5.      Giving students cool nicknames – I had a student a few years ago that I got along with great!  We used to joke around with each other a bit, and one day I called him “Turtle Boy” when he came into my classroom with his bookbag jammed with books/binders/other stuff.  He loved his new nickname, sometimes announcing as he entered class, “Heeeeerrrrrreeessssss Turtle Boy!”  He would even sign his papers “Turtle Boy” when he handed them in.  Long story short….he acted up in class a couple of times, and I called his parents to ask their help in modifying Turtle Boy’s behavior.  His parents were disgusted with me, they said “How can you expect students to respect you when you don’t respect them?”  I said, “Wait just a minute!  I respect your son.”  They replied, “You show your respect for my son by belittling him and calling him names!  You call him Turtle Boy!”  That night a thousand thoughts ran through my head, I was going to prove those parents wrong!  I was going to dig through my papers and show them the ones where their son signed them “Turtle Boy”, I was going to produce witnesses who watched their son enter the room every day and proclaim “Heeeeerrrrrreeeesssss Turtle Boy!”…I was going to show THEM!  It was so obvious that he was using the nickname to get the focus off of his poor behavior.  At about 2:00 in the morning it hit me:  I shouldn’t have called him Turtle Boy in the first place.  I had put myself in an indefensible position.  I had compromised my professionalism to try to be the “cool” teacher.  I called Turtle Boy’s parents back, and apologized for my behavior.  I told them that a great compromise would be that I call their son by his given name, and he responds by not acting up in class.  They agreed to that, and we all lived happily ever after (until the end of the semester!)

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