Teachers rattled by hums and coughs in class

Teachers rattled by hums and coughs in class
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Last Updated: 2:14am GMT 26/03/2008

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/26/nteachers126.xml

Teachers are being worn down by increasingly devious pupils who hum in unison and start "orchestrated coughing" in front of staff.

A union warned that standards were being undermined because of an increase in schoolboy pranks in the classroom.

Many new teachers are ill-equipped to handle the rise in poor behaviour as classroom training courses are inadequate, it was claimed.


The comments - by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) - come amid growing fears that standards of behaviour are in decline because parents refuse to enforce boundaries in the home.

This week the union will call for mobile phones to be banned from classrooms as they become "potentially offensive weapons" in the hands of unruly pupils.

Many schools have bowed to parental pressure for children to keep their mobile phones in school, despite mounting concern that some pupils are taking compromising pictures of teachers on camera phones and posting them on social networking websites.

Teachers insisted that schools should take a harder line on low-level disruption.

Tim Cox, a member of the NASUWT's ruling executive, said: "Members frequently state that it is the constant low-level disruption that wears them down. It is the drip, drip effect that increases stress.

"It is the disrespect and the defiance that are the most difficult issues to deal with. It is the tap, tap, tap of the pen on the desk, the orchestrated coughing, the swinging back and forth on the chair, the refusal to comply with the simplest of requests, wearing coats, hoodies, sunglasses, the text messages and phone calls that disrupt lessons.

"We all know the impact they can have on day to day classroom management, but we don't always know how best to deal with it."

Mr Cox added that low-level disruption often escalated into "major incidents" because staff were ill-equipped to discipline children.

He said that behaviour management training for teachers was "patchy to say the least".

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Yes, more brats that were never taught respect and discipline at home.

The reason teachers are ill-equipped is because no matter what you do to someone's kid, no matter how benign the punishment, the parent is going to go bitching to the principal and undermine the teacher.

I agree the other stuff is disrepectful....but as for the coughing in unison...we did that stuff in the 70's....and all the teacher did is tell us to cut it out. Then we stopped w/ a sly smile, a chuckle and it was over. What is so hard about that?

Unless their saying that the coughing just never stops....? I don't know.

This is so true. I got my certification to teach secondary level and was offered a job at a local high school. So I go to an orientation that they asked all substitutes and first year teachers to attend. I was instructed to never take a cell phone away from the student because the school suffered previous attempts from parents trying to sue the the adminstration for allowing the teacher to confiscate a student's "personal belonging". I was also told that if a student mouths off and completely disrupts the class, do your absolute best not to send the child to the principal's office. There has been an influx of parents siding with the students when they claim the teacher was either "picking on me because he/she doesn't like me" or just "making a harsh example". Now, I know my low tolerance for asshole behavior from smart asses so I didn't take the job. I still work in the academic field but I'm not a teacher, solely because these fucking parents are out of control. Their kids learn they can get away with shit and they become assholes just like the parents.

but cf uter, the teachers actually punished the kids, back then.

Now you cant, the courses you take to teach kids have been relaxed so they are not able to cope.

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Somehow I managed to grow up with out a cell phone. Well maybe not.

Me too! I've had once since 1999, I was 32 when I got my first cell phone. Woo hoo! Go me!

I taught for 16 years and some of us may have done this same annoying behavior back in the 70's, but the big difference was that we stopped when the teacher told us to. We knew if we got in trouble at school there would be hell to pay at home. Kids today don't stop their coughing, humming, or tapping, and it does wear on a teacher's patience, and speaking voice (having to speak louder to project over the constant din). I once disciplined a child for repeated coughing in class and had my ass torn open by the child's mother. Her poor wittle darling was feeling sick in class and I was picking on him. It's funny, when he was running around like a maniac at recess without coughing. I'm so glad to not be in that field anymore. It was miserable!