Baby steps, baby steps

On Saturday I clicked on this link from Shannon's weekend link list. And boy, did it resonate. Its about yelling at your children, or rather, not yelling at them. The writer explained how, in the past, she yelled at her children to get their attention. She didn't like that about herself, and so she began to work on it. At this point, she says she's not yelling at all.

Well, I don't have kids. But I have 20 students. And everyone on my hall would laugh at me if they knew I was writing this, because I'm not a yeller. I've actually had parents say that they request me because they know I don't yell.

But the fact is, I'm not perfect. I raise my voice at times (yes, I know that's called yelling!) And there are certain kids that just don't seem to hear me the first 4 times I say, "Get your math book out." So, I say it louder. Then I say it louder. And before I know it, I'm yelling.

I feel so ashamed afterward. Twenty pairs of eyes look at me with confusion, as if to say, "what happened to my nice teacher?" And, yelling seems to imply that I'm out of control, which is the last impression I want to create in my classroom.

So...I started working on it as suggested on Dana's blog. The first thing I did was pray. (Ok, its only been 2 days, but still!) I asked God to help me and give me unending patience for these little ones. And then I told my kids about my goal.

Today went so well! There was a couple of times when I had given directions and everyone started, except for one. I went over to him, got down in front of him, and told him, calmly, again. OK-he still didn't do it, but at least I didn't yell!