Yesterday I was approached by a parent of a student the other day. The warning flags go up when a parent tracks you down out on the playground during recess duty. As soon as this parent mentioned what had happened I knew right then what I did was wrong. In customer service training long ago I was trained to apologize immediately and then take the steps to recovery. Well, I apologized immediately and thanked the parent for letting me know. I later pulled the student aside discretely and apologized. This child had his best day today in a long time. I also reaplogized to the parent via email.
My poor decision came when I said something in front of the whole class that embarassed this student. Yes, this student needed to be confronted about the behavior, but not in front of everybody. I've had about 4 years of experience working with students with behavior disorders and confronting a student about behaviors is best done privately and quietly. Think about a time when you've tried to discipline a child no matter what the age. If you are loud when you discipline then the child will probably be just as loud in reply or will act out in some way. When you deal with the child discretely they are less likely to rebel.
This is your lesson for today!
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2 comments:
Wow - I went through something similar yesterday. I took the student aside though and I think it worked well. We'll see if her behavior improves.
You handled your apology very gracefully.
:o)
*discreetly
*reapologized
(are you sure you really want me to do this?)
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