Students abilities and needs getting worse

WWMRD

Over a week back now in school and I have 1st years for the first time in a good few years and I have just been floored with the complete inability to follow simple well explained instructions in a lab setting.

Today I left school feeling like I left my students down as I spent majority of a double class stopping and starting what we were doing due to students not being able to follow along. This is not just one or two students it would be at least 5 or 6 in a class of 18!

Looking at me with blank expressions, not able to take correction, unfocused, no idea of consequences of their actions, not liking hearing no and even crying!

It is not the only group that I'm experiencing this with. Have I been out of the 1st year loop for too long? I feel like I need training for special needs as I feel like this is what I will be faced with for the rest of the year.

Any advice? Anyone else experiencing this? Am I alone!!??

happywithlife

nope not alone! I'm a broken record all week going back over absolute basics. And the lack of coping skills or resilience is shocking - but that's across all walks of life I think not just 1st yrs.

SligoBrewer

Lads, it's first years in the first week of them being in a new subject in a new school. Ease up for a while.

WWMRD

SligoBrewer wrote: »

Lads, it's first years in the first week of them being in a new subject in a new school. Ease up for a while.

I totally get that they are in new school new subject etc but this doesn't even come down to that....being told for instance you can't chew gum in class will you put it in the bin please and I get a blank expression back and then have to walk them to the bin and then the tears start!

I feel like I'm going to be more mother than teacher!

happywithlife

SligoBrewer wrote: »

Lads, it's first years in the first week of them being in a new subject in a new school. Ease up for a while.

I get that and haven't come down hard on them but like OP I teach a practical subject with real.safety risks and the absolute cluelessness of some students is frigthening. This isn't a settling in phase thing.
it can be for a small minor number of students complete and utter inability to comprehend the physical dangers around them in say a lab setting or the consequences of their actions etc

NIMAN

When you say 1st years, they sound like 1st timers at school i. e. Junior infants.

rainbowtrout

SligoBrewer wrote: »

Lads, it's first years in the first week of them being in a new subject in a new school. Ease up for a while.

Can't ease up on basic safety in a lab. It's not necessarily about the content. I had to teach my first years how to use matches last year. The vast majority had never struck a match in their lives, many had no idea how to do it, and some were terrified of lighting one.

spurious

WWMRD wrote: »

I feel like I'm going to be more mother than teacher!

If someone else had done their job properly, the little darling wouldn't be chewing in school. (Sad but true).

You bully. How dare you restrict their freedom. If they want to slice their hand open with a tool/knife, do not deny them that 'experience'. (Indo response)

Postgrad10

Don't worry about the experiments until they've got the basics. All books out on desk as soon as they come in, No getting out of your seat without permission, raising hands, listening to instructions, hang coats up on chairs, bags and feet under the table, no eating or drinking in the lab. Repeat them over and over again. Make a chart and get them to write them down in the front of their copy. When they are not following , save your voice and point at/open the copy at the rule they just broke. For every one of the rules have a consequence for breaking that rule. Be consistent in applying the sanctions. Explain that you want to do experiments with them but if they can't behave safely in the lab them you won't get to do them (I know of course you do have but they don't know that).

evolving_doors

A friend told me of an incident where she worked where a guy lost both his eyes simply cos he didn't wear his safety glasses.
Similarly a relative worked in a hospital and saw 2 lab techs out having a smoke with their lab coats on, then headed back in to test patients samples (probably went to the toilets on the way!).

Safety videos are far to tame.

Blaizes

WWMRD wrote: »

Over a week back now in school and I have 1st years for the first time in a good few years and I have just been floored with the complete inability to follow simple well explained instructions in a lab setting.

Today I left school feeling like I left my students down as I spent majority of a double class stopping and starting what we were doing due to students not being able to follow along. This is not just one or two students it would be at least 5 or 6 in a class of 18!

Looking at me with blank expressions, not able to take correction, unfocused, no idea of consequences of their actions, not liking hearing no and even crying!

It is not the only group that I'm experiencing this with. Have I been out of the 1st year loop for too long? I feel like I need training for special needs as I feel like this is what I will be faced with for the rest of the year.




Is there any lab safety video on you tube or something along the lines of safety and following instructions in a lab setting.Might be worth spending the double class just focusing on that, watching the video, then devising a questionnaire/ quiz on lab safety to be discussed in small groups before being completed.Then take feedback from each group and then select one member from each of these groups to come to the top of the class and explain their main takeaways from the questionnaire to the rest of the class- could be three points per group and get another person in the group to write these three key words or points on the board or you could do this.

Could you also make or get some posters on lab safety and key instruction words.Or better still could the kids make these at home as part of lab safety homework. TES have loads of resources for secondary subjects and will probably have some for Science teaching might be worth checking out.

SligoBrewer

happywithlife wrote: »

I get that and haven't come down hard on them but like OP I teach a practical subject with real.safety risks and the absolute cluelessness of some students is frigthening. This isn't a settling in phase thing.
it can be for a small minor number of students complete and utter inability to comprehend the physical dangers around them in say a lab setting or the consequences of their actions etc

So do I. It's their first time in a lab.

