When Behavior Escalates, Data Calms
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It’s never a good day when a student’s behavior escalates to the point where they need to leave the classroom. Recently, I had a student whose behavior reached that point.
It’s the week before Thanksgiving, and the general feeling on our campus is that the middle schoolers are pretty squirrely right now. We’ve been seeing low-level behavior flare-ups across many classes. This particular student came in already more agitated than usual, and no amount of gentle nudging, firm corrections, or reminders to follow norms made a difference. I won’t go into details, but after 12 warnings about behavior in one class, I had to remove the student.
But that’s not really the story.
This was the first time I’d had a removal while also having Socrait running in the classroom—and that turned out to make a meaningful difference in how our staff responded as well as in how I felt afterwards.
As soon as we stepped into the hallway, the student began reframing the details of what happened. I don’t think they were intentionally lying. I genuinely don’t believe most middle schoolers remember what teachers say with any accuracy. 🙃After all, I know how many times I repeat every set of directions!
But, when a student insists on a version of events that’s wildly different from what we recall, it makes us question our memory. And over time, that repeated “gaslighting effect” can make teachers feel like we’re losing our grip on reality.
For the first time, though, I had a data record of my own voice—what I actually said. After class, I could review the sequence of warnings, read through how the escalation unfolded, reflect on where I could have paused or diffused things better, and pass along an accurate account to the next person in the chain.
You might wonder what that data looks like. Here’s an example using my own name with made-up warnings:
[WARNING] Please get to your seat Maria. Class started 2 minutes ago. Sit in your seat please. Thank you.
[WARNING] Alright, Maria. Let’s take the volume down to whisper, okay?
[WARNING] Maria, you’re talking over me. Please pay attention.
[WARNING] Maria, you can’t call other students names. That’s not part of our school culture, okay?
[WARNING] etc.
Imagine twelve of these. The key point: Socrait only collects the teacher’s voice, not the students’.
Socrait also generates a drafted summary email at the press of a button. Again, here’s a fictional example using my own name, but you can see how helpful this kind of neutral, factual summary can be:
I need to inform you about some behavioral concerns regarding Maria in class today. Maria was repeatedly out of their seat and spoke over me despite multiple warnings. Most concerningly, Maria called other students by names in class, which is against our school culture.
These behaviors significantly disrupt the learning environment and affect the well-being of other students. I had to remove Maria from class after numerous warnings. I would appreciate your support in discussing with Maria the importance of respectful communication and following classroom expectations. Please let me know if you would like to arrange a meeting to collaborate on strategies to support Maria in improving their behavior.
These autogenerated summaries have turned out to be incredibly helpful to pass along to other staff on campus who interact with the students (Principals, APs, Special Education staff, Behavioral Technicians) as well as parents..
In the past, situations like this would leave me replaying the incident over and over in my mind. I’d lose sleep. I’d worry about the student, worry about the other kids, and second-guess everything about my memory.
But not this time.
With access to the data record, it was very clear what happened. I could see exactly what I might adjust next time, and I could communicate precisely what occurred to the rest of the team. I was even able to identify the antecedent to the behavior – the student escalating as they ignored social cues from their classmates. With a clear look at the data, our team quickly developed a plan to support the student using supplemental curriculum focused on improving how they read social cues in the classroom.
I left the building without the usual swirl of self-doubt. For me, Socrait provided a level of mental calm before, during, and after the situation—calm that I hope more teachers can experience. Hopefully, the data will lead to better outcomes for the student — both in classroom behavior and in interactions with peers.
Why Students Go Straight to AI for Research Now
This week I wanted my middle schoolers to practice researching for a short 2–3 minute presentation without using AI. Each student has a different real-world topic, all tied to our unit on Transportation Logistics.
Managing a room full of middle schoolers researching different things is… an adventure. I’ve been scaffolding this all year, nudging them a little closer to independence each time. For this round, the “level up” was researching without a provided outline. And, because apparently I enjoy pain, I also decided our first day of research should be done without AI.
Do you have any idea how hard it is now to avoid AI when you do a Google search?
🚨 Stumbling block #1: AI summaries everywhere
Our students use iPads, so I had them start with a simple Google search. Immediately, every kid got a full page of nothing but Google’s AI summary.
I told them, “Scroll down to find websites.”
Blank stares.
“Websites? Google has websites?”
At this point, I felt ancient. These 6th-8th graders have already seen AI summaries for so long that they don’t remember Google as a place to find websites. So we scroll. And scroll. And… it’s mostly ads.
🚨 Stumbling block #2: Businesses dominate the first page
The top “results” are just companies bidding on keywords.
Google does surface good YouTube videos for many topics—but of course students can’t access YouTube without me taking those videos through the approval process (which takes several days).
🚨Stumbling block #3: Students can’t access YouTube for learning
So we move on to the few sites that look promising. Now we’re up against the iBoss filter. Suddenly, the room is popping with “This site is blocked!” alerts like digital popcorn. I encourage the kids to just move on and try other sites.
A few very unlucky souls have to press the “Next” button on Google results. They didn’t know it existed. Honestly, I’m not sure they believed it existed.
🚨 Stumbling block #4: School filters block many legitimate sites
Eventually, most students end up on the only consistently accessible site: Wikipedia.
And now I’m laughing at myself. Remember when teachers said “Never use Wikipedia”? My age is showing.
Still, I think: Great! Problem solved. Wikipedia it is.
But no. When Wikipedia loads, every kid gets a full-screen donation plea with only two choices: “Donate Now” or “Maybe Later.” I tell them to click “Maybe Later,” and then every kid gets a box demanding a phone number or email.
🚨 Stumbling block #5: Ads… so many ads… everywhere
We eventually discover that you can scroll below the Wikipedia donation ad, and … finally … reach actual content. It only took half the class period.
Honestly, I hadn’t realized how hard it had become to do basic web research on school devices without AI. Using AI to learn something new is now at least ten times easier than wading through ads, filters, videos you can’t watch, and pages that aren’t even useful anymore.
We shouldn’t be surprised that students use AI first for research.
If you were them, what would you do?
Inbox Serotonin
Luckily for me, the 6-7 brainrot trend is dying off at my school. But I’ve seen two brilliant 6-7 socials worthy of sharing. Hopefully these will make you laugh out loud too.
First, a brilliant TikTok short piece about a “friend in recovery” who gets tempted by fate from @the.johnsonbrothers.
Second, did you know there’s a new Disney film coming out called “What is 6 7?” There are actually a surprising number of fake 6 7 movie trailers on the Interwebs, but this Instagram “trailer” is the one that looked almost legit. Thanks to @platsa.plousa.gr for this little gem.
Socrait Tip: How Socrait Knows Who’s Absent
Socrait knows who’s present by listening for when the teacher directly addresses a student, but getting absence data is a little trickier. If you’d like Socrait to accurately track absences, you must say something out loud about the student being absent.
Socrait is your classroom companion. It listens to you while you teach and gives you back your data after class, giving your brain time to breathe during the day. After class, Socrait will draft your parent emails, create class summaries for absent students, help you remember where that class left off, and remember your spoken aloud to-dos.
About the author: Dr. Maria Andersen has been an educator for 30 years in both Higher Ed and K-12 teaching a variety of subjects (math, chemistry, business, ELL, technology, pre-service teachers). She has given hundreds of workshops and keynotes about active learning, curriculum redesign, remote and online learning, effective use of technology, and using AI for teaching & learning. Andersen teaches middle schoolers at a charter school in Utah. She was also the CEO of Coursetune and is currently the CEO of Socrait.
