How one word can go down

Situation:

- Intense class

- High energy, high swearing

- one girl swears EXTREMEMLY loudy and often

- I tell her, "Young ladies don't swear like that"

- 2nd lesson. Same young lady swears too loud, too often. I say to her that she must have tourettes

- She and her friend also start to talk about inappropriate stuff

- I warn them three times then hold them after class

- After class, I say "Do I need to call your parents as you girls do not seem to be listening"

- Girls say "You can do whatever you want, my parents let me do anything"

- I call the parents, parents both seem very shocked and apologise for their children

- Girls return to class, give me evils

- Girls loose the plot, scream at me and tell me they hate this class

- I have a restorative meeting with the girl and a classroom specialist

- The girl is grumpy becuase I said she has a disease??

- I do not recall and she is also grumpy that I called home

- She tells me she does not know what Tourettes means

- She is angry because I called home, and thought I was saying that she has a sickness

- Mediator facilitates a discussion and the girl seems resolved. She apologises and says that she will not sit with her friend as she tends to get of task and they get each other in trouble

- Next lesson is better, and the girl sits apart from her friend

- The following lesson is terrible

- The following lesson is more than terrible. WTF

What have I taken away from this: - I do not understand teenagers

- One word can go down like a tonne of bricks if they don't know what it means

- Be careful what you say, and never assume.

- I have tried my best to fix and patch over this situation

- I have given her a reasonable tone, a reasonable set of expectations and she is the one making the terrible decisions and choosing to hate on me. I feel like I have tried hard, and have done all I can, and now, she is the one who is deciding that she wants the drama, and she is looking for reasons to hate. She has said that the class is boring, and I have heard from another teacher that she likes, and is good at doing hands on things, but I am frustrated becuase I feel like we as teachers spend our entire lives trying to make things fun, when in fact, life is not always fun, and the kids are getting too much liberties and rights and too much freedom to make their own decisions based on what they think at such a young age, and some of them are getting too big for their boots.

#reflection