MovieChat Forums > Dangerous Minds (1995) Discussion > I have students just like the kids in th...

I have students just like the kids in the movie


I'm a first year teacher and to my surprise I end up with students similar to this movie, of course not as dramatic as the movie. I teach history to 9th grade special education students in a inner city school district. The students that I do have are some of the most disrespectful children I have ever met. The first day of school I had one student spit in my face because I asked her to read section one of the syllabus. She refused to and I kept asking her why and she walked up and spit in my face and walked out of the class. The administrative staff told me I should expect that type of behavior from these students. She was only suspended for 5 days and she still in my classroom. They refuse to do any classwork, participate or complete homework assignments. I have called the students parents and none of them seem to care. Now I do have some wonderful students who do A+ work but its only 8 students out of the 40 students that I teach. Sometimes I just go home and cry because I feel that I'm not doing my job.Just before the winter break there was a fight in my classroom with two young ladies fighting over a boy. It was insane. I look at my colleagues classrooms and there students are completely different then the students I have. I just don't understand how I ended up with classes like this. I have watched this movie over and over to get ideas on how I can reach them. So I will probably do a few contest and games in my classrooms and give out prizes. Any teachers ever deal with anything similar to this movie? I have asked some of the senior teachers for advice and they just give me the nastiest look as if I don't deserve to hear there advice. It's really sad how some teachers act towards others. I hope to have a happy ending like this movie but I doubt it. Thanks for listening to my rant. lol

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i do too, obviously not as bad as the movie but i teach in west london, england and it's very tough. It's very multi cultural and working class-i'm in my 1st yr and there are big discipline problems and as you said the parents alot of the time don't care. Two teachers before me in my job only lasted weeks before leaving. I've been called obscene names and been told to *beep* off to my face.

A strategy depending on their age is if you have them directly before lunchtime give them a target to reach-say they must write a page and if they haven't completed this they stay in at lunch. Again PRAISE the work they do attempt or hand in no matter how bad it is and give tips on how to progress. Not every1 can be the all dominating authority figure so go with what you can offer. Also depending on the class give activities and set time limits, a good idea can be 6-7 minutes and make that clear because activities that take too long can bre them. Then after the 6-7 mins chat a while-reflect on the work and go again.

i think alot of it depends on the support you got in the school,if you are in a school with a bad discipline code and poor support and you are in out of control classrooms then get the hell outa there or it will kill your passion for teaching for life.

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You'd think a teacher would know the difference between "a lot", which means many or a large amount, "allot", which means to distribute, and "alot", a word that doesn't exist. smh

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Don't worry. there are 'teachers' on imdb who refer to the leader of their school as the principle. And they have no clue what a lesson plan is.

Reading the paper can really be depressing. Mr. Dithers fired Dagwood again.

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I really feel for you, Lita - I freely admit that I have not the nervous stamina to do what high-school teachers do, and it sounds like you've had an appalling lack of support from colleagues. Maybe you would benefit from contacting LouAnne herself, which you can do at this site http://www.louannejohnson.com/

Good luck - there's nothing worse than having to turn up to a job that makes you miserable. Exercise plenty of self-care.

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document and inform the student, parents and principal of all problems. inform your union. so now everyone knows its a problem. In front of the entire class let them know YOU are the teacher and that is your classroom. If they dont like the way you teach, speak, or support them to please leave and go to their principal, councelor, or whom ever. If you dont show authority in your own classroom. none of the kids will respect you. After you address the whole class a few of the 8 trouble makers will either confront you, leave, or sit down. as the teacher you and only you have to get, keep, and hold respect in YOUR classroom.
1. principals usually wont get in it until a parent calls or someone gets hurt.
2, (some) parents wont get involved until you insult student or when they are called to school,,,then its why are you picking on my child.....stand your ground...thats why i say document everything
3. you are the teacher, councilor, baby sitter, nurse, coach, theropist, etc,,,all in one.
hold your ground make demands from student to principal to union rep...(keep your butt covered,,,lol)
and enjoy being a great teacher..

