If you are a new teacher, perhaps one of the most daunting tasks can be mastering classroom management. It takes time. Every Professional Development session that you attend on this issue includes some combination of strategies to increase and maintain student engagement, and pointers for creating a consistent classroom management plan that addresses students who have difficulty adhearing to classroom expectations.
Because an engaged clasroom is a well-managed classroom.
But what do you do if it's not?
Even the most seasoned teacher can be blessed with that one class that just cannot seem to stay engaged and follow classroom expectations. They challenge your management plan, scoff at your PBS plan, and make you dread that class period every single day. You fear an impromptu observation from administration during that class period. I hear ya, I've taught that class.
And then, I've taught the class from hell who surpasses all of that.
My classes are clustered, meaning that my students travel together all day to each of their classes. A lot of times this means that whatever drama, issues, or arguments that they had in a previous class get drug into my classroom. Most of the time, keeping them carefully grouped and engaged in student-centered activities aleviates some of those issues, but sometimes the combination of students in a cluster is chaoitic no matter what you do.
This is SO frustrating.
This year, I had, hands-down, the most difficult class I have had yet. 19 students in an intermediate-level ESOL cluster, mostly boys, who love nothing more than getting under one another's skin. I had trouble managing them in even the most basic of ways - come in the classroom and sit down. Nope. They wouldn't do it. Bell work? Forget it. They came in screaming every. single. day. Touching each other. Hitting each other. Throwing things. Every. Day.
I have a "don't yell" policy, but, I yelled. A lot. Because I didn't know what else to do.
And then one day mid-lesson, I raised my hand to quiet the class for probably the 25th time in 10 minutes, and I stopped class.
I told students that we were done for the day and that they were going to spend the rest of the period writing a letter to their parents detailing their behavior in my class. I told them that not only was I going to give them a grade for this assignment, but that I was going to send them home to every one of their parents.
They wrote for 15 minutes in silence.
Later, I read through the letters and I learned a few very important things:
The students were aware of their behavior. They wrote that they were disruptive, disrespectful, that they were not following rules and procedures, that they were rude to their teacher, and that they were not doing their best.
They apologized. They told their parents in their letters that they were sorry and they knew that they were letting them down. They knew that they weren't doing their best and they would try to do better.
This was fixable.
The next day I discussed the letters with students, and I told them that they clearly were not raised by wolves, and they had good parents who taught them right from wrong and had high expectations for them. I reminded them that I had high expectations for them as well.
Then I told them that their parents would always forgive them for making mistakes and that I would, too.
After that experience, I had significantly less issues with those students. I do not dread that class anymore. We still have some difficult days, but it is much easier to wrangle them now than it was.
Sometimes the best prescription is a little self-reflection. Putting my students in a position where they had to spend time reflecting on their behavior and take ownership of it made a world of difference.
I have been able to return to my no-yell policy and be the teacher that my students deserve.
If you are facing an unruly class and feeling frustrated, do not give up. Classroom management can be a tricky thing, even for a well-seasoned teacher. Not every classroom management problem is directly your fault, so don't internalize the problems and view them as a reflection of your incompetence. Think outside of the box. Kagan and Marzano and the dozens of other bottled-packaged-and-sold student engagement programs can be wonderful, but YOU are the one standing before your students every day - figure out what makes them tick and capitalize on it. It might be the most unconventional thing that none of the books touch on. Do not be afraid to go off the beaten path!
Most importantly, hang in there. You are doing good work, you are important, and you are appreciated.
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