Secret 6-Denise Weigert

Secret Six-Discipline

How to hide your buttons from your students.

I was thrilled when I happened to read this section today. I have continued to struggle with three 14-year-old boys in my eighth grade placement. Today, while teaching my unit plan on the Articles of Confederation, one of the boys decided to lean back and allow everything to drop out of his desk. I repeatedly warned him. I broke the rules of confrontation and addressed his behavior in class (and peers). How did it go? Not too hot! While there was no escalation in tempers, he continued to perform tricks to WOW his friends. I lost this battle precisely because of confrontation.

As part of my discipline policy adopted from my cooperating teacher, I should have  addressed this issue with an individual by retraining him on his own time.  This would have eliminated the confrontation and not showed the students that they successfully pushed my buttons. Next time, I will address the issue head a warning, then proceed to a retraining reminder on the students’ time (lunch or after school). Finally, I  will continue to teach and not react.

Consistency goes hand in hand with the discipline. At the beginning of the school year, I will have students create a list of classroom rules and procedures (and add a few of my own). We would practice these procedures for several weeks until they become a normal part of the daily routine. The classroom rules would be displayed near the front door for all to see. If a student chooses to misbehave, I would initially use proximity to stop the behavior and redirect the student. The next step would be to address the student quietly on the side and remind the student of the consequences for his or her behavior. Finally, I would follow through with swift action without disrupting the flow of the class.

More importantly, I LOVED the idea of finding an alternative way to redirect the students from negative behaviors. I’ve already begun incorporating the running of errands or assignment of in-class tasks. Students are given an alternate job to do such as returning graded papers to their peers. I’ve also focused in on the shy and troubled students by asking them to help me teach portions of lessons in class. Students also love to hear their names in examples. I believe by taking the positive approach and utilizing a bit of reverse psychology that students will be easily disarmed. My job just got easier!

Finally, knowing what students are looking for in a teacher also helps me fulfill their needs. Learning how to accommodate (within reason) the needs of my individual students, I believe that I can easily make the ideal teacher into a realistic one. I can easily see how my actions (not reactions) will influence the outcome of learning for students in my current and future classrooms. Discipline will continue to be a challenge for me until I affectively learn how to be consistent and non-engaging when hit with an unruly child!