Classroom management means different things to each of us, given our varying contexts and audiences and situations day to day. But, I believe that we can learn from each other's experiences regardless of those differences; I also believe we can help each other better understand what it means and what it looks like to manage a classroom of adolescents.
First, isolate what was causing the problem. What was the catalyst?
Then, tell us what kinds of decisions you made to try and control the situation.
Finally, tell us what happened when you tried to control it. Did it work?
Then, end your post with some reflection: How did this situation work to change your thinking about how to teach? What do you now know about managing your students that you didn't know before? What wisdom about "classroom management" can you pass on to your peers?
13 comments:
My period three class is senior English, college prep. The class is made up of 20 girls and five boys. I can't tell you how much talking goes on in that classroom! Although I want my students to talk to each other, and to me, when we do quiet things (such as journals!) I have difficulty getting them to quiet down. I have noticed that some days are just chatty days - but some of what I do in the classroom impacts their behavior.
For example, I love the circle arrangement of the desks for the students. I like that it makes every student front row and we can all see everyone's faces. I have put period 3 into a circle a few times now, and as much as I thought it would work - ohhh they get so crazy! They talk and talk and talk and talk and talk, and they don't stop either. It takes over the class. Instead of writing productively, we spend the entire journal prompt trying to quiet down. For this particular class, the circle creates a seating arrangement where students have two new chat buddies on either side of them and if I look to my left, students on the right will talk.
This class just works better in rows... The rows are set up in sort of a half moon shape which is cool, and it just taught me that although a method, idea, or practice is great - some things just don't work.
In college, we have been taught all the constants. But what we are doing now in student teaching, is applying the constants to the variables - the students.
For my period 3, it's the half moon of rows. It works for them, and although they are chatty, the classroom management is just - better.
The best class management skill yet - have Dr. Cook observe your class! My period 3 was so well behaved when she was there today. It's interesting to see the difference in their behavior when other adults are in the room.
Aimee--Thanks for kicking this thread off this week. The most powerful line in your post, I think, is when you say that student teaching is about applying the "constants" (or methods) to the "variables" (the students). Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!!!!!
You are all learning why and how the teacher needs to be a MASTER peoplereader. Not only do you need to intimately know your context and the social cultures of the students you are teaching, but you also need to be able to accurately "read" your students as texts every day and every period of every day. This ability to "read" people and to "read" situations is something you have to learn "on the job." It is why we must walk into school each morning with our eyes wide open, ready to "flex and flow" with our lesson plans as the students dictate.
So many classroom management problems arise because the teacher is not accurately reading her students and context or because the teacher is not being honest with or true to herself.
We all know that talking and "misbehaving" are the gold standard for classroom management issues. When students are talking amongst themselves and/or loudly, we cannot teach. When students are throwing paper at each other or are more interested in their makeup than in our lesson, we cannot teach. So, a question to ponder for those who haven't yet posted:
What does it take to get your students' attention? Are you even trying to get their attention? How?
What roadblocks do you experience when you attempt to corral their attention?
Rather than recounting the entirety of the incident, I'll just refer everyone back to my jibbering jabberwock in period 5 a couple of weeks back. This was a case where my classroom management absolutely TANKED, but I have learned from it.
When the incident was happening, the noise seemed to come from EVERYWHERE and I was so overwhelmed that I didn't know what to do. Proximity helps, but when the noise is everywhere, how do I stand near it?! Then it tried to happen again. Not period 5, but the freshman class I mentioned in the same post. That group is the only one of the three that thinks they can run roughshod straight over me. They are the only class I have had to hit with Belanger's patented, "Next voice I hear stays for me." As with my previous cleanup from that story, I made sure that as I delivered my requests for them to quiet down and do their independent reading that I advanced through the center of the room. The "next voice stays" was a last resort, but simply telling them firmly that they know what they SHOULD be doing and that I wanted them to do it wasn't getting me anywhere. "Next voice stays" did finally silence even my worst chatterbugs, though it got an eyeroll and silent mimic from one student (who very much stayed after school that day, though unfortunately he already owed the school a detention anyway).
With 2 of my 3 classes, all I have to do to get their attention is start talking, or, some days, ask them ONCE to stop talking. I'm spoiled, but really, they are that good. I chalk it up to Belanger's very no-nonsense policies. I showed some of you guys our INSANE 4-page classroom rule list, which I have told him I find amusingly excessive, but it works for him, and, as a bonus, it means my classes are perfect when I get them. Besides 7.
Unfortunately, 7 is really bearing the brunt of my burgeoning "bitch bone" to borrow a phrase from my mother (Belanger calls it "putting the bitch on," so take your pick). We're on a rotating schedule, so it's not like they're getting stuck because of the time they meet; they're really just a chatty, and occasionally attitudinal, bunch.
My classroom management struggle is being okay with "putting the bitch on." Every time I've had to do it, I always end up asking Belanger if I went overboard, if I need to rein it in... Most of the time, his response is something along the lines of telling me to stop worrying/overthinking/being neurotic and/or start trusting my own judgment and quit feeling guilty when it isn't all sunshine and rainbows.
The real test is yet to come though. He was observing me informally during period 3 the other day, my dream class (the one Dr. Cook observed ON MY FIRST DAY WITH THEM!), and minor hell broke loose during independent reading while I was doing a book talk with a student (kid finishes book, I ask questions until I'm convinced the kid really read it). Belanger was closer to it, and to my shock and irritation (initially), he pulled the offended and the offender out of the room in turn. We discussed it afterward and he apologised and explained himself, but that class didn't meet today, so the situation hasn't really been fully resolved. The offender already skipped out on staying afterschool to catch up on work he missed, so we'll see if he tries to start something again, and then we'll REALLY see how well this classroom management thing is going.
I guess my most challenging classroom management to date, like Aimee and Allie, involves seating and personal side conversations. All three periods talk and talk a lot. It gets increasingly worse throughout the day and by period 6 it can be a little crazy. Because we have had rotating schedules this past week for NECAP testing I have come to discover that which period is at the end of the day does matter: period 3 was a crazier than usual when they were moved to last period and period 6 was much more subdued when it was moved to first period. I've also noticed that the chitchat is very dependent on who has work to do and who doesn't. Today we were working on our journalism projects in class and a few kids had forgotten their news article at home. Needless to say those kids had nothing to do while everyone else was trying to work. It would have been nice had they sat at their desks and stayed quiet, but we don't live in a perfect world. Instead, as I was walking around helping students who had brought their work in, the two or three who hadn't were walking around disrupting students who were trying to work. I didn't think of a good way to remedy this at the time other then repeatedly asking them to sit down or at least to stop bothering those who were working. They did stop for a little while, but would soon continue causing distractions. If it happens again tomorrow I'm going to have to do things differently. I guess in hindsight I should have focused those who forgot their work and figured out a way for them to do some work on their project without their article. My problem is that I hate wasting time accommodating students who aren't prepared when there are students who are prepared and waiting for my help. Perhaps having classwork (that goes along with what we're working on) handy for those who aren't prepared for class is the best way to keep those students quiet and busy.
The seating arrangements in my classroom have also been an ongoing problem in all three periods. At the beginning of the year Susan had explained that she likes to have the students sitting in a large square (much like the circle Aimee mentioned) and that seemed like a good idea to me. I also let the students choose their own seats at the beginning of the year. Neither of these decisions has worked. Because of the chattiness, I have implemented a seating chart in all three periods. The students were not very happy with me and I felt really bad having to rearrange the whole class even though some kids were fine in their original seats. The seating chart has helped a little, but there is still a lot of talking amongst a handful of students in each period. Susan and I have discussed moving the desk arrangement in class. She is so fed up that she wants to put them in rows. I really really don't want this to happen, so I suggested (after sitting in on a social studies class and observing that room arrangement) that we try a double horseshoe setup (so that the horseshoe is two rows deep) and she agreed that we could try it. So hopefully this will work. I'm beginning to feel like I'm a wedding planner creating seating charts for very dysfunctional families.
I'm learning that if things aren't working out, you may have to try it a new way, and then maybe another new way after that. I'm also learning that, as much as it drives me crazy I have to make sure to take care of the potential troublemakers first because if I don't then they will disrupt the entire class. And even though I may not be into rules and seating charts because they seem too rigid, kids will be kids—they need some structure and I have to be the one to give it to them.
First, I would like to thank you all for posting on this, both for those that have and those that will. I will be honest, this post was put up partially (mostly) for me. However, that means that it's hard to think of something that has gone well.
I wanted to be at Hope for the main reason that many people DON'T want to teach there. It's tough. I wanted to learn from the teacher I saw who had virtually NO classroom behavior issues. It hasn't been going so well. I love my placement, I love the school, but, yes, I am frustrated.
I went back to what everyone told me, "Think of what YOUR high school teachers did! What worked?" And...well...I'm not at Burillville High School, and talking to my students, and telling them how important this is...doesn't work. Also, giving them multiple chances to fix the issue themselves? Another failure. Moving seats? Well, now the side conversations aren't quiet whispers, they are across the classroom.
What am I doing wrong? I tried bringing in a ball to have class conversations, allowing only the person with the ball to speak. It worked a little in one of my classes, but TOTALLY flopped in the other. So, it isn't just how classes are different from school to school, it's also from class to class.
But, one thing that DOES NOT WORK, is yelling and arguing. I learned that early. But now it's trying to figure out what DOES. I cannot actually teach them until I am incharge of them. If I fail myself...that's one thing. But if I do so right now, I am bringing a lot of students down with me, and I REFUSE to let that happen. So...I'm in search of what works!
Yesterday I made a posterboard with 5 classroom rules on it (taken straight from Harry Wong, why fix it if it isn't broken?) and I also made a second poster board with the title "What happens if I forget a break a rule?" They are annoyingly pink and yellow so my studnets cannot miss them and we went over how the system will work. During my free period BEFORE I implemented it, Christina and I went over them and took turns playing the "behavior issue" student and the teacher.
The administration also seems to be absent whenever I need them to remove a student (I can NEVER get through on the phone) so...Christina is also acting as my administrator for now. The two kids I actually did kick out to her, she is writing up because they were even being disrespetful to her one-on-one.
The rest of class ran a little smoother. I felt a little more sure on my feet. I didn't see either of my two classes today because of testing and early release...so, we'll see how tomorrow goes. One day at a time. I know I'll figure it out, and I appreciate reading what you guys are up to!!
"A problem is never presented to you without a gift in it's hands" - Richard Bach
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Edison
Charlene,
I hear you and you are not alone. I am fairly certain you and I are going through a lot of the same things. It'll work out...it's just gonna take a lot of trial and error as I'm discovering. But we can do it...just remember to smile. :)
Charlene--Thank you for your honesty and for your humility. We are all learning, all the time. Keep your eyes on the prize and don't lose track of yourself in the process.
Kate--You are an awesome colleague. My favorite line so far, "I'm beginning to feel like I'm a wedding planner creating seating charts for very dysfunctional families." Thank you.
So I'm noticing seating is a big theme here. I think we can all agree that 5 rows 5 kids deep (or some similar forward facing array) is not the sort of thing we want for our classrooms most of the time. Circles seem to be a lot harder to maintain than we like to think they are though.
I haven't really had the opportunity to see a circle flop, simply because our room is too narrow to accomodate a 25-26 student circle. It works in the honors class because a) it's smaller and b) it's the freaking senior honors class.
The way ALL the other classes, and even the senior honors class most days, are set up is with the desks in two rows on each side facing a central aisle (if this is unclear to any interested parties, someone please remind me to pull my seating chart tomorrow evening). The result is that the students are mostly facing each other, as they would be in a concentric circle or nested horseshoe setup, likewise allowing me to see as many of them at once as possible, but still with greater space between the desks.
I'm not suggesting that it's a perfect solution, but it might be the happy medium between the more socratic, in-the-round style setups and the traditional, institutional rows. I like the freedom I have to float through the classroom while I teach (anyone who's taught with me or had to suffer through one of my micros has probably noticed that I meander when I'm not anchored to my technology [or uber nervous]), it makes it easier for me to discreetly check homework or monitor reading... I just find it to generally be a liberating arrangement given the literal structural constraints of the classroom I'm in.
There are days, though, that I wish I had use of a Puerto Rico and a Siberia... (This would be me being neurotic and nervous about tomorrow!)
