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RE: Strong Personalities
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Deborah Riddell
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Oct 05, 2009 07:48 PDT
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Fortunately, we have never had any really bad behavior out of our teens. Yes, they are often wild and rambunctious but once the meeting starts I ask them to quiet down and they usually do. Often times they will talk over me or talk over one of their peers. I have a gavel and what I do is strike the gavel and say "whenever you're quiet we can continue". Then I wait. Usually after so many minutes they realize that the meeting is not progressing and they quiet down. When they are completely quiet, then I thank them for being respectful and continue on. Or, I will call their attention to the fact they are not listening respectfully to their peers. I remind them when they are speaking or throwing out a suggestion they would like to be listened to respectfully. I will also ask them to turn their voices off, please, so that others can hear. This works for a while. You can never have total quiet in a TAB meeting. This is fun for them. If it is too much like school, they will stop coming. So we compromise. We do have an agenda every month that helps give structure to the meeting. This year I am thinking about giving our TAB president a more active role in the meeting and help run the agenda. Oftentimes if the kids have something to do, it helps with the behavior issues. Hope this helps.
-----Original Message-----
From: Michelle Michaud [mailto:mich-@hillsboroughcounty.org]
Sent: Friday, October 02, 2009 9:49 AM
To: taga-@topica.com
Subject: {TAGAD-L} Strong Personalities
Hi, All:
Please excuse the cross-posting.
I am new to running a TAG, and I have a bit of a dilemma. Our TAG is
predominantly high schoolers. We have one girl who is an extremely
dominant personality; she speaks for the whole group, talks throughout
the meeting with her friends about whatever she wants to talk about and
is sarcastic and somewhat disrespectful to me. We also have a young man
who likes to play the rebel and mouth off.
I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions/ideas for dealing
with a situation like this? I have some ideas, but I'd like to hear
from people with actual experience.
Thanks!
Michelle Michaud
Jimmie B. Keel Library
Tampa, FL
mich-@hillsboroughcounty.org
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