Maintaining my sanity by managing the classroom (reflection #2)

Many aspects of my student teaching have become easier as the weeks have gone by, but it seems that others have not. Several teachers I work closely with are not planning to return next year and are struggling to remain checked-in to their responsibilities for this year. I hate to admit that I have been affected by their daily mentality and often feel uncertain about the idea of becoming a full-time teacher.

One thing that I have struggled immensely with this semester has been classroom management. I feel that my lesson plans are strong and engaging. However, some classes are easier to work with than others. At my placement school there are large class sizes with 25+ students in every period. Rather than put my whole self into establishing a well-managed classroom, I have found myself ready to give up and feeling incompetent. Whenever I notice one class improving there seems to always be another class that needs adjustments in the management plan. My mentor teacher tells me that I need to be “more mean” and send students out/write them up/give them detentions. After much reflection and some reading into educational sources, I have come up with a few techniques I will be trying to implement in my classes.

                The misbehavior in my classes are often disruptive but rarely make others feel unsafe. This means that I do not usually send students out of the classroom but often spend the whole class period reminding, pleading, encouraging, arguing, etc. While reading Secrets for Secondary School Teachers: How to Succeed in Your First Year, I have come to realize that this creates an in-class source of entertainment for all the students. Rather than correct misbehavior in front of the whole class, the authors suggest I remain poised, confident, and fluid in my actions and talk to students individually in a calm and quite tone (Kottler et al. 70-71). They also encourage teachers to “. . . direct the rest of the students to engage in some activity so they aren’t frozen in the role of audience watching the drama unfold” (71). Although a lot of students do not seem to respond well to this now, I believe with some diligent practice they will get used to this method of correction. In the event that I do get into a public argument with a student who tests my authority, the authors state that it is my responsibility to figure out what went wrong and how I made the problem worse – for example: raising my voice, showing my disgust, etc. (73-74). Additionally, they reiterate that misbehavior is not personal and should not affect my emotions (which I have heard hundreds of times – but it doesn’t’ hurt to hear it again).

                Another source I looked at was Classroom Management for All Teachers: 12 Plans for Evidence-Based Practice. In this text, Cipani provides twelve different strategies for managing a classroom, ranging from rewarding on-task behavior to preventing dangerous and disruptive behavior. One of my favorite strategies as the “Signal Time-out” periods. With this technique, students will monitor their own behavior and determine whether it is on- or off-task. When a student is exhibiting off-task behavior, they will receive a signal card that will alert their attention to their off-task behavior. The Signal Time-out period gives many students a chance to see that their behavior is disrupting other work and will hopefully help them see how their individual behavior affects the whole class. I am excited to try these techniques over the next few months and will no doubt be returning to these texts for more ideas on classroom management.

Sources:

Cipani, Ennio. Classroom Management for All Teachers: 12 Plans for Evidence-Based Practice. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004. Print.

Kottler, Ellen, Jeffrey A. Kottler, and Cary J. Kottler. Secrets for Secondary School Teachers: How to Succeed in Your First Year. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, Inc., 1998. 69-76. Print.