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?

Bloody hell, there's some teachers on here whom I hope do not teach in any of the schools my DS has to attend.

You have a child who is struggling, you're doing your best to support them, build their confidence, work with the school, you have the temerity to suggest that name calling is not the best way to facilitate this, and suddenly you're arrogant?

(FWIW I have a number of years teaching experience in higher ed, so yes, I do know a bit about classroom management - enough to know that humiliating the less able students is never a constructive approach.)

Btw, I'm not a teacher anymore, but was a many years ago, a secondary teacher for 5 years. I have many friends and family members who are teachers.

My main experience on the matter is as a parent of a pretty bright DS who is now an adult working in a well-respected profession. All through his education, although outwardly appearing mature, capable and self-confident, inside (like many of us) he sometimes struggled with his self-esteem and was very self-critical when he made mistakes. He got on well with most teachers and had a great sense of humour. We worked hard with him on helping him to accept everyone makes mistakes sometimes.

The majority of teachers recognised this part of him and reassured rather than teased him, or would say things like "thank goodness you made a mistake, it's reassuring that you are human", with a smile. Unfortunately there were also one or two teachers who also got it wrong and on occasions he would come home mortified that the whole class had laughed at him because of a comment the teacher had made. There was one particular teacher who thought he was amazingly witty and would relish telling him 'you really are not as clever as we all were led it believe' and other such comments.

In any profession there are people who are unable to properly gauge others and use humour inappropriately. Teachers are not exempt from this. I worry that many teachers are unaware about the power balance in a classroom and how subtle the dynamics are. Yes, rapport and humour are good to have in a teaching environment, but using name-calling labels as a default option is crass and potentially damaging on occasions.

Lurcio no-one is talking about children who are struggling!

In would never ever call a name to a child I knew couldn't take it. That's common sense Backed up with professional knowledge and time
Spent.

I have a very proud Y8 who I see one to one and he gets disproportionally angry with himself if he makes the teeniest of mistakes. I wouldn't dream of pointing out all his errors never mind name calling. It just wouldn't be ok! However I do let him teach me his first language which I make a pigs ear of, and he takes great pleasure in correcting and improving my speaking or whatever.

Teachers for the most part know their kids and understand what works and what just wouldn't fly.

Where did ANYONE say that they felt it was acceptable to use any of those names you've suggested, NaughtToThreeSadOnions?

There is absolutely no struggling child in this scenario. Not a single one.

Why aren't people reading the OP properly?

I am a teacher - of adults ( am I allowed to post). Yes I teach adults who have literacy and numeracy difficulties and who are only now confident enough to re-engage with learning. Most of them have a massive aversion to formal education - mostly because of negative experiences at school, you know like being called numpties, and eejits by the teachers who should have been encouraging them.

And it's a public, internet forum - you don't get to dictate who posts where. If you find it uncomfortable to hear what the parents of pupils feel about their children being called names, perhaps you should be the one to pop off - or alternatively accept their viewpoint and think about modifying your teaching style.

And where has anyone said that they are talking about students who have learning profiles or are struggling?

I wish people would at least read the thread so that they could be morally outraged over what has actually been said rather than just what they've made up in their heads.

Lurcio,

Although I do think the OP could have made it clearer in her OP, I don't think she was at any point talking about a child who is struggling, but about a very able child who had been able to solve a very complex differential equation completely correctly except for making 1x1 = 2.

In the class I teach, for one child doing 19 + 1 = 21 is a small, private 'oops' moment, for another, it is a cause for a celebration note home and sending to the head for a sticker because all the digits were the right way round and there were, for the first time, the correct number of tens in the answer. It absolutely depends on the child.

humiliating the less able students

Where have you invented this from?

I have to confess that once or twice I have slipped from teacher to mum mode, though in response particularly to 9-10 year old boy playground silliness rather than their work, and called a pupil a banana..."

Ha, ha, my son loves using that word, I guess he must have learned it at school.

He also learned "silly sausage" at nursery and the first time he used it at home it made me laugh and I thought he had made it up! (I'm not native speaker). But then I discovered it is actually a real expression in English.

