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.

Teacher Tech: Getting the Class Into A Discussion

Teachers recognize the value of a class discussion. One of the problems with this technique is that some students avoid becoming engaged and give little thought to the topic. Kelli, my student-teacher figured out how to engage everyone.

First, Kelli told the students that she was going to pass out a paper. She instructed the students to put their name on the paper, read it over silently and think about their answer to the first question, but not to write anything besides their name.

It was obvious that students had been trained in how to efficiently distribute papers. In moments, the papers were passed out. Kelli was free to roam and point out models: students who were following directions. By identifying models, Kelli was able to get full compliance in record time.

After students had a few minutes to examine the first question, Kelli explained how she expected the students' answers to look. She put up a model answer on the board, and asked if anyone had questions.

Kelli then announced that students would have 3 minutes to record a rough-draft answer on their sheet.  Afterwards they would share their sheet with a partner assigned by Kelli.

By giving them a time limit, Kelli let her students know that they had no time to waste and needed to get started. When she informed them they would share their answers with a partner, she plugged into the students' desires to look good in front of their peers.

Kelli told her students to begin and snapped her fingers. The snap seemed to wake up a quiet boy in the back who immediately began to work on his sheet. Nearly 100% of students were complying. Kelli approached Elle,our shy girl who appeared very uncomfortable. Later, Kelli told me that since Elle was new and far behind the other students. Kelli told the new girl just to copy the model from the board. Voila! 100% on-task students.

After students had finished their partner sharing—where they were encouraged to change and/or develop their answers based on their peer interactions—Kelli asked if any students wanted to share their answers with the class. A forest of hands went up and an amazing class discussion ensued.

Kelli put the key points on a poster. She planned to use the poster for her next lesson.

What amazed me was how she was able to engage every student in discussion. She said the worksheet caused every student to think about the topic deeply prior to the discussion, so they could all contribute.  Her classroom routines allowed her to move efficiently through her lesson.

Teacher Tech: Getting Control of Your Out-of-Control Class

It was my first class, and I did it badly.  They were often completely out of control.  The only thing that seemed to bring them back was when I yelled over their noise or blocked the door at recess/lunch time until they could become quiet.  My class was an unpleasant place.

How I wish I could go back and make it up to those students!  Especially Booney, my most difficult student.

Since I can’t go back, perhaps I can make it up by helping another teacher gain control over a dysfunctional classroom.  Maybe I can help a Booney out there grow to love school.

Start Over

If your students are noisy and sloppy about following directions, you’ve basically trained them to be that way.  They know that if you “get mad” and force them to be quiet, in a few minutes it will be perfectly all right to strike up a conversation.  The signal for students to start up a conversation is for one student to begin talking and not face a correction by the teacher.

Simply improving your behavior management will result in slow, uneven progress.  You will need to tell your students that the class will be different.  

Name It

If you name the set of classroom behaviors you want, your students can understand the change better.  For example, if you say, “Today we are going to do things the Westgate Way for the next lesson.”  Then you explain the Westgate Way is when we work quietly during independent times and raise hands to contribute to a discussion or ask a question.  Later you can do the Westgate Way all the time.

Control Yourself

Your class can never learn a new way of behavior unless you discipline yourself.  Be patient with yourself as you learn this and feel free to point out to your students that you are learning the Westgate Way as well.

Here’s what you will have to learn:

•            Never talk over your students.  Never.  You won’t give directions or deliver content while they are talking or not paying attention.

Rookie teachers often talk over students.  They, like I did, probably figure that since most students appear attentive, it's ok to talk.

Signals

If you teach your students to respond to practiced signals, you can get and keep their attention with very little effort.  Teach them some behaviors to do on a signal like Heads Down, Hide Your Eyes, Clear Your Desk, and Sit On Your Hands.  Other signals like Echo Clapping, Hands on Your Head if You Can Hear Me, should also be in your toolkit.  These behaviors and signals should be age-appropriate. 

Practice and reinforce your signals and realize that each time you use a signal, it loses power.  If you do Echo Clapping more than once or twice in a 45 minute period, you are over-using it.  If students do not respond correctly to a signal, practice it then avoid using it so it can become fresh and effective in a future lesson.

You can limit distractions and use carefully planned seating arrangements to help students become successful at the Westgate Way.

•  Make sure each and every student follows your directions.

This means you need to be very careful about what you say to your class.  If you say No talking, when would it be ok for them to talk?  Should they wait until you are busy, then talk?  That’s how they got out of control in the first place.   Don’t tell them No talking unless they know when they can begin talking. 

Is it reasonable to expect a class full of children to work quietly for 45 minutes?  Some teachers tell the class something like this You need to work silently for the next 5 minutes, then only use quiet voices so you don’t disturb the other children working nearby.  Watch the clock and your students like a hawk and confront any student who talks prior to the 5 minutes.

Use the least harsh corrections first.  If you smile sweetly and put your finger to your lips to signal a student who’s talking out of turn, that’s a less harsh correction that telling the student to follow directions.  If the non-verbal doesn’t work, ask a question.  If you say Booney, is our 5 minutes up yet? that’s less harsh than Booney, quiet down.

If you tell your students to raise a hand to ask a question, you can not respond to a called out question.  If a student calls out a question, you should ignore it and call on a student whose hand is up or look directly at the student who called out and raise your hand and smile so he knows what you want him to do.

• Make Sure They Know What To Do When Done

After a student finishes an assignment, there should be clear expectations about what to do next.  If the class is noisy, then silent reading is an unrealistic expectation.  Some teachers deal with this by having on-going projects students can work on.  For example, a poster or comic strip about a topic the class is discussing.  The when-you-are-done activity should be clear prior to students starting their independent practice.

•  Constantly analyze the work you give your students to determine if it’s at the right difficulty level.

Even the most compliant student will misbehave when the work is too easy or too hard.  One way to address this is to have an example up on the board and whisper to your low-ability student that she can copy the example.  Have an engaging extension ready for your high-ability students.

Avoid giving assignments with short, fill-in-the-blank answers, but instead, provide opportunities for students to write their responses out.  Put examples of strong student efforts up in front of the class (after getting permission from the student) to show what you want and what they are capable of doing.

•  Point out success.

How do you know when you are riding a bike correctly?  It just feels right.  Students need to know how a pleasant, well-functioning classroom feels.  Maybe one of your behavior signals is FREEZE!

I have “frozen” my class when they are behaving perfectly and told them that this is what they should expect in a class: hardworking students who are enjoying their learning.  I tell them they should feel good about their behavior and decide that next time we have independent work, this is how they will approach the time.

There are other aspects and techniques to learning how to get your out-of-control class on track.  This article was meant as a place to start.   A teacher can further improve classroom management skills by observing other teachers, asking a principal or colleague to teach a lesson in the class and reading up on the subject.

I remember what my first principal told me when I complained to him about my out of control class, If Booney misbehaves, he needs to learn control.  If the whole class is misbehaving, the teacher needs to learn control.

The Flipped Classroom: How Mr. Crowsen Would be Teaching Today

My high school geometry teacher, Mr. Crowsen, would put our assignment on the board at the end of class.  Typically we would need to read the next section as homework and do the practice problems.   In class, we would correct these then begin on the next section.  Mr. Crowsen was an assigner/corrector.   He never really taught us anything in a lecture.

In the early 1990’s a lot of teachers were talking about allowing students to construct their own meaning and knowