Wow has this journey begun with a bang! I knew what to expect walking into 2 of my classes from last semester but I picked up 2 more. I decided to walk in my first day with an open mind. However, maybe it was too open. My first English class I had to give a student a written reprimand (PBR) for sexual harassment towards me. He is one of my alpha-males from last semester and he does things continually that keep me asking,” What can I do to get through to him?” The day did not stop from there. In my next class I had 2 transfer students who felt they had something to prove. These 2 were bright and witty, but had the attitude and demeanor of a drunken sailor. I felt horrible for my CT who tried continuously to control them but they would not let up. After multiple hall visits and even the threat of going to the student center, these 2 just kept at it. This too makes me wonder how I can reach these students. Finally, what I thought would be the highlight of my day, honors English, turned out to be chaos upon chaos. This class knew they were smarter than the others and made sure to act like it. The moment I spoke I could tell that there would be a battle to gain respect.
After my first day, I was exhausted. The only thing on my mind was the idea of returning the next day to the same situations. I felt defeated like I did not or could not find an answer to help me get through to my new and old students. I have talked with my CTs and other student teachers, their suggestions and similar situations have been a huge help in easing my mind. The only other thing that still bothers me is how to get student’s respect when they do not see you as an adult/disciplinarian figure.
As of now I am going to try to reach my students and gain their respect through the way I teach and what I teach. I am going to start off teaching technical writing to 8th grade, a CWC group and an honors group. I am going to try to get through to my difficult students by planning activities that engage them and spark interest in the subject matter. One of the first activities I have planned is a follow the directions test. This is a pre-assessment to see how well the students will do with a technical writing example that tells them to read all of the directions before doing any of them. I cannot wait to see how well this will go over when the students read the last direction that tells them to do only directions 1 and 2 (that is if they do not read the first direction as stated above and do all of the goofy stuff in between). I also have some other fun activities planned and hope they will go over well and help to distract those difficult students from acting up. I hope to be able to gain some respect from my students who do not know me, but I am still a little unsure about how to go about it. I don’t want to just be the fun teacher or the mean teacher. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to updating you all on how the rest of this journey goes and I look forward to any feedback or suggestions you may have.
Dear Mrs. Hart,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your very busy and eventful first days of student teaching with us! Getting advice from your CT and other teachers or student teachers is a great start in trying to decide how to handle rough patches in classroom behavior. I think we all have those students that make us go diving for the textbooks from semesters ago, trying to see what the experts had to say about *that* kid!
From your post, I am hearing one main question:
How do you earn respect?
This is a hard question for me to answer. Dealing with small classroom behavior problems (texting, sleeping, etc.) are easy, in terms of advice. "Proximity" or "benign bevaviors" or "removal from problematic stimuli" - there are plenty of ways to go about squelching the small problems, but the larger underlying issue of lack of respect, that is more abstract.
I would suggest the following:
1. Never go back on your rules.
2. Expect good behavior
3. Don't get angry.
I look forward to hearing how your student teaching continues!
~Elena
Dear Mrs. Hart,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing with us a glimpse into your world of student teaching. Since you mentioned the "respect" culture exists in your classroom, I'd recommend you visit my link http://mrwhitwit.blogspot.com/2011/09/problem-of-r-e-s-p-e-c-t.html
In it, I summarize (briefly) the findings of a sociologist. I still have the article on my computer if you would like it emailed to you. The citation for finding that article is listed at the bottom of my post.
I agree with Elena's statement that you must never back down on your rules with the kids. That is the only way to show that you are mature enough to handle them. You don't have to be the students' friend; you are there to educate. However, in my experience, being friendly has helped to ease tension between myself and students. But, considering your alpha males, being friendly might give them ideas.
I wish you the best in your student teaching and look forward to reading more!
-- Nathan
Amy,
ReplyDeleteMy cooperating teacher gave his students a similiar "following directions" test that stated they should read through all of the questions before answering any of them. The last question said to raise your hand after reading it. Only one student out of 24 followed the directions and read through to the last question before answering anything. It was easy to guage this by watching for students to raise their hand. I thought it was a great starter activity to teach this important skill.
Good luck with your discipline problems. I have two great ct's that use the same strategy for classroom management. They begin every class period and every task/activity by telling students their expectations. At first, I thought it was overkill, but after trying it for a few days, it really seems to work! You might try it in your classroom and let me know if it has the same effect. You have to give it a few days to see the results.
Good luck with the rest of the semester!
Nancy