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By Michael Peacy
When I first started teaching, I quickly found that learning obtained in college was not going to translate directly into the classroom. Once I got past the interview process, which in and of itself is a learning experience, I was ready to start my teaching career. And as a recent college graduate, I felt that I was prepared for anything and everything. That feeling quickly faded after I got the keys to my first classroom. There I was sitting in my classroom in the middle of August, hundreds of different books and tons of files in the file cabinet. The only problem, no curriculum. I knew I was ready to go, if I only knew where to start. I started on my journey of getting ready for that “first day.” All the while, there was this little voice in my head reminding me that I probably should not throw anything away in the fear of needing it at some point down the road. I started piling this stack on top of that stack and that stack next to this stack, and quickly had all this “stuff” coming out of my ears. Oh yeah, school hadn’t started yet. I figured that all this “stuff” would not matter and I would have a good year if two things happened: fun and a well-managed classroom. When I think of “classroom management,” I think of two things. The first is setting up the room to be the most effective it can be, including trying to encourage organization. As a new teacher, I’m still trying to figure that one out. The other part of classroom management, and probably the most important, is keeping the kids involved while not allowing other students to get out of control. So, I started setting up my classroom in a way that I thought would be easiest to manage. Applying what I learned in college, one of the first things I did was find out which students had attention deficit disorder (ADD) and station them in a spot furthest from distractions. In theory, this is a great idea. Reality #1: there is no place in my classroom that is far from distractions, especially when I am the biggest distraction. Reality #2: at times it seems ADD is just another term for “another difficult day,” which leads me to my second point. Since some days my 6th graders are all very easily distracted and out of focus, it pays to show your angry side when needed and make it count. I’ve only had to growl a few times in my teaching career, and it has been effective. The downside with this second technique was that it didn’t leave me with a good feeling inside. I was then left looking for a way to deal with “trouble” in the class from a different angle. So now I’ve learned to plan, plan, and plan. I go over my daily lessons to make sure there are plenty of activities to keep the students entertained. Let’s face it, we as teachers have to contend with all the forms of entertainment that students are exposed to outside the classroom. If we all started to teach through instant messenger, we wouldn’t have to worry about student discipline, LOL. As a result, most of my lesson plans involve me talking to them for awhile, an activity, and if we need to, some more talking. Most of the time, it seems to work. What happens when things don’t go so well? Well, I’ve evolved from my first strategy of reserving anger when needed, to eliminating it all together. Midway through last school year, our school was fortunate to get a new principal, Tom Engel. Watching him deal with students has given me a new perspective on the issue. I’ve learned to take a calm approach when dealing with problem students. Now, I should preface that with the fact that we have very few difficult students in our school. I’ve found that talking with them and finding out what the issue is goes a long way in getting the issues resolved. It is amazing how a simple “Hey what’s up?” can go a long way toward getting cooperation in the classroom. Just like me, students seem to be looking for attention, and if you give it to them appropriately, then things tend to work out. During my tenure at John Long Middle School, I’ve also learned a lot from our special education teacher Mrs. Zellner. She’s taught me that students need to learn the tools to help them deal with the problems that face them. There are many students who grapple with a lot of issues outside of the classroom that we don’t even know about. Teaching them how to handle their problems and being able to do well in school is a life lesson that all students need to learn. As a teacher this is a hard one because it is something we do every day naturally. In short, I found that classroom management boils down to three things:
I now know there is no perfect solution to every problem you will face, but there are answers to most of them. Just ask those who have been doing it for a while. Posted March 24, 2006 |
