Can I ask a question of any primary/secondary teachers please re talking in class?

[goldenticket]

Class situation where quiet work is expected or teacher is talking. Child A talks to child B. Child B is trying to concentrate and "shushes" Child A. Teacher hears Child B and tells them off/gives them a punishment/puts them on the warning etc.

This situation has arisen a few times recently, both with my children and others that I know of. What is child B better off doing, given that they don't want child A to be talking to them in the first place? Am thinking dobbing child A in wouldn't go down well, especially at secondary level?

Any advice gratefully received!

Hear, hear, montblanche!

I think realitychick may need a reality check...

What I say to the kids I teach is that they are responsible for their own behaviour and no one else's. IMO that is part of helping them to become mature while at the same time helping me to maintain order in the classroom. As a supply teacher I would go into classes where literally every second comment would be someone telling on someone else, along the lines of "miss, he's got something in his hand," "miss he's drawing on his book," etc. It is so incredibly disruptive and children need to learn that this sort of calling out is not appropriate. I agree with you realitychick that it's not fair for a "good" child to be punished for one that's being disruptive, but the "good" children also need to learn that there is an appropriate way to deal with the situation.

In my class public tell-taling is forbidden but children are quite welcome to move seats if they need to, and they do when necessary. If children have a genuine problem with someone in the class they know they can come to me afterwards and we can sort it out. Publicly and loudly telling someone to shush is immature disruptive behaviour. It might be motivated by the fact that another child is misbehaving but that doesn't mean it's any less immature or disruptive and my aim is to teach children to deal with it more appropriately.

Therefore any loud talking attracts a warning no matter what the cause.

BTW children are quite welcome to talk in my class as long as it's only small chats here and there that are not disruptive. When I'm talking silence reigns but other than that friendly chat is welcome.

I remember (once I'd grown out of my primary school chatting non-stop ) sitting in middle and senior school trying to ignore people talking to me and the teaching doing f*all to shut them up.

Didn't want to make myself unpopular by telling on them - even if to the teacher after class

when I say "unpopular" I actually more unpopular - I was alrady the target for the bullies.

No way was I going to try and make things worse in any shape or form if they found out I'd said something - and as for standing out by saying "shh" in class - forget it.

wish the teachers had shut some of them up though

I think that if you haven't spent time in schools, it's very difficult to imagine the low level wittering that goes on, as EvilTwins describes it. The whole point is that it isn't a quick 'shhhh', as an adult might do it in a similar situation, but tends to be part of a whole class interaction and behaviour pattern. So it probably does sound entirely unreasonable to say that this kind of behaviour is in fact disruptive, while it can really disturb others' learning in the classroom.

Secondary school teacher agreeing with EvilTwins.

I agree with EvilTwins too. Doing the odd day of supply means I'm often 'helped' by children shouting out what they normally do or telling tales on others or shushing. It is in fact not at all helpful and actually very disruptive. There is a big difference between a quick sh to your neighbour (which prob wouldn't be heard by others anyway) and a load OTT attention-seeking SHHHHHH!