What Looks Like Disrespect Often Isn't

Recently at a PD, someone gave two suggestions for chatty kids:

Join their conversation and spin it into the lesson.
Or… be more interesting.

Which, okay.
Humbling.
Also occasionally true.

They also said:
If it’s not working, find another way.
Figure out why and work through it.
Don’t just demand compliance.

Honestly, it felt like a breath of fresh air.

A lot more freeing than tightening expectations, adding rewards, creating consequences for control, and ending up with everyone more frustrated.

Because a lot of what looks like disrespect… isn’t.

It’s impulse.
It’s movement.
It’s “my body forgot the rule the second you said it.”

And when I treat it like defiance, it often becomes a power struggle I did not actually want.

Which is how you end up arguing with a six year old about… being under a table.

I am trying to shift that. Away from assuming disrespect, and toward working with students to solve what is actually getting in the way.

This is a work in progress. But I feel strongly that this is how I want to teach. It is what feels right, and it is what helps my classroom feel like a good place to learn and be. I am not giving up on it.