Most of them have a massive aversion to formal education - mostly because of negative experiences at school, you know like being called numpties, and eejits by the teachers who should have been encouraging them

I'm sure there are many bad teachers out there.

However the situation you are describing is not what we're discussing. As I've already said, we're talking about capable pupils making a daft mistake that they wouldn't normally make. The underlying reason is, paradoxically, to boost the pupil's confidence by reassuring them that their apparent failure to answer a question was not due to lack of intelligence but just a silly mistake!

However the situation you are describing is not what we're discussing. As I've already said, we're talking about capable pupils making a daft mistake that they wouldn't normally make. The underlying reason is, paradoxically, to boost the pupil's confidence by reassuring them that their apparent failure to answer a question was not due to lack of intelligence but just a silly mistake!

How do you know this? Just because a child is normally clever and playing along does not mean that they are comfortable with being called a name in front of their peers. In fact, many kids love bringing the more able kids down a peg or two - overhearing the teacher saying correcting a mistake by calling the child a name just gives them fodder for this.

I maintain that the best way to reassure them that their apparent failure to answer a question was not due to lack of intelligence but just a silly mistake - is to simply tell them that - or put it on you "Uch I do that all the time too" .

Id rather a child got it wrong in a nice way - than be told that mistakes are a bad thing - no one died!!

You'll fine the very clever kids usually lack any sense of humour and find "failing" difficult - and are very hard on themselves - these are not the children the OP is talking about!!

Ha, I knew as soon as I opened the thread that there would be a multitude of eejits, doofuses, dingbats and numpties calling out the op for daring to have a little fun with students!
I loved it when I got a teacher you could have a rappor with. The uptight and serious teachers were bloody painful to be around and made school really fucking boring.
Untie that knicker knot and get a fucking grip.

There was one particular teacher who thought he was amazingly witty and would relish telling him 'you really are not as clever as we all were led it believe' and other such comments.

But that is not light banter, that's more like a personal attack and totally wrong for any child.

I didn't read the whole thread but it was clear from the OP that she was talking about a capable and bright child that had managed to solve a difficult equation but then got something wrong like 1x1=2.

That's exactly what happened to DS one time. He had a times tables test (all the tables from 1 to 12), there were 75 questions and he got 73 correct except for two, one of them 1x1=2. No idea what the teacher said to him when she corrected it, although she is lovely. At home I just said whoopsie, you had a lapsus here, never mind, you had 73 right! Well done!

Noodle or 'noodle mistake there'-add name
But I'm with younger ones. My DS both say 'being a noob' when getting things wrong.

Ah so it's not the struggling kids and now it's not the clever kids. ... right oh!

And i had some amazing, funny, warm and charismatic teachers who we had a right laugh with. But what them so popular and effective was that they showed the kids huge respect and often made the joke be about them.

Silly billy

Ah so it's not the struggling kids and now it's not the clever kids. ... right oh!

Exactly. Just the kids the teacher has know years and has a good rapport with, and who enjoy having a good laugh with a teacher.

But never mind teachers just being a bit human and interacting in a friendly manner with pupils they know well, I'm sure teachers will take on board all this useful advise and stick to being professional, uptight, lemon-up-your-bum types henceforth.

Yeah cos that's exactly what I'm suggesting isn't it?

Just the kids the teacher has know years and has a good rapport with, and who enjoy having a good laugh with a teacher.

YY - the kids with a sense of humour!

Well I'm not qualified at all Frusso, as I said way upthread! .

I think it's helpful to know whether people are teachers or not, so as to understand where their point of view is coming from. Not being a teacher, my views on this thread may be disregarded.

I also said upthread that I don't know that I would use any such words myself. However I know I liked my teachers a lot more when they were a bit human, and I can also see that some teachers build a good rapport with pupils and perhaps can get it right, so I won't judge the OP or others. However, I'm sure there must be some teachers who get it wrong. I would hate a child to be put down by a teacher but I would also hate if teachers had to be straight-laced all the time. There's no one answer, I don't think.