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When black is white and up is down
My first blog post-
I decided if I'm going to keep a journal about my days with children, I might as well put it out there in the public eye where others can vicariously enjoy my life. I know I love reading everyone else's!

My newest student comes with a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD. What that means in practical terms for me is that I now have a student who wants to argue about everything. If I say it's a beautiful day outside, he tells the class that the forecast predicts rain. If I tell the kids we're going to do a fun activity, he loudly whines about how he hates doing that activity or he already did that activity at his old school and it wasn't fun or he knows he can't do that activity so he's not going to bother.

Do I teach special ed? No. Actually, up until 2 weeks ago I had a really delightful class of second graders who were enthusiastic about learning, cooperative and friendly with all, and were told by a guest teacher that they were the nicest class she'd ever taught in our whole district. And really, they still are that way, except Mr. ODD keeps trying hard to change the dynamics of our group. He has succeeded in alienating every child, save two. One is autistic and would be friendly to a convicted murderer and the other is also brand-new, barely speaks English and doesn't quite understand what's going on with his new classmate.

This is not my first experience with ODD (thank goodness) and I'm pretty sure I can survive these last six weeks of school but it won't be pleasant.  My current most-uttered statements to him now are, "I'm not sure what the consequence will be for that, but I'll think of something, so don't worry about it. I'll let you know later what will happen" and "It's OK with me if you choose not to work right now. There are lots of opportunities later today for you to finish that work- like recess time".

He hates both of these comments and if looks could kill I'd be dead on the floor! On the other hand, he does seem to be figuring out how things work in our classroom. Obviously not the way the system worked in his old school, but hey....life's about change, isn't it??

My next goal area is to work on diminishing the whining. I doubt I'll have much success with the lying that goes on, but if I can stop the whiny complaints I'll feel much better about him (and so will the other kids). I think on Monday I will tell him that my ears don't hear whining voices, so if he is talking to me and it seems like I don't hear him, it probably means his voice is whining (demonstrate) and he'll need to use a second grade voice instead. It's worked in the past, so we'll see!


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Posted: Sunday, May 11, 2008 8:10 AM by gardenhope

Comments

Nadia said:

I had colleague who taught first graders that liked to whine and complain and tattle on each other.  She made a giant paper ear and stapled it to the back wall.  Anyone who needed to whine, complain, or tattle would get the comment, "Talk to the ear."  She was then able to continue with the task at hand.  And as funny as it sounds, it worked.  Because the next year when I had the same students as second graders there were significantly less instances of annoying language.  I don't know if it would work for your ODD kid but it might be worth a try.

# May 12, 2008 7:30 PM
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