Heads on desk

[Dogmatix34]

Any other secondary teachers getting fed up with kids putting their heads on the desk all the time? I’ve been teaching for nearly 20 years and don’t remember this being an issue when I started. The kids are so lethargic / exhausted. Is it because they are on their phones all night?

Just me then!

Not just you I had one today

He was using it to demonstrate how utterly bored he was.

Sadly it’s an option with 20 kids working at Lv 7-9 n 3 working at lv 1-2 so although he had something to play with, because it wasn’t all about him n his two mates they had to show me how much they were suffering.

Bless them - I wasn’t sympathetic

I reckon it’s from Netflix

I’m seeing that too but always assume it’s the gamers who play through the night. Weirdest thing is that they sometimes put their heads on desks without their arms as a cushion. They have more faith in school cleanliness than I do!

We were talking about it in the staff room and I demonstrated the head straight on desk thing and it was horrible!

I have noticed it too. Typically among those who have a tendancy to spend a lot of time gaming.
I can only assume it's because they are exhausted.

It's very irritating though!

I teach in Y6 and see it with some of my class. They are not getting enough sleep and you can see the impact it has on them academically. I go to bed earlier than some of the children I teach!

I see it. I’m not sympathetic. I have been known to tap their desk loudly until the head comes back up.

I don't think it's new. It perhaps went away and came back. Young people can have terrible sleep habits. Ostentatious yawning annoys me. They don't seem to have been taught that yawning is rude. God, I'm old.

One day I'll do it in one of my lessons!

We used to be told to do that at primary school.

Yawning isn't rude it is a natural body response to push more oxygen.

I'm the parent of one of those guilty. I had a phonecall asking if he gets enough sleep. He absolutely does btw. I asked him why and he said it was because the lesson is so boring. I've told him how rude it is.
I think its dreadful behaviour to be honest. I wouldn't have done this as a child.

Have you tried opening the windows ?

I have an oxygen monitor in my classroom (medical SEN provision) and it's amazing how low it drops sometimes when the number of bodies in the room increases -but we can generally tell by the yawning before the alarm triggers

Might keep them a bit more perky

Ps I know he gets enough sleep because I make sure he's in bed by 10pm (Yr 10) and he is definitely asleep before I go to bed half hour later.

I see lots of this - I agree with tiredness but I also think children seem to have no strength in their core now.

I said ostentatious yawning cd.

Do you yawn loudly in the middle of meetings or when others are talking? I sure don't.

northern does your DS have his phone in his bedroom...?

Yawning isn't rude it is a natural body response to push more oxygen

Yes, and as a pp said, the polite thing to do is to do it quietly, unobtrusively and behind your hand.

‘Ostentatious yawning’

Seeing this more and more lately. Along with so much refusal. Along with many other secondary schools I'm sure, my place has got a lot stricter this last year, with more silent work, more teacher talk, more thinking, more discipline. The only thing they have left under their control is the actual putting of pen to paper, so they just don't. Warnings are given, they still refuse. Management are called, they refuse to leave the room.
Was it always like this?

I've had two kids actually fall asleep in class this (school) year at the end of end of topic tests- in both cases I rang home and their parents admitted they'd been up gaming late the night before.

Apparently it can also be a warning sign for drugs- weed, for example, can make people drowsy and lethargic.

Blimey I remember people doing that when I was at school (80/90s) including me. I even fell asleep in a maths lesson once. Nothing to do with lack of sleep as far as I remember but either boring lesson I had zero interest in or stuffy hot classroom.

One of our year 3 kids fell asleep sitting on the floor in assembly/singing, sitting tight behind the piano. No idea how he managed that as it certainly wasn't quiet!

It is true teenager's have different circadian rhythms to adults, we force them to come to school too early for their natural cycles. On top of that, smart phones and televisions etc isn't going to be helping. Plus, kids today have to do so much, all the core subjects plus citizenship, sex Ed, phse, etc... I respect them all so much.