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?

It is all very well fearing for the poor resilience of this generation but I know many people of all ages sensitive to being laughed at. Grown men who still remember being small and being made to feel smaller by a sarcastic teacher.

But this isn't being laughed at nor is it sarcasm. It's not pointing at the child and saying "lets all laugh at the idiot" and it's not making them sit in the corner wearing a dunce hat.

One of my university lecturers called us "toads" if we did something truly daft in our translation work. It was hilarious!
I work as a nanny and my personal favourite at the moment is "terrible terror" (from How to Train Your Dragon) if the kids are winding me up, or do something that has scared the shit living daylights out of me. Like one of the DC pulling the other's legs out from under them in a wrestling match when I'm trying to run a bath!
I don't think there's anything wrong with numpty, muppet etc. Yes they can be considered to mean stupid, but frankly I've always thought they came across more as an affectionate one, like daft. Especially when said in a gentle tone.

Have you heard of visual perception disorder? dyslexia? dyscalculia?

Yes, which is why you deal with your students very differently. I've almost died trying to stop myself laughing at frankly hilarious answers given by struggling students. There's no way I'd crush their confidence, unless they realised what they'd said and we laughed at it together. When you point out a silly mistake with a joke the expectation is that the student will immediately realise they've find something daft and be able to laugh at themselves. It shows them you know they're better than writing the answer to what is boiling water called as "steak" when them meant "steam".

Frusso your post is incredibly patronising and utterly besides the point of this thread

I have bright mathsy teenagers in an excellent school who are fond of their teachers. I imagine when they make careless errors they would get things like doofus and muppet. I do like you utter prune though. And spanner's quite nice.

It's extremely patronising to think that teachers haven't heard of and are unable to deal with disorders like the ones you mentioned, or that they can't tell the difference between interaction with a child with a disorder and a child without.

Plus it's irrelevant because we weren't talking about children with disorders which results in mistakes. The OP was talking about silly mistakes made through lack of care etc.

Plus it's irrelevant because we weren't talking about children with disorders which results in mistakes. The OP was talking about silly mistakes made through lack of care etc.

Exactly. You never joke about someone actually not understanding something. My recent comedy answers have all been top set students being silly.

Oh fgs frusso where did I say that? The mistakes I can think of off the top of my head are all really daft careless errors from really tol students that I have taught for at least two years and will both get over 90% in the subject I've been teaching them. They do not have dyslexia or other disorders. They both have great senses of humour and I know then extremely well.

Also, on more than one occasion I have been called names by these students for incorrectly drawing chemical structures. I believe "twit" is their preferred insult of choice for me. I get great reviews. My students get excellent results. I know them well enough to know what is appropriate and what isn't.

Frusso I find your post extremely patronising, and I am dyslexic and dyspraxic.
Frankly when I've written something total daft, I shake my head, call myself a numpty, and move on. I personally would much rather a teacher gently pointed out the daft mistake and helped me correct it than treated me like spun glass.
Kids are far far more resilient than people give them credit for, and as teachers are professionals you should trust that they can tell the difference between silly/careless mistake where the child knows better, and the child not being able to do something.

I remember my physics teacher calling me a bellend in yr 11. The look of horror on his face when he realised what he said
Luckily we got along really well and are in fact still friends now.

Oh umbongo that's genuinely make me laugh out loud.

calling them names is when they're no need for it, and you can get your point across without resorting to calling someone a muppet or whatever.

It isn't name calling. It's gentle banter which works extremely well with certain students.

As someone for whom the main task in maths and science subjects at school was to learn how to avoid / catch / correct silly mistakes, I would absolutely say that the use of humour is an important part of dealing with them! And I perceived the OP as someone partly wanting to "calibrate" their choice of jokey terms to a set that can't be misunderstood.

Hope you can find your next "catchphrase"!

My DSs teacher used to call the children banana. DS got called it a lot because he's clumsy, and has ADHD and ASD. He takes things very literally, but never actually thought he was a banana. It was totally an affectionate way of talking yo the children or maybe I should have complained?

I call my own children dafty or dope on a rope! I like numpty, I will use it more often. Shame I don't work in a school anymore.

Scooby you've miss understood calling some one a fuck wit bastard is the same as calling some one a numpty or a muppet or ejit or a twat it's name calling. Name calling is teasing, teasing is often done to cause embarrassment and humiliation. That is bullying.

It shouldn't be done by any one "friendly" or otherwise especially not by people in authority

My recent comedy answers have all been top set students being silly.
So top sets = no disorders, none at all?
And It's okay to call students names if they're in top sets?

My Mensa member younger sister was in top set all her school life she wouldn't have taken well to being called names over anything friendly or not she would have taken it as a deep criticism and been very worried about it. Diagnosed with depression during her leaving certificate (Ireland)

My proudest moment was being moved up to top stream in year 10, even then I was statemented and dyslexic. Since been diagnosed asoergers.

So ok we were in top set so it Would have been OK to call us names because you know our depression and asoergers just goes away because we were in top set does it.

Asoergers

Apologies, I was using "top set" as a shorthand for these two particular students I had in mind. I have had children will all sorts of different issues across the whole ability spectrum. Like I said, I was thinking of two students in particular who I know for sure are very happy to be gently teased when they write what they would freely acknowledge as really daft answers.

Oh now it's bullying?

For fucks sake!

Maybe, as this thread is in a staff room, anyone who isn't actually a teacher could go and start their own thread and stay off a subject they know little about?