Teacher Tech: Rookie Management Mistakes

Allowing Students to be Inattentive

It was like something out of an old movie: the teacher droning on while spit wads, paper airplanes and a student (David, my ADHD boy) wandering behind the teacher blithely unaware that she was presenting a lesson.

After her lesson, I asked Betty, my student-teacher, how she felt the lesson went.

            “Oh it went well,” she said,  “I covered all the material.”

Betty determined her success based on how far she got through her notes.  Clearly I had failed as her mentor teacher if that’s how she judged success.

In order to help Betty, I had to examine my own behavior.  What was I doing so my students would stay with me, behave themselves and learn so well? 

The first thing I noticed was that my attention was intensely focused on my students.  I kept asking myself if every student was engaged.  If one or two students had their attention wander off, I instantly changed something to bring them back. 

For Betty to get control of the class, she would need to turn her focus on the students.  The first time a student’s attention wandered off, she would need to bring that student back.

Six Ways to Bring a Student's Attention Back to the Lesson

These are in the order in which they should be tried: from the lightest touch to heaviest.

1.              Give a look at the student who is not paying attention.  This need not be a mean look; it can be one of benign interest.  It can say, “Are you done doing that now, because I need you to pay attention.”  This can be more effective if you interrupt yourself momentarily so the student notices a change and looks up at you.

2.              Make a non-verbal gesture toward the misbehaving student.  For some reason, students do not seem to count non-verbal messages as corrections.  As a result, students don’t feel they lose face among their classmates if a teacher uses a non-verbal correction.  These corrections can be a head shake, a touch to the student’s desk, a finger to the lips, pointing to written directions, pointing to the student’s paper or standing next to the inattentive student. 

Sometimes you need to make a small, attention-getting noise before the non-verbal.  For example, you might snap your fingers or clear your throat, then when David looks at you, then you point to the directions.

3.              Praise students who are following directions.  “I like the way the students in this table group are listening.  If you are following directions, you are doing what these students are doing.”

4.              The first three corrections are the softest.  They usually don’t result in a hit to a student’s self-esteem.  The rest of these carry a cost.  If you use one, you need to find a way to return self-esteem to the student by citing him or her as a model, or some other positive stroke.

Call the student’s name softly.  If you say, “David.” Then when he looks at you, give a little head shake to show him you disapprove, other students will see that it’s not yet time to relax and socialize.

5.              Ask a question.  “Are you following directions?” forces a student to evaluate his behavior and can bring him back to the lessons.  It's usually a mistake to repeat directions.

6.              Give a choice to the student.  For example, Betty could have said to David, “David, you can either return to your seat, or sit here beside me.”  This should always be two choices you and David can both live with, but one choice should always be the conventional behavior that the rest of the class is doing.

Unlike all the student-teachers before and after her, I was never able to lead Betty to the place where she could judge her success by observing her students vs. looking at her lesson plan.  Presenting a lesson while watching her students proved to be beyond her abilities.  Perhaps this was a failure on my part.  Fortunately, Betty decided not to be a teacher.  Some people are not cut out for the job.

Teaching requires a person to multitask.  Perhaps the most important task off all is to keep the attention of the class.

Teacher Tech: Rookie Management Mistakes

Underestimating Teacher-Student Relationships

Alice had issues.  Although possessing plenty of book-smarts, she seemed to be missing any ability to empathize with others, and her dominant personality trait was a selfish impulsivity.  Her universe orbited around itself in an ever narrowing and destructive trajectory.  As a result, she had no friends, consistently irritated her peers, and found herself mired in a nearly relentless state of conflict with students and adults.

I dealt with Alice on the playground and decided I didn’t want her as a student when she got to the grade level I was teaching.  I wanted sweet, cheerful Julie: Alice’s opposite.

You can imagine how I felt when Alice appeared on my list the next fall.  Determined to have a good year with her, I decided to make her my special project.  I would try to form a professional bond with this dislikable person just like I would my emotionally healthy students.  Given how many behavior corrections I knew I would need to make, it seemed a daunting task.

Here was my plan for Alice:

     1.     Give her a cheery personal greeting each day.

     2.     Show an interest in her interests.

3.     Make sure I give her 5 positive comments for every behavior correction.

I had no idea how difficult this plan would turn out to be.  She whirled into the class the first day like a storm –making it one of the worst first-days-of-school I’ve ever had.  She put Julie into tears by telling her that those new shoes were ugly, upset one of my timid IEP boys by telling the class he was dumb and asked me why I looked so much fatter than she remembered.

I found out she loved pugs, a breed of dog I find annoying, and math, a topic I loved.   Each morning I would force myself to cheerfully greet her with a question about her dogs.  I put a special math puzzle on her desk each day.

It was a difficult year, but I found myself truly caring about Alice’s smile when she chattered about her dogs.  She sometimes would follow me on the playground discussing her problems with others and her dreams of being popular some day.  This gave me a chance to counsel Alice about how to make friends.   I had her model her social interactions after Julie.  Alice forced herself to smile more. 

Her mother dropped by class on the last day of school to tell me it was Alice’s best year ever: no suspensions and a birthday party invitation.  Maybe the smiles paid off.

I think the year turned out so well due to the relationship I was able to forge with Alice. 

Robert Marzano, a researcher of effective teaching, writes about how important teacher-student relationships are to a well-managed classroom.  His suggestions include these teacher behaviors:

  •  Talk informally with students before, during, and after class about their interests.

  •  Greet students outside of school—for instance, at extracurricular events or at the store.

  •  Single out a few students each day in the lunchroom and talk with them.

  •  Be aware of and comment on important events in students' lives, such as participation in sports, drama, or other extracurricular activities.

  •  Compliment students on important achievements in and outside of school.

  •  Meet students at the door as they come into class; greet each one by name.

Be sure to check an earlier blog post of mine for some additional ideas on establishing relationships.

If you have an Alice in your class, I suggest you come up with a plan that allows you to form a positive relationship with that student.

To form an effective relationship with a student, you don't need to be that child's friend.  You should maintain an appropriate professional aloofness, but still show special interest, even if it involves pugs.