ToxTeaching

Quite obviously, YOU are not the source of his anger. You just happen to be the lucky recipient. I don't know enough about you, the child, or the situation to give advice or comment further, but there is definitly and issue that needs to be resolved for this child. Please don't give up on him. It sounds to me like a loud cry for help.

I once had a student I was at wits end with. He was pretty much the same kind of kid you have described. Not wanting to get into another power struggle with him, I asked him to leave the room ( after I had asked him to stop disrupting about 4 times!) I got the class working and as I went outside to talk with him I was clueless as to what to say or do. I began talking with him and asked him what was going on with him today. He shrugged and didn't say much. Probably God will strike me dead but I was desperate. I told him, you know Ontavio, you are one of my favorite students in that class.I listed a number of his good qualities. Then I said I really like you and it bothers me when I have to take you outside and embarrass you by having you leave the class. It was weird but he sort of relaxed and we talked about what had just happened and how I have to do my job which is teach this class, blah blah blah. So, I said - are we cool? He smiled and we walked back into class and for the rest of the year - when he would start to disrupt I'd smile at him and he'd smile back and he'd settle down. I thought this was an isolated event but since then I've tried it on a number of difficult children and it works almost every time. I think they just need to know you care about them.