What does it mean when someone hits their fist of one hand into the palm of the other three or four times?

It means that she will do the same to their heads.

“Order in the court!”

It likely means she’s extremely frustrated with them not obeying her wishes and she’s punching her own palm INSTEAD OF their heads.

She would be much better off not letting them see how much they’re getting to her because otherwise it’s just adding fuel to the fire.

Once they know they’ve got you rattled, you’ve already lost control.

To prevent this becoming a pattern, she needs to figure out what realistic consequences she can bring to bear upon the ringleaders. Then she needs to lay down the law, outline the consequences, and stick to her word with enforcement CONSISTENTLY.

You’re the adult. You’re the one in charge. Take charge.
“Never let them see you sweat.”

Yep, she was extremely frustrated and driving home her emphatic point by the fist and palm slamming. If she could get away with it she’d probably be banging some adolescent heads together. Gah..I’‘d last about 15 minutes driving a school bus full of smart ass kids. lol
Jeez…show some R-E-S-P-E-C-T for these poor drivers kids!

It’s clobbering time!

I don’t know if she’s relieving her frustration by punching her hand OR demonstrating to the kids what will happen if they don’t settle down. She may just have been bluffing to let them know she was getting cross with them, or she may have been really cross with them. I’d need to observe the situation to be clearer about her intent. Regardless of her real intention, it’s a threatening gesture.

I guess it depends on what direction her palm was facing. It being supine (like how me and probably @Cruiser were thinking) is very different than it being sideways and curved into a “C”.

It means that it is time to sit down, shut up and face forward.

I know that being a bus driver or doing anything with kids can be very tough and frustrating. However, to me, doing what the bus driver did is inappropriate for any professional working with kids or adults. I wouldn’t expect my boss to behave that way, and I certainly wouldn’t expect a school professional to behave that way, either. If it were my daughter’s bus driver, I’d probably be contacting his boss or school principal.

She was trying to drive the point home. To emphasize her point and express her frustration.

@jca

You’re right, of course, but one of the main problems with school bus drivers is that whatever training they receive is primarily focused upon the technicalities required to get their license to drive such a large vehicle.

It would be helpful if the company that hired them provided training specifically in how to handle children but I doubt it’s more than cursory.

Some people have a natural knack for handling kids but many don’t. Just witness all the ones we see in stores everyday who can’t even keep their own few kids in control.

Put them in charge of a whole bus full and there’s chaos.

Plus bus drivers as a group likely don’t have much interaction with each other since they’re all in their individual vehicles.

I remember back to my first year of teaching and how much I benefitted from the two teachers in classrooms on either side of mine. They were veterans of 20+ years experience (most in the Carribean and the strict British discipline system there which brooks no nonsense from unruly students).

I learned so much from them and it’s the main reason I never had to go through the futility of yelling at a bunch of kids simply to maintain order. They shared so much knowledge and experience with me all throughout that first year.

I doubt bus drivers get any of that. However, some systems have placed security cameras in each bus and I think this helps greatly. Now there is a surefire way to pinpoint troublemakers and hold them accountable, expelling repeat offenders if necessary.

The majority of kids are not that bad. But it only takes a few bad apples to influence the entire group to behavior they wouldn’t consider on their own.

I would never take a job as a school bus driver (even tho I know how to manage kids) because there’s no way to know if the powers that be will back you up. Some will, some won’t.

I’m kind of amazed that anyone would do that job :)

She is threatening violence.