Friendly names to call kids who make a stupid mistake

[noblegiraffe]

You know, the ones you have a good relationship with, not talking about berating some sensitive y7.

What, in mock exasperation, would you call a pupil who had e.g got a fiendishly difficult differential equation question wrong and you'd just spotted it was because they'd written 1x1=2?

Never,

i would worry about a teacher who ONLY used that particular form of fun. However, as a small tool in a very large 'teacher's bag of tricks', it can have its place in an overall context that values and celebrates mistakes and uses them to learn from.

It would not be appropriate in a context where mistakes are seen as 'bad', because however friendly the name, the overall context would make that name = bad. But in a context where the whole ethos is that everyone makes mistakes, that we need to learn to spot and explain mistakes (I often teach from the starting point of a calculation or sentence with a mistake, which is either meant to have been made by me or a variety of fictional characters), that they can be learned from and thus should be celebrated .. and that some mistakes are just silly and worth a gentle giggle at .. then there is no automatic correlation between mistake and 'bad', in fact we often have pupils proudly proclaiming 'I made a mistake in maths today, it was really good'

What are you talking about Daisies.
There's plenty of examples of it working for SOME ie not all children, there's plenty of examples of it not working for SOME, not all children. That is true.

Are you telling me there are not some children that don't respond well to name calling?! Really so the very many examples given not just by me on this tread aren't true! And all children in fact all humans react in the same way!

I'm not sure what isn't true about SOME CHILDREN DONT LIKE BEING CALLED NAMES ANS SOME CHILDREN REGARD IT AS HARMLESS BANTER.

Nuaght,

Exactly.

Some children don't like being called a 'silly sausage' by a teacher in any context.
Some regard it as harmless-but-odd on the part of the teacher.
Some children find it actively helpful in a specific context.

Nobody has at any point in the thread suggested that all teachers should at all times call children silly sausages. The debate is whether it is OK - indeed helpful - to do this occasionally to some children in specific contexts, or whether it is never OK.

Your point is that it is never OK because some children don't like it. Equally you could argue that means that the children who would benefit from it miss out?

So, without the 'straw man' that all teachers or others who have answered the OP's question with suggestions are proposing to call all children names, the question comes down to whether it is:

• Never acceptable to call them anything other than their names
• Occasionally appropriate to use a teasing name in a particular context

Soup dragon it doesn't matter what the words are it's what they mean they are ALL INACCEPTABLE THEY ARE ALL NAME CALLING

ok friendly names to call any one that makes a slip or mistake?! That was the question yes.

Answer none absolutely none their are no friendly names they all mean stupid idiot fool, therefore they are unacceptable and name calling

I was referring to this post. You have written that calling a pupil a silly sausage in jest is basically the same as calling them a dickead or an idiot. That is your opinion. It does not make it a fact.

No I was emphasising not for any fact saying it was true I was emphasising my opinion

So no child should ever be called a name in jest in case the teacher's judgement that it will be helpful is wrong, as the child may instead be in the group for whom it might be harmful? And no amount of knowledge of that child - bearing in mind that by this point in the year a primary teacher has spent around 30 hours a week with them for about 30 weeks - can be used to justify the teacher's judgement that for this particular child it might be helpful?

Soprry, meant to add, but if a parent was to call the child the same name in jest, that would ALWAYS be absolutely fine?

• Never acceptable to call them anything other than their names
• Occasionally appropriate to use a teasing name in a particular context*

Now here I can actually point to a resent tread

Calling them any thing else but their names
So I have called them sweetheart darling known family nicknames ie lolly for Louise etc because they respond to those more than their birth names. I find it acceptable it's all about the tone it's affectionate Only according to a thread on here sweetheart is patronising.

Teasing names in context - the context of making a mistake. No not acceptable

"it's all about the tone it's affectionate"

I do appreciate, by the way, that you will have been to school when making a mistake was a bad thing - it was when I was at school, to, so i can see that had this thread been running when i was at school things would have been different. You see a mistake as bad, so calling a child something in an affectionate tone when they make a mistake makes that name 'bad'.

In many schools at the moment, mistakes are genuinely celebrated - mistakes are useful, mistakes are positive, mistakes show that we are learning, mistakes are things that everyone makes, mistakes are always things to learn from. A child making a mistake is praised for doing something useful, or for helping us all to learn, or for being a hero by trying something new and hard.

That was the context I was talking about - a whole ethos that a mistake isn't a bad thing.

If I call my child a "silly sausage" at home I am NOT doing it in front of a room full of his/her peers. I can also negate it with a kiss and a cuddle or a tickle. But tbh, it's much more likely to be the other way around - my toddler's favourite phrase just now is "Silly Mummy!".

"laughing out loud you didn't like being called those names did you even though I said oh just in jest just banter all the fun of the site, "

Naught - I don't think you are laughing at all. You sound frothy and hysterical and was OTT.

Neverbuy,

I don't - and I don't get the impression from the OP that she does - use such a name in front of the class. It's a 1:1 thing - the moment when I'm looking over a child's book and say 'can you find the 'quack quack oops' [I usually just do the hand motion of quacking] you've made here?

Teacher
In many schools at the moment, mistakes are genuinely celebrated - mistakes are useful, mistakes are positive, mistakes show that we are learning, mistakes are things that everyone makes, mistakes are always things to learn from. A child making a mistake is praised for doing something useful, or for helping us all to learn, or for being a hero by trying something new and hard.

So why then is there an actual need to call anyone anything with any negative connotation - like numpty, doofus, silly, etc. If mistakes are regarded so positively surely your answer to the OP should be -

The only names you should all a child who has made a silly mistake is "hero", "genius", "superstar" - for trying something difficult and for providing an opportunity to learn.

Lol. I call my eleven year old niece a nob. Have done since she was wee. My very loved DS is ten weeks old and gets silly bugger/silly sod on a regular basis.

Tis the way in our family, which is massive and very close.

Also teacher it sounds like you are doing exactly what I and other posters are suggesting and that is making fun out of the mistake and not the child, with your "quack quack oopses".

surely its slightly demeaning to call them anything?

Never,

In my class at least, there are 'superstar' mistakes - from which we learn - and 'quack quack oops' or 'd'oh' moments, which are 'lets wipe up that spill quickly and painlessly' mistakes, not worth dwelling on.

Mis-recall of 1x1 = 2 is one of the latter. 0x1=1, oddly, would be one to discuss, at the age group and level of ability I teach

Billy banana!

teacher sounds fab. Dealing with mistakes in a positive, light hearted way without once needing to call a child a name - perfect!

I pointed out a silly mistake in a kid's work today (a test they'd done) and he loudly exclaimed "I'm such a retard!"

Me getting in early with a "silly sausage" would have definitely been preferable.

arrgh, noble! wrong on so many levels!

I like teacher's approach too - just perfect and no need to call anyone a sausage or worse. '

Trust me, saying something is a quack quack oops is not a perfect catch all solution. In some of the schools I've worked in the kids would laugh you out the door.

This is the issue - no school or class dynamic is the same, so blanket rules can't be made!

Iora, agreed. It works with my particular class this particular year (remembering that I teach primary). Next year the dynamics may be somewhat different.

In other classes, even of 9-10 year olds, something more robust / slightly more sophisticated is needed.