Classroom Management
One challenge that I’m currently having with classroom management is maintaining my consistently enforcing the rules with my afternoon class. On the outside, it doesn’t really make any sense that one class should be so trying. It is the third time I teach 7th grade science during the day, so I should have worked out all the kinks in my lesson by then. Many of the students in this class are in my homeroom, and I’d like to think that we have a good rapport, so they should attend to the lesson. Perhaps my problem lies in that I typically start my day at 5:45 am, so by 1:05pm, I am worn down. Or, maybe they misbehave so much because they are energized by the freedom of lunch and recess during the previous class period? Did I mention that this particular group of students has the most learning differences and most referrals in the entire 7th grade, and perhaps in the whole middle school?
Lawson (2010), reminds me that despite how much my tired feet are aching at that point in the day, the best solution to having inattentive students is for the teacher to be moving around the classroom to prevent students from socializing when they should be working (p. 175). By being an active presence in the classroom, I can not only keep my eyes on misbehaving students, but I can reward attentive students with a smile or positive remark.
Speaking of positives, one of my students in this class section (Student A), recently started a behavior contract to help him be more successful at school. Student A is required to carry a behavior card with him throughout the school day so that teachers can note when he has spoken out of turn, left his seat without permission, or otherwise disrupted the class. After about two weeks of having the card, I could tell that Student A was feeling down, perhaps even feeling targeted by his teachers due to his behaviors, so I decided to change things up. After class one day, I asked Student A if I could see his behavior card and I wrote that he participated in class appropriately and knew the correct answers to two questions during lecture. It was so rewarding to see the smile on his face after I wrote down those positive things! The best part was that the next teacher saw my positive remarks on the card and added one of her own. At the end of the day, Student A was on cloud 9, and his behavior was much improved for the rest of the week.
Finally, I think that it is important for me to reflect on which students I am calling out and for what rule infractions. I teach at a small, private PreK-8 school outside Baltimore, Maryland. The year I moved here, Freddie Gray had died after being in the custody of the Baltimore Police. To say that race tensions were high would be the understatement of the century. One of the things I have struggled with is that if I have to give a consequence to an African American student, they and their parents tell me that I am being racist and insist that I remove the punishment and, in some cases, apologize to their son or daughter. Now, I don’t go to work every day looking for reasons to make people angry or upset - I am going there to teach science. If a student makes that more difficult for me, then I will address the problem with that student and try to move on with the lesson. This year, I have really tried to be reflective as a teacher as to making sure that I am not giving consequences to any one race or sex more than another. It is not always easy, but I am trying to be patient and fair with my students - I just wish that they could give me the same courtesy.
References
Lawson, A. (2010). Teaching Inquiry Science in Middle and Secondary Schools. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
(Photo: Creative Commons 2013)
Lawson (2010), reminds me that despite how much my tired feet are aching at that point in the day, the best solution to having inattentive students is for the teacher to be moving around the classroom to prevent students from socializing when they should be working (p. 175). By being an active presence in the classroom, I can not only keep my eyes on misbehaving students, but I can reward attentive students with a smile or positive remark.
Speaking of positives, one of my students in this class section (Student A), recently started a behavior contract to help him be more successful at school. Student A is required to carry a behavior card with him throughout the school day so that teachers can note when he has spoken out of turn, left his seat without permission, or otherwise disrupted the class. After about two weeks of having the card, I could tell that Student A was feeling down, perhaps even feeling targeted by his teachers due to his behaviors, so I decided to change things up. After class one day, I asked Student A if I could see his behavior card and I wrote that he participated in class appropriately and knew the correct answers to two questions during lecture. It was so rewarding to see the smile on his face after I wrote down those positive things! The best part was that the next teacher saw my positive remarks on the card and added one of her own. At the end of the day, Student A was on cloud 9, and his behavior was much improved for the rest of the week.
Finally, I think that it is important for me to reflect on which students I am calling out and for what rule infractions. I teach at a small, private PreK-8 school outside Baltimore, Maryland. The year I moved here, Freddie Gray had died after being in the custody of the Baltimore Police. To say that race tensions were high would be the understatement of the century. One of the things I have struggled with is that if I have to give a consequence to an African American student, they and their parents tell me that I am being racist and insist that I remove the punishment and, in some cases, apologize to their son or daughter. Now, I don’t go to work every day looking for reasons to make people angry or upset - I am going there to teach science. If a student makes that more difficult for me, then I will address the problem with that student and try to move on with the lesson. This year, I have really tried to be reflective as a teacher as to making sure that I am not giving consequences to any one race or sex more than another. It is not always easy, but I am trying to be patient and fair with my students - I just wish that they could give me the same courtesy.
References
Lawson, A. (2010). Teaching Inquiry Science in Middle and Secondary Schools. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
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