Greg posted this comment about three days ago. I was thinking about it this morning and realizing that no matter how we prepare in terms of how we teach, the classroom management piece that Greg addresses here must be at the forefront of our attention now in August. I should post this article here every single day until the danger period (of losing our classes for the year) passes. In short, Greg talks about addressing behavior infraction immediately when they happen using the Classroom Rules and a laser pointer and doing so with good will. Read this again. Then read again tomorrow until it sinks in. You will be glad you did:
I did a 6-week sub gig at the end of last school year in high school French for a teacher out on maternity leave. It was five sections of French 3, 4, and AP. The week before starting the job, I was determined to forever overcome my hesitancy to address discipline problems from day one. I promised myself that, come what may, I would immediately stop talking, in mid sentence if need be, and point to rule that had just been broken. I also promised myself that, this time, I would not forget that for the entire first week, my job was to norm the class to my rules, NOT TEACH FRENCH. I treated the 6-week sub gig as a micro school year -in essence just a training camp for me to practice some CI teaching skills and improve my communication/management skills.
I was helped by something that Ben mentions in Stepping Stones: the idea that if you’re stopping to address undesirable behaviors about every one minute during the first few classes, then you’re doing it right (I don’t remember offhand exactly how Ben puts it, but the gist is, you’re going to be address behavior A LOT, very frequently, the first week of so of class -and that’s normal).
I learned two things during my sub gig:
1. It works. Once I got into the TL on day one, I was stopping just about every other minute to address some type of rule infraction. About 90% of the behavior-issue kids were on track and adjusted to the rules by the end of day one. By frequent stopping they were allowed to experience what went against the rules and what didn’t. The other 10% were the ones who kept needing reminders the rest of the first week, but they eventually got on track too. But if I hadn’t stopped immediately to address these issues starting on the first day, the reverse would have probably been true -only 10% of the kids in each class would have “accepted” to live by my rules, probably less.
2. The rule infractions have to (in my opinion) be addressed with overt good-will. This ties in to a conversation we had on here at some point around the end of last school year. Ben proposed that when a teacher is “neutral” in a school, kids perceive this as mean. Previously when I stopped teaching because of a rule infraction, I would assume a neutral tone and facial expression. But I could tell that this neutrality put kids on the defensive. Even though I wouldn’t mention offending students by name, they would defend themselves (“But I wasn’t…”).
During my sub gig I went out of my way to evoke kindness and good will each time I stopped for behavior infractions. I was amazed how well this worked with two students in particular: the students were two girls sitting in the back of one class who kept whispering to each other as I was trying to do CWB on the first day. I must have stopped for them around 10 times on the first day alone to point to my rule poster at the rule which says “One person speaks and the others listen.” Then I would make passing eye contact with them, and the other students, with a smile on my face. But those two girls knew it was for them. And they were not happy that I was not allowing them to whisper while I taught. One of the girls rolled her eyes a few times and the other just assumed a frown. The battle between me and these two chatters continued for the first few days and I kept stopping and pointing to the rule poster. Sometimes they would start chatting immediately after I resumed teaching, and I would immediately stop again and say “Sorry, we have to look at rule number 1 again for a second.”
But, I think it’s my smile that made the difference. I did not get annoyed at all with these two girls. They were not interfering with my teaching, because I wasn’t trying to teach them French the first week. In fact, they were helping my teaching by providing a perfect stage for me to norm the class to my classroom rules. Every time I stopped teaching I had a big smile on my face. I was legitimately happy that I was learning to not let a group of students walk all over me. I felt my spine growing by the second. I was happy to feel myself in the middle of becoming a more effective teacher and stronger person.
By the end of my sub gig these two girls were participating in class and greeting me at the start of class as they came in the room. I passed them each frequently in the hallway and they would each smile and say hi to me, one of them in French. I think they respected (even unconsciously) that I did not treat them badly because of their failure to cooperate and that I did not refer to them by name when addressing the behavior in class. And I think they could tell that their behavior issue did not cause me to like them less or hold something against them, because even though I was having to stop class for them they saw a smile on my face.
I know the above is not news for most people. But I wanted to share my surprise at the effectiveness of 1) immediate and unrelenting action for misbehavior and 2) treating misbehavior with good-will, NOT neutrality.