What do you think of this classroom "icebreaker?"

[cher3]

@GrumpyBunny

As a teenager, I would’ve either a) said “none of your business” or b) made up something truly horrific. Like Stephen King-level horrific.

And then I would’ve published an article about the entire incident in the student newspaper, of which I was editor for 3 years.

That sounds about par for most of the teenagers I know.

We are holding off on the nuclear option, to see if things settle down to math as usual. This is a class for kids who are not on the fast-track in math, for whatever reason. (Laziness, in my son’s case.) She may be dealing with some difficult students and have though shaking things up a bit would help.

[elfkin477]

@Balance

Do the requirements of an education B.A. normally include courses in child psychology? (Particularly teen psychology.)

I have a BA in English Education and didn’t have to take any child psych classes. Of course, in this state a BA alone doesn’t qualify me to teach…

[kayaker]

@Jeff_Lichtman

She’s a teacher, not a lighthouse keeper.

I agree. It appears she has missed her calling.

[MandaJo]

@Balance

I know, and I did not mean to imply otherwise.

Your comment just led me to wonder what sort of preparation those young teachers got in college for dealing with stuff like this. Is there a blunt, practical Child Psych class for teachers that basically lays out behaviors they should expect to see in a typical school, and possibly some strategies for handling them–or at least for not exacerbating them? Or is it something you learn on the job, and that a class couldn’t really help much with, anyway?

Ah. I thought you were being sarcastic! I had to take a single course in developmental psych. It was the same course for K-12 and was extraordinarily superficial, in the way you expect an intro survey course in a subject to be. It gave about the same level of insight into the adolescent heart, and trains you about as much to deal with complex situations, as Psych 101 does for dealing with adult psyches. As does psych 101, it was really more about explaining/defining the average/norm than about dealing with outliers.

I am really not sure any kind of single, or even pair, of courses could train a person to be good at this sort of thing beyond what basic good judgment already provides (and which was lacking in this case). After all, for someone to be an effective therapist we pretty much assume they need a BA and an MA in psych and a supervised internship. I think it follows that if you want someone to be even a poorly-trained, half-assed therapist they need 4-5 dedicated courses to the subject. It’s immensely complex.

[JustinC]

How a teacher, not suffering from trauma, could think this is a good idea I know not.

Hey kids! Let’s do a getting to know each other fun task, hey? Find someone who
a) Has been overseas!
b) Has been to a wedding!
c) Likes watching movies and eating ice cream! &
d) Has had intercourse with a family member!
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::smack::smack::eek::eek::smack::smack::dubious::(:eek::(:mad: :smack::smack:o:confused::eek::rolleyes::(:dubious:smack: