Thanks so much for the advice, "Good Luck."

I love kids and love teaching, so that's not the issue in my
case.

I think my problem with classroom management came down to the
few students who intentionally disrupted class so that teaching
was disrupted. These students didn't want to do anything, so
their goal was to talk or stand or walk so that teaching and
learning was disrupted.

I admit I don't have a game plan for how to stop that. What type
of consequences can you really give if a student just keeps
blurting out or standing up?

I would LOVE to move to the "buck stops here" way of doing
things. I just can't see how. Is it really all just about acting
because there really IS nothing you can acutally do?

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME! Your help is very much appreciated.

On 6/13/09, Good luck. wrote:
> My first advice would be to not return to that school. But of
> course these days we all need a job....
>
> and so you might well find yourself at just such a school
> again. How will you cope with that? Well, did you like teaching
> at all? I like being around the kids - if people don't like
> kids, they truly shouldn't be teaching. It's rather like a
> doctor not liking people. I found joy in the presence of the
> kids who are at times frustrating yes, but - if kids were
> perfect, why do we have them in school?
>
> Some of the venting in school about kids is again like a doctor
> complaining "All my patients are sick." Well, that's what you
> do - help sick people - and that's what we do - work with kids.
>
> If kids really ran a school, they'd disband it and send
> everybody home. But - you can run your classroom and it's a
> Major Fallacy to think you can't run a classroom without the
> administration's help and support. In fact, I NEVER send a kid
> out - try to teach as if you didn't have an administration
> because you don't really anyway. Build a relationship with your
> students as did Harry Truman with his Congress - 'the buck
> stops here'.
>
> My kids deal with me - I deal with them. It's me they don't
> want to deal with not some namby-pamby principal who sits in
> his office reading People Magazine. If you can't be that kind
> of classroom teacher these days, then returning to the
> classroom might not be a good idea. Did your parents send you
> to somebody else when they had an issue with your behavior or
> they deal with it themselves? My father never beat me or
> spanked me and I was scared to death of his displeasure.
>
> You have to develop a persona that works for you - not one that
> is dependent on the authority of your administration. Take an
> acting class - nothing helps a teacher more than being able to
> act. I had a student come back years later and say "I figured
> out your classroom was pure theater - you're actually a soft,
> sweet person."
>
> But in the classroom, I"m crisp. Cultivate an air of natural
> authority. You'll sleep better, your classroom will run better.
> And bring a laptop to all meetings, pretend to take notes, and
> plan your lessons on it while they blither on about some new
> miracle idea that isn't either a miracle or even a good idea.
> Good luck.
>
>
>> Hello, all.
>>
>> I taught for 4.5 years, but have been out of the classroom
>> for the past 3 years getting a master's degree.
>>
>> The district I taught in before was small and drama-laden.
>> They were incredibly disrespectful of teachers time. For
>> example, they would do things like drop by one afternoon
>> and announce a brand new program that needed to be
>> implementented immediately, thereby rendering useless the
>> months worth of photocopying/planning/scheduling you'd done
>> based on what was "required" before.
>>
>> Students ran the school, and EVERYBODY knew it. There was
>> no consequence for student behavior besides what you could
>> come up with as an individual teacher. The idea of school-
>> wide enforcement was a joke, as being sent to the vice
>> principal resulted in nothing.
>>
>> The district required so much professional development
>> (usually a random 2 nights a week), that creating a
>> schedule for planning, grading, photocopying, calling
>> parents, etc. was impossible. Professional development
>> started 30 minutes after school let out, but we had duty
>> and had to drive across town, and this was just a stressful
>> process for 2 days out of each week.
>>
>> All that said, I love teaching, I just feel a sense of
>> acute anxiety at the thought of joining a school district
>> again. School districts just don't seem to treat their
>> teachers well, from my experience, and I fear the pain of
>> teaching again.
>>
>> Any advise?
>>
>> I have spent the last few years trying to prepare to have a
>> better experience, but I am not sure how much I can prepare
>> for unethical administrator treatment and lack of school-
>> wide preparation to respond to distruptive students.
>>
>> Thanks!

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