You do lab safety first, then safe experiments where you can emphasise lab rules before you go using bunsen, chemicals etc. It's just part of settling in and you are just doing your job by correcting them. Relax.

happywithlife

SligoBrewer wrote: »

So do I. It's their first time in a lab.

You do lab safety first, then safe experiments where you can emphasise lab rules before you go using bunsen, chemicals etc. It's just part of settling in and you are just doing your job by correcting them. Relax.

yup agree but I think what WWMRD meant perhaps and certainly what I've noticed over the last decade or so their absolute unawareness of what's going on around them/the chain reaction or consequence of their actions and their inability to cope with correction is frighteningly lacking or certainly a lot more lacking than it was years ago.

amacca

Perhaps its because they have been "facilitated" more than they have been taught in recent years.

TheDriver

You're lucky having only 18 in your class.

Blaizes

Back in the classroom this week having been away for a few years.Shocked by the nails on some first years, they'd nearly put Kim Kardashian to shame. They could barely hold a pen with them, can't imagine them trying to do home ec. or other practical subjects.

Sal Butamol

1st years in university are just as bad. I have to deprogramme them every year for the first few weeks. It is getting worse and worse. Can't even write a coherent sentence or paragraph.


Our education system is failing everybody.

dhaughton99

Sure give it a few weeks and they’ll know it all anyway.

evolving_doors

Twas always the way.
Yissr just getting old.
I think it's peeks and troughs.
This year ours are grand so far, last year grand, year before nuts, year before that swinging off the rafters, year before that mixed bunch, year before that ok, year before that legendary.

In my day..... let's just say the stuff our year got up to would have made today's newspapers every month (not me of course).

DEFTLEFTHAND

Welcome to Gen Z.

Such a crowd of molly birds.

This is the first generation of children raised on participation trophys.

They don't deal with competition, being told no or losing well. They've been 'mothered' to within a inch of their lives.

Good luck to all you teachers, you're going to need it.

evolving_doors

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Welcome to Gen Z.

Such a crowd of molly birds.

This is the first generation of children raised on participation trophys.

They don't deal with competition, being told no or losing well. They've been 'mothered' to within a inch of their lives.

Good luck to all you teachers, you're going to need it.

I'd disagree, I think a lot of students are dealing with competition every single day, competition from peers academically and socially.

Blaizes

evolving_doors wrote: »

I'd disagree, I think a lot of students are dealing with competition every single day, competition from peers academically and socially.

Yes you are right of course there is competition in school and everywhere else it's part of life.But I think what the poster is getting at is that some kids take losing very badly( so they all got participation medals etc.in an event) don't like being told they can't have something or can't do something. It's going back to what the original poster said about the first year nearly being in tears at being asked to put the gum in the bin.A simple and reasonable request from a teacher provoked such a response. Why? Maybe the kids of today aren't used to hearing the word no. And I'm not taking a pop at you but just saying more generally that I think the word no just doesn't sit easily with kids.

storker

Based on my daughter's experience, I'd say it's because the later years of primary school don't prepare them enough for secondary, and even if they did more, it would be a big culture shock. New school, new faces, different subjects in different classes, going from one teacher to several...plus all their homework. And new subjects to boot.

My daughter is just starting second year. This time last year I found her crying one day after school, saying how she missed her primary school already. A couple of weeks later we noticed that she seemed to be liking it, and it was another couple of weeks before she would actually admit it. In the past year shes got involved with one of the school sports teams done some interesting projects, and did Christmas and summer exams that were set at Junior Cert standard, and she did well - the school's opinion is that they might as well get used to the real standard as early as possible.

Towards the end of summer holidays she was even looking forward to going back. My joke the night before about getting an early night because she would be busy beating up first years next day fell flat, though - she's a tough audience. A few days after going back I asked her if she been noticing many first years going around like rabbits caught in headlamps, she grinned "yeah", and I knew she was remembering...

TLDR: it's just a touch of shell-shock that soon wears off.

Sal Butamol

Primary schools don't do enough to prepare for secondary and secondary schools don't do enough to prepare for third level.

This has been abundantly clear for decades

Icsics

TheDriver wrote: »

You're lucky having only 18 in your class.

That's what I thought, I've 30 in each 1st yr class. Inclusion is making life very difficult for everyone. We have a student who spent all primary in a 'unit' & now hes in a class of 30! We also have students with very severe learning difficulties / chromosonal problems but the parents want them in mainstream.

evolving_doors

Sal Butamol wrote: »

Primary schools don't do enough to prepare for secondary and secondary schools don't do enough to prepare for third level.

This has been abundantly clear for decades

Parents don't do enough to prepare for primary.
And third level doesn't do enough for the world of work.
And the world of work doesn't do enough to prepare for retirement.
And retirement doesn't do enough to prepare for ....

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.