^This.
Luckily, at my sixth form college all the chavs dropped out after GCSE, leaving me with all the younger lot.
One year 10 got sent to my biology class today and spent 25 minutes disrupting a much needed revision session for an exam I have next week.
(, Wed 7 Jan 2009, 21:48, Reply)
I used to get that when I took classes at college (Teaching Assistant for Graphic Design)
my solution was first of all to explain that this was not school and they didn't need to be there (so not useful in this instance) and secondly if they wouldn't behave to stop everything and tell them if they didn't want to join in to go do their thing outside the classroom, or at least away in a corner so the rest of us could get on, which made them feel excluded and embarrassed so often took the wind out of their sails (teens are very easy to embarrass), and when I got the chance I'd have a personal chat and always made it clear that I was happy to find them something to do if they'd do it quietly so long as they didn't disrupt the class for everyone (and often that 'something' would be the actual WORK!)
Interestingly once you get them to see it not as a contest of 'you can't make me' but as a 'try it and see if you're any good at it' option they often got into it and did pretty well.
Didn't cure every situation but there was always at least one in every class and I noticed from other tutors that the more you react or threaten them the less they'll listen or join in (because you really can't make them and they know that), so you had to give them options and try and make it their decision.
Didn't stop me wanting to just slap the 'Rebel Without A Clue's petulant little face and tell them 'Trust me, despite what GTA teaches you, a white spotty faced kid in York who travels everywhere by bus and has less street cred 'respeck' than a teletubby is never gonna make their living as a gangster rapper', tho...
(
..wil, Wed 7 Jan 2009, 22:27,
Reply)