To begin to address this important question regarding toxic student behavior, I had to generate a list then enumerate them from most to least damaging, holistically. Here is a glimpse of what is happening in my classroom that feels toxic, “enlarged for detail”— meaning there are really nice things that also happen, and my classroom is not really a seedy back alley, crawling with the worst kind of brats. (Doesn’t sound very intimidating, even at its worst. “Uh oh, run, the brats are coming.) I love my students, but here is a list of their toxic meddlings:
- Negative feedback about the class itself, far passed the point of being constructive, aka, Homework Groaning
- Entitled behavior: whining, complaining, eye-rolling
- Exploiting and manipulating the teacher. One example would be lying: lying about being sick, lying about missing homework, lying about “not understanding” something when the truth is that the student never even looked/tried, passing off blatantly careless work as a final draft even feel like a kind of lie. Sending me emails with late homework and a sugary message or a sad tale of woe.
- “Cliques” that form and purposely exclude other students
- Unwillingness to put in any real effort, unwillingness to speak up in class or participate, creating dead air for the entire room. General obstinate behavior (not just a shy personality)
It’s funny how there are trends and themes that emerge within the microcosmic classroom- trends that soon die out, only to be totally forgotten by the fickle nature of students their age. Or perhaps it’s all students? There was a while when I decided to put the whole room into teams with names, each little group had roles determined and seemed really proud of them for two class periods. The following week, the names were abandoned, colored paper placards on the floor. Snack Day on Friday had a sign-up sheet that has also been sent adrift. Right now, it’s hip to complain about our class curriculum. I took a suggestion from Megan to ask the students to “rename the class” from ENG 101: Writing Your Way Through Western to something they chose. Half of the class wrote very negative and almost hurtful things, like, “Nonsense Survey Crap 101”, “Non-Creative Writing” and something about being experimental guinea pigs being tortured, etc. Even if they were trying to make each other laugh, or stir up the class a little, I can see that it’s disheartening to the entire class to hear that they’re wasting their time. Words are magic spells. Once you say them out loud, the spell takes its shape.*
I told myself (and probably the class at some point) that I was going to be open to criticism since I am brand new at this job, hailing from a much different background. I want my students to know that they can come to me with any issues, questions, ideas or opinions- and even asked them for suggestions that would make our class more engaging, challenging or just more fun for them. I’ve given them the idea that their honesty is welcome (and it is) but they are taking that idea all the way to bank, running down the street, money flying out of the temporary satchel they created out of their own t-shirts— which necessarily leads me to“entitled behavior” and “exploiting/manipulating the teacher” and all the rest. They seem to be heterogeneously linked, by golly! I posited a query during one of our recent classes asking,
“Now that we’re halfway through, how can I change my tone, style or pace as an instructor? How can I draw new boundaries at this point?”
I am still struggling with getting sassy emails, late work, no submissions for projects and no amount of extra work I put in seems to shift that dynamic.
All I can do is continue to show up with a willingness to learn. I will walk with humility and compassion for myself and all others. I will not fear failure.
That’s my mantra for now, anyway.
*I consider their fake class names to be attributed to my own awkwardness as a new teacher and not the curriculum itself.