The secret

Sorry it has been a week. I did mostly nothing exciting over the three day weekend, but the fact that I had no school Monday was exciting enough. Tuesday there was a staff assualt that resulted in an inmate broken arm and my students weren't allowed in class until 7 (instead of 5:45). Wednesday one of the other teacher's students threw a table at the wall. Thursday, today, another student was having problems getting along with his teacher (not my student) and somehow I talked him into taking the test he was supposed to and keeping his mouth shut. I realize that since he is not my student he thinks I am "nicer" since I don't have to be the one disciplining him on a regular basis, but nontheless this brings me to...drum roll....the secret. I have discovered the secret to teaching inmates. Which really is 1)very common sense, 2)applicable to all fields of life and 3)therefore really no secret at all, but here it is anyways. Be nice to them and they'll be nice to you. These guys get treated like shit most of the time, and I'm not saying that sometimes they don't deserve it, but I've found that when I am nice to them, or allow them to talk occasionally about non-school related things, or joke with them, I get much better results. As a result of this epiphany of mine, I have not yet ever had a student throw a table in MY classroom. I only had one guy want to punch me in my face, but even then (and this might be stupid but hey it's done and over with now) I chose not to turn him in and to keep being nice and now he asks me for help almost every day and is working very hard. I believe the urge to punch my face has subsided.