go there.
4. Employer: How do you feel about deadlines?
Me: They are important to help society function properly but should be at least somewhat flexible, within reason.
Employer: Interesting.
Me: Why?
Employer: Here we don't have deadlines.
Me: Learning is an ongoing process, I see.
Employer: Exactly, you get it.
Me: (Thinks to self, "So what happens when everyone dumps a semester's worth of work on your desk the last week of the semester?)
Me: (What I actually said) Cool, sounds like an innovative approach that takes into account every student's pace.
I wish I had said the former rather than the latter! Because the former happened...Yay.
I got offered the job. I took it. A few weeks later a male student broke the window to the gym after throwing a rock through it. A few weeks after that another male student pushed a female teacher, the second female teacher of the year, but first since I had arrived. One class underperformed so drastically, the math teacher refused to give class to the students. You would also have kids who snuck popcorn into the classroom and ate out of the paper bag that was in their backpack, would chew gum or drop an f-bomb. In all cases, regardless of it being more minor like gum, a swear, or popcorn, or more severe like pushing a teacher or breaking a window, they went to the connecting room. Sometimes they would stay for about a class, 45 minutes, or the entire day, and simply fill out one form explaining what they did and what they learned from the situation, and
poof, off they go. That was the extent of the consequences.
FLEXIBLE SEATING one more time I will quit on the spot.
Do you know what happens when I give my classes FLEXIBLE SEATING? Nothing different at all, because a desk that moves in a circle
Well at this place it was so everyone could feel connected and engaged. The flexible part came from the circle being filled from the part of the circle furthest from the door to the part closest to the door, in order of who came to class. So of course friends always came together to sit together and the troublemakers came last, also together, to also sit furthest away.
That individual did not get the position, but he did become my hero that day.
