This chapter in the text was particularly appropriate for
my experience this week in the classroom.
This week included our first round of PSSA testing and discipline
problems in class were at an all time high.
Many of my students were not particularly thrilled about learning math
after spending hours that morning taking their writing PSSA’s. I struggled to keep my students engaged and
on task.
This chapter included five statements that discussed how
to be a better teacher. The first one
states that the teacher acts instead of reacts.
This seemed to make a lot of sense to me especially because the majority
of the times a student is misbehaving, he is trying to get a reaction out of
you. If you manage to avoid reacting to
the behavior, the student learns that his misbehavior is not going to get a
reaction and will stop doing it.
Secondly, the chapter mentions to speak to children in a
calm matter. I actually got to try this
out and it was amazing. My student was
so taken aback that I was speaking so calmly after they had misbehaved that he
actually seemed confused. He was really
expecting a confrontation and was shocked when I simply requested that he “please
stop throwing erasers across the room.” And it worked- he stopped!
The third tip talks about finding out why students are
misbehaving. This week, I didn’t need to
ask, I knew. My students were antsy and
burnt out from sitting through hours of testing. I changed my plans to incorporate more active
learning. I gave my students the
opportunity to move around the classroom by using stations. I think this really helped because my
students just needed to move!
Treating students with dignity and holding them
accountable were the two pieces that made up the forth tip. I think the discipline strategy that I began
using in my tenth period class this week really speaks to these two ideas. I printed out a chart that had every student’s
name on it and put it on a clipboard. I
told my students that every time they were off task or talking out, or
disrespectful, or exhibited any other misbehavior, they would receive a check
mark next to their name and every check mark was going in as a discipline
ticket at the end of the day. I told
them I wasn’t going to say anything when I put a check mark next to their name
because they already know what behaviors are expected of them and they know
when they aren’t acting appropriately. It
worked to treat them with dignity because I didn’t call them out on
anything. However, it really did hold
them accountable and my students took it seriously! At first, they didn’t seem to think I would
really turn in tickets, but as soon as they saw me writing on the clipboard,
they knew it was real. The first day I
did this, I submitted 6 tickets, the second only 1. I am interested to continue
this throughout the next few weeks to see if it continues to work.
The final tip is to never lose your cool. There were multiple times this week made me
want to rip my hair out. However, I really
tried to make sure my students didn’t see this.
I knew if they saw my frustration things would only get worse.
Jenny,
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of giving check marks to students on a clipboard. I think this would keep them guessing and curious as to whether they were getting caught or not. The element of mystery I think would help them stay focused in class. I'm really glad you followed through with your plan and disciplined 6 students the first day. This shows them that you mean business and are being serious about your expectations. I really want to try this with my 6th grade class, because I think I would have a similar reaction from them. I'm also glad that you're enforcing rules and expectations even through it was PSSA week (some teachers don't seem to do anything about it). It was good that you realized how boring their day has been up until your class and you gave them the opportunity to move about the classroom. Keep up the great teaching!