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Cant say I am surprised. These kids should be taken out and shot. It's a shame teachers have to put up with this at all. This movie is a joke. Payoff the kids basically so they learn. Let's show these poor kids as created by society. If they have it so bad they should have wanted to learn to better themselves, not bargined with. Makes me sick.

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Too bad you're an ldiot (sic).

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Those good-for-nothing bastards!  All I can say is, I feel for you.


Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!

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I'm not a teacher, but I did go to a rough High School and being in higher classes I did not see a lot of violence against teachers. I mainly would see the bad behavior during lunch time and between classes. As I'm sure many of you know a lot of these kids are just lashing out they were most likely raised under no authority and raised by neglectful ignorant parents so it’s all they know. Also, many of the kids that are real behind and don’t give a crap about graduating being suspended for 5 days is a useless punishment unless there is actually parental control in the house which there usually isn’t. So it's basically a 5 day vacation for them. It's been many years since I've seen Dangerous Minds, but I agree with some kind of reward system and if you need a break find some documentaries or something educational, for example, if you have a mostly African American classroom find some not to boring documentaries about starving kids in Africa or any interesting documentary about different cultures. Interesting history subjects maybe it will open their eyes as a lot of these inner city kids have not even been more than 20 miles from where they were born. Downfall is a good documentary about the last days of Hitler it's in Subtitles so they would have to read it sadly its R rated though. There are also many other good school appropriate documentaries out there though that I have learned more from than any school lesson. Netflix has a large variety of documentaries for example Vietnam in HD, World War 2 In HD here’s a link showing some more educational http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/23/netflix-docs_n_5327008.html etc. and all you need is a TV a computer with an internet connection, HD cord (to plug the computer into the TV), Netflix and you’re good to go. You could use Netflix as a reward system have a movie Friday where the kids that behaved get to vote what to watch while the other kids have to clean the classroom or something. Also if a certain number of kids make the good list bring in popcorn as an extra bonus. Also if you haven’t seen season 4 of The Wire it’s a must watch if you’re a teacher at an inner city school it shows examples on how to deal with dysfunctional kids. Most importantly don’t let them walk all over you need to establish you’re the one in charge on Day 1. Now about the spitting incident that kid should have got 40 hours community service or if that’s not possible 1 months ISS. If they did it a 2nd time they should have been expelled even if that’s what they were trying accomplish. Verbal abuse is one thing but any type of physical abuse should not be taken lightly that kid deserved way more than a 5 days vacation. Now I know you must stick to the syllabus but I hope at least some of my advice was helpful as I have a sister and a cousin that are underpaid teachers and their just teaching little kids and still have to deal with a lot of crap. Well I wish all teachers reading this the best of luck.

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You should watch 187

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Would be nice to get an update on your situation :> I hope things are looking up for you.

I was quite a *beep* back in my school days, so the best advice I could think to give from a "bad" kids perspective is to not come across like an adversary. You want them to realise you're there for their benefit. Making them believe this is probably much harder said than done - if they come from *beep* homes where even their own parents don't care then why would they think a teacher could care about them.

I think you have to accept that a lot of kids are simply lost causes as far as the education system goes, nothing you'll be able to do will get through to these ones. You'll run out of steam trying to get every child to learn. Maybe that sounds a bit pessimistic but I was one of them myself, and it wouldn't have mattered how good the teachers were - I was determined that school had nothing for me and there wasn't anything that could've changed me other than growing up.

Wishing you the best

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Rapport and relationship is key with these kids. If possible, try meeting with your toughest kids and talking to themmone on one..maybe have lunch with them one day.

There's a strategy called the 2x10. You spend 2 minutes for ten days randomly talking to these kids, asking how they are, showing interest in their lives..you don't mention school, homework, nothin. You just focus on getting to know them.

I feel for you, I hope it got better for you

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