Observation #3

I had the opportunity to visit a 9^th grade English class to get some insight into classroom management.  The teacher informed me that since this class happened at the end of the school day, the students tended to be antsier than they would be in an earlier period.  He also informed me that he had a couple boys in the room with behavioral issues—he did not want me to experience any surprises.  When the students enter the room, they walk around and talk to friends.  2 boys have an argument and begin shoving each other.  The teacher ends the confrontation by asking one boy to take the hall pass and bring some papers to the office for him.

Once the bell rings, students begin to move to their respective seats.  2 girls who pose distractions to the class are asked to separate.  They are reminded that they have been asked politely multiple times and the next time they must be asked, they will each receive disciplinary action.  The girls move with no further incident.  One girl logs onto a computer to finish an extra credit assignment until the lesson begins.  3 students come to the teacher’s desks to ask for help with their writing journals.  The teacher tells them that he will discuss the assignment with the whole class after attendance is taken.  After everyone finds their seats, they are asked to take out their journals and begin writing.  The teacher takes advantage of the quiet to take attendance and do some homework housekeeping.

The students take out their writing journals and begin some exploratory writing work.  At this time, a list of students forms to get the hall pass for various reasons.  During the writing assignment, the teacher has to ask students to settle down three times.  In that time, he says that he can “smell a phone out” twice and the offending texters immediately put their phones away and apologize.

After 10 minutes, the teacher asks students to put away their writing journals and pull out their reading journals.  He hands out copies of “The New York Times Student Edition.”  Students are asked to turn to page 14 and look at the article’s pictures and read the captions.  After 5 minutes, students are asked to make some reading predictions based on what they have seen and read.  The teacher asks them to open their reading journals and jot notes about their predictions so they can check if they were correct later on.  During this time, some students speak out of turn, but the teacher gently reminds them to raise their hands so some of their quieter friends have a chance to answer the questions.  After the students look through the photos, the teacher reads the article and stops after each paragraph to have students sum up what has been read so far.  They are instructed to write their findings in their reading journals.  After reading through half of the article, the teacher asks students to write down a tentative theme and share their ideas. 

The remainder of the class period is used in this same fashion to help students build their reading comprehension skills.  After the article has been read, the teacher opens the floor for questions.  Some students do not take the assignment seriously and goof around.  Aside from sending looks their way and pointing to his magazine, the teacher does not acknowledge their behavior.  After realizing that their tactics are not working, they settle down.  Some interesting discussions arise and the teacher lets the students express how the article made them feel.  He lets them know that he is interested in learning how what they read applies to the world outside the classroom.  (The article detailed how the earth was due for a mass extinction…fun, right?)  Each time a student contributes to the discussion, the teacher praises them for their help in understanding what they read.  The students really seemed to appreciate the care the teacher used when validating what they thought.  

In the middle of their discussion, the bell rang, dismissing the students to leave.  Some of the boys were quite enthusiastic to be done for the day and accidentally shoved a girl while she was packing up her books.  The teacher asked the boys to come see him and they approached the desk with their heads hung.  He explained that he understood how excited they were to go home, but they needed to show more care for others around them.  He asked them to apologize to the girl and they did immediately.  In fact, they offered to carry her books to her locker to make up for their unintentional roughness.  With that, the last of the students left and I was left alone with the teacher.

I asked him what his secret was for classroom management.  He let me know that there is no secret formula to understanding human beings, but he suggested that I get to know my kids.  He said that some of his kids had very difficult home lives.  They deal with abuse, hunger, homelessness, and absent parents.  He told me that if I know what my students deal with outside of my classroom, dealing with behavior issues will be much easier.  He also suggested that I adopt a “let it go” policy.  He said that if I understand my students and know what they deal with, outbursts (excluding violent or disrespectful ones) will mostly roll off my back.  He brought my attention to one of the boys who was disruptive during the lesson—that child lives in a car with his mother and little brother.  After telling me this, he explained that the reason he did not verbally correct the student was because he already had it hard enough in life.  He said that gentle correction seems to yield the highest results with students who just need someone to care about them.  I will never forget that conversation and will appreciate what I was taught in that 50 minute period of time.