Prevention

Being proactive is certainly a life skill that enhances virtually every aspect of our lives and as we have stated in previous blogs, classroom management is no exception. To the right Prof. Seeman offers a resource on preventing classroom management problems. Many thanks to him! I suggest checking it out. I have heard of it and I will get copy for review.

So, once again, the thoughtful comments on this blog influence the next topic—never mind what I was planning to write. Let's go with the the whole notion of whether or not we can prevent classroom management problems from the very beginning. The answer is, "yes" and "no", but mostly "yes". Let's start with the "no" answer. If the answer is "no" to the prevention of classroom management problems, that stems from situations that virtually no one has control over. A disruptive student arrives to class under the influence of a control substance, or is emotionally disturbed, traumatized, or any number of extreme circumstances that are essentially not preventable by the classroom teacher. Such incidences are not the cause of the majority of management problems.

The majority of discipline/ management problems are preventable (good news, right?). Teachers have difficulty with this so I tell a lot of stories in my teacher preparation classes about prevention. It might be illustrative to tell one now. Before I tell the story, know that it is very satisfying and actually fun to think ahead and "disaster proof" your classroom. Now for the story.

I think I have mentioned before that I also serve as a teacher coach in a large school district. I love that work. Often I work with substitute teachers, especially those in a long-term assignment. One day last year I was called in to visit a science classroom at a middle school where the report was that the class was "completely out of control". There was an upcoming district-wide assessment and things needed to be turned around and quickly. So, I show up, it looks bad. There were several students in chairs sitting along the wall, facing the wall, the substitute teacher (a big man with a load voice who had picked up substitute teaching as an alternative source of income as the bottom had dropped out of the real estate market and he was a realtor) was marching a round the room shouting orders.

I could only tolerate the situation for so long, never mind it is illegal to point students toward the wall, and I intervened. I walked to the front of the room, introduced myself to the teacher and announced that I would be "guest" teaching to prepare the students for the up-coming science assessment. I then spent the remainder of the class period giving the students some review information for the science test and let them know that the next day I would do some science demonstrations for them.

The next day I arrived at the class with my nerdy little science roller cart. I noticed one male student already sitting alone to the side of the room (at least he wasn't facing the wall) so one on punishment, thirty-one to go if the substitute had his way. The substitute teacher was taking role. I was pretty sure if the male student to the side had already gotten in trouble, he'd be trouble during the demo's I had planned. This was a rowdy class to begin with—my favorite kind of class, but I had a lot to accomplish and not much time for getting them under control. Time for "prevention". As the teacher was taking role, I leaned over to the student on "punishment" and whispered, "Hey, you in trouble?" "Uh huh, that dude's whacked" the student whispered back. "Hmm", I said, "Don't worry about it. I have to get something out of my car, would you watch my stuff?" He said he would and I left the room for about 3 minutes, just long enough to be convincing since I didn't really need to go to my car.

That was the "prevention part". I knew that if I showed the student a little trust, he'd be on my side. I walked back in and the class was so loud and out of control, the substitute teacher was marching around and shouting again (man I hate that). I leaned over to the student again and said to him, "Thanks for watching my stuff. I think I should get started with the demo's, don't you?" Before I could say another word, the student shouted out, "Shut up, she's going to teach us!" The class fell silent. It was beautiful. It just proves that kids want to learn, no matter what (mind you these were not the most "scholarly" among students).

So, I did my demo's, it's a no brainer, kids love that kind of thing and learn a lot from it. At the end of the class I told the substitute that I'd "team teach" with him for a week or so until he got the hang of it. In the end I had to have that subsitute removed (the student was right, he really was "whacked"). But that's not the point or our story.

The point is, trust in someone is a great prevetative measure to acting out. Trust is powerful.

Stef