PS So. I've joined Charlene in the ranks of the teachers whose first names have been outed. Katelyn Roy is student teaching with Mrs. Hogan (can't for the life of me think of her first name... everyone, teachers included, just calls her Hogan, or occasionally The Hogan). A few of my kids have her for history, and somehow they put 2+2 together and wondered if we might know each other, and she said, "Oh! Yeah! Ashley -- er, uh -- Ms. Cosgrove!" Oopsie.
Ashley-Thank you for responding (again!) to this thread in the interest of sharing with folks your seating strategy. You are on target here--seating arrangements, and where the teacher "stands"--is trickier than you probably thought it would be.
I urge you all the harken back to our first meeting, in August, in the Honors Lounge n Craig Lee. Remember when I talked about Harry Wong and his amazing "First Days of School" strategies? One of those important first strategies is to ASSIGN seats on the first day to PROTECT the kids who walk into your class who (1) don't have a clue, (2) don't have friends to sit with (3) need the teacher to give them direction. Somehow we've all been weaned on this "assigned seats is a bad teacher method" philosophy. But, now that you're nearly midway in your student teaching journey, I think some of you can look back and see WHY assigned seats may have been a good idea to begin with. For the teacher, school is about learning. For the student, school is about friends and being social. So...competing interests...and we cannot cave in to students' interests ALL the time...
I also think many of you are seeing why and how your cooperating teacher can do some things and why and how you cannot. Your cooperating teacher has years of experience as well as a reputation in the school. They have established themselves as the ____________ teacher, which is a foundation for every move they make each year. Because you are all new to the school, you may find yourselves needing to take steps that your cooperating teacher does not SIMPLY DUE TO THE FACT THAT YOU ARE NEW.
As new teachers, you need to do things differently simply because you have no reputation and no experience and not much of anything to base your judgments on. So, please give yourselves a break. Beginnings are tender and fragile--that is why we must treat them with great care. Remember?
See you tonight.
Classroom management.
To this day, I believe that the biggest challenge that I had involving classroom management, happened on the first day of classes. The students entered, I started to teach and I started to have some assumptions about a student. I had not received any IEP's about any of these students, but it was becoming clear to me that one of my mail students had autism. He was speaking without raising his hand, being a bit too forward with the people next to him, and at one point, he even stood up and walked around while I was talking. (I later found out that a guidance counselor gave my cooperating teacher an IEP for this student w/Aspergers an hour earlier, but she forgot to show it to me).
So, I knew that I had to do something to difuse the situation, so I did. Once I got the student's working on an activity, I moved this student's seat in a non-chalant way. As I moved his seat (closer to me and next to a student that I felt would be able to deal with his behavior without getting mad), I asked if anyone else wanted to move their seat. No one did. And no one really seemed to notice that I moved the student with Aspergers. More than this, I knew that most, if not all of the students in the class, did not know that there was a student with Asperger's in the class. I sat next to this student and talked to him about his behavior. I told him, that everyone would have a chance to share and that I couldn't have him just shouting things out in class. I assured him that he would have a chance to share everyday.
For the rest of the class, this student was well behaved. This management scenario extends beyonds one day of class. After class, I talked to this student about his Autism and asked him if we would be willing to talk about it with the rest of the class. I told him that I thought it would be good for the class to know and understand. He said he wasn't sure, but the next day in class, during a clay activity, he explained to the class that he was making a brain with question marks to symbolize his autism.
To this day, this student is still a challenge, everyday, but I believe that his ability to talk to the class about his autism, makes things easier. I know, that the rest of the clas knows, that if he is having a bad day, he may need to stand up and take a walk around the room. There is a feeling of communal understanding.
I realize that this situation may not have involved many issues or dealing with multiple students directly, but I feel that this one student's behavior can directly effect the stasis of the entire class.
As of right now, my most challenging management issue is with my period one class. Period 5 is so far on the other end of the spectrum from period one that period one looks like a bunch of crazy people sometimes. This is largely due to the amount of friends that each student has in my class at the same time.
Like other posts, the real problem is with side conversation. That, and students yelling out answers at each other when I propose a question to the class. Students yelling out at each other was something that I was able to fix rather quickly. It only took about two classes of this before I had to go over the rules for respectful listening and speaking. How I got control of this was to call out the behavior in front of the students, and then ask them what they believe works for respectful listeners and speakers. After it was all out on the table, the students actually blow the whistle on each other when they are speaking out of turn. Their incentive is that they think I will give disrespectful listeners deficiencies, or some other kind of punishment. I know that I wouldn't do that, but as long as they are keeping things in order I can run with it.
Side conversation is more difficult, and something that I am still working on. Two girls love to talk to each other in class. Others see them talking, and then they talk, and so on down the line until everyone is talking. Initially I tried arranging seats differently, posting directions on the board, and offering time limits for assignments. Although each of these things worked, I was still missing the long term understanding that it is not appropriate to talk while I am teaching. It was not until I called out student's behavior publicly, and not throw out empty discipline promises that I started getting the respect I was looking for. Being "firm" with students has rendered good results. Sometimes the class might get loud, but a simple reference to the few days when I had to be "firm" usually gets them to snap out of their talkative ways.
Attention is hard to grab sometimes when it is last period on a friday. I find that making everything I discuss relevant to what is going on in the student's life helps to keep them attentive. Talking about paintball or a camping trip when discussing "The most dangerous game" not only involves the student that brings up the topic, but other students try to relate the class discussion to some of their interests as well. Students talking about themselves and each other while discussing a text keeps them into it! i found this to be effective when dealing with the students that talk or misbehave due to lack of attention or interest.
OOOOhhhh one boy. one student. he is my problem student. His name simply abbreviated A.S. (hmmmm it almost spells....) is a problem in my period 6 class. Last week I had to give him detention for two reasons. 1. he refused to do any work. 2. he was throwing bottle caps around the room and one actually hit me. When A came after school for detention we talked about resepect and how I expect it in my classroom and his behavior will not be tolerated. He said he understood and was sorry. Funny how I believed him and then Monday he had the bottle caps again and this time when I took them away he was following me around the classroom like a crazy kid. I was fed up and told him that if he did not sit down and be productive then he was going to be kicked out and written up. strange enough since that afternoon he hasnt really even spoken in my class. I have to say that although my first reaction was a sad one, i know see how much more things are running smoothly. I said to him today A. if you dont like me anymore that is fine, I am not here to be your friend but I still expect you to put effort into my class. He told me that he didnt hate me and that he would still participate in class. Cool. We will see. I find that in my classes the circle works amazing. I can see everyone and they know I can see them. I think it puts people on an equal playing field too. Nothing hidden everyone to the forfront. I start each class in the circle but most of the time my students are up and moving around the room or in groups or something else that they are not sitting for too long in one spot. Other than A. I dont really feel that i have a lot of classroom management issues. For the most part people are quiet...they are chatty at times but I think I have a higher tolerance for this than most. I tend to not mind if students talk for the first 2 minutes of class. I know I liked that when I was in school...saying hello or whatever to their fellow classmates...and it gives me a chance to check in with students that I need to talk to as well without disrupting the flow of my lesson.
I have to say before I get into what class and situation has given me the most "management" issues, the four classes I have are overall great classes. I think that teaching ninth grade had something to do with it. Out of my freshman classes period two is the worst. I find myself spending more time redirecting whispers and silly glances than teaching. It's childish behavior and mostly innocent and can be redirected with a turn off of the lights or a glare.
One day this class was especially unruly. This was the day that there was a girl fight in the cafeteria before school even started. You could feel the energy in the air most of the day after that. My period two was no exception. They would not settle down no matter what i said or did. Finally I began calling out names putting them under the microscope and calling them out in front of the rest of the class (something I usually try to avoid). They stopped and began journaling and sharing but then once journaling was over they started up again.
At this point I was past trying not to point them out and called out three names and just said detention. The room became silent with all eyes on the three students. There were eye rolling and skouching as a response, but the mouths remained shut for the rest of the period.
I hate to have to use a method like this but sometimes it takes hanging a few out to dry to make the rest of the class focus. I have thought about how I reacted and the only thing I would've changed is maybe warning the students first that the next person who speaks gets detention just to give them forewarning. With this class though I am getting tired of the talking out and laid back attitude so I wanted to show them I meant business.
Since then the class has listened to my verbal and sometimes nonverbal warnings and have not taken it that far again.
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