APPROVAL

I am trying to be patient with all my students. They are a wonderful bunch of individuals. So much personality. And, in fact, the majority do not test my patience.

But in my afternoon classes in particular, there is a predictable handful of students who tend to blurt things out, either over the top of whatever I am saying at the moment or in the midst of a hard-won quiet of "you've got time to work in class". And they blurt everything from correct answers to my questions ("IRONY!") to the obvious and mundane ("I DROPPED MY PENCIL!") to unclever sexual innuendo (Use your [lack of] imagination). 

In my efforts to exercise patience, I have sought to understand the root causes. Sure, some of it seems to be a simple lack of impulse control. And I have to admit that most of the blurting does not seem aimed specifically at disrupting class or disrespecting me. (That's just how it FEELS, I remind myself.) 

At heart of the disruptions, it seems, is a near desperate pursuit of approval. But only from their peers. The students in question could not possibly care less about approval from their teachers. It really seems like they need minute by minute reassurance - from their peers - that they matter, that they are funny, that they are somehow above the classroom experience and not subject to its conventions.

So I feel like I have a good handle on the diagnosis, but I still struggle with discerning the best cure...