On 11/02/09, New Teacher wrote:
> I am a student teacher, and I am having the hardest time
> with classroom management. My sophomore class is so
> disrespectful. I am about to give up hope. I'm under a
> lot of pressure, and not going to get my credential if I
> can't get this class under control. But I feel like I have
> tried it all. I'm so frustrated. What can I do that will
> give results immediately? I call parents; I send kids to
> OCS, I had my class on silent restriction for two weeks, I
> even had a kid suspended. And yet they still have no
> respect and are really chatty and out of line. What else
> can I possibly do? I am so frustrated.

I get the feeling that you are trying to use force to get what
you are expecting. This won't work. I say this and will also
tell you that you do need to have consequences as part of your
approach. If your approach is health, consequences should be
few and far between.

I get the feeling that you might be in a very tough district.
If that's the case, you may not be able to have the total
impact you want. Despite this, you can make a huge impact by
changing a few things first.

I have 20 routines in my book that are also posted online on my
website below. The book goes into detail but you can get the
basic idea from the list. Posted below is something that I
tell all my student teachers and something that I have posted
on a few threads. If you email me, I'll give you a copy of my
presentation on classroom management.

steve@pianodesk.com
----------------
Three basic facts about education:

1. Ninety percent of the problems an educator experiences from
students in the classroom will appear to be discipline related.
In fact, this is not the case. Most of these problems can be
solved by changing the approach.

2. Delivering a rich educational environment and providing
rigorous content into the classroom is only half of your job as
an educator.
o Delivery and content is what you are currently
learning as a student of education.
o Learning delivery and content will be useless without
knowing what moves the message across to the student.

“Being perfect in your area of knowledge is not enough.
Perfection without personality is merely content without delivery.”

3. You will fail as an educator if you miss the second half of
your job.
o Many educators fail at their job continually and many
fail for an entire career without realizing the other half of
their job.

The second half of your job is to care about the students you
teach, even when they defy you.

--------------------
(some of these concepts come from a book by George Thompson
called Verbal Judo. It's worth reading)

So, what’s the answer?

Four steps to building your foundation as an educator. There
are a million actions you can take to become a great educator.
These four will make the greatest difference and are a basic
foundation for excellence.

1. Don't show bias. Keep you anger, emotion and condescension
out of discipline. Within the tone of your voice and the words
you use, you can either turn off a kid forever or create ground
for him to walk with you. Remaining “Calm and Assertive” is
the key. The inner voice is normally angry so ignore it.
Learn to control it and make it obey. Angry emotion only
builds ground for the student to stand against you.

2. Praise often and be specific. Don't just say "Good job
Tom." Be specific. "Tom, I loved the way you read that story.
You showed so much emotion. It was hard to believe you kept
yourself so focused. I am impressed. I can't wait to hear you
again tomorrow." Avoid praising for meeting expectations.
Instead, praise for exceeding expectations. Avoid praise for
stopping poor behavior. “Please be quiet, thank you!” “Thank
you for being quiet.” I catch myself saying these
occasionally. If you reinforce poor behavior with praise, you
ask for a repeat performance.

3. If you are going to correct, do not praise first and
whatever you do, avoid criticism. "I loved the way you wrote
that sentence Tom, but you need to stay away from passive
voice." This is an ineffective way to praise and correct
because the students learn to anticipate "but" as a negative at
the end of all your praise. On the other hand, if you
criticize first and then praise, the praise is the focus of the
argument and will assist you in building ground with the
student. "Tom, I notice you used lots of passive voice. We
can work on that but I was very impressed with the thoughts you
put into the story." This "but" comes across much better.
Your "but" should have as much impact as possible. While you
are laughing at that last sentence, remember to use humor often.

4. Create context when there is a problem. Ask for what you
want and be specific. Give a positive context answering the
"why" of the argument. State a negative or "why not" and then
state a positive again. "Tom, can you please refrain form
blurting out (ask)? The class will run much more efficiently
if only one person speaks at a time (positive). In addition,
you avoid taking the chance of getting in trouble (negative).
You will have a much better chance of avoiding a detention if
you show me that you can be respectful (positive)." Creating
context will also involve answering the why for everything you
teach. Why is this important to me? Use the same techniques
outlined above.

All of these suggestions create a basic foundation for pushing
students to create their own high expectations and walk with
you instead of against you. It is one thing for the teacher to
have high expectations for their students, but when the
students create their own high expectations because they love
their teacher, you are likely to minimize the need for
consequences altogether.

Steve

Superior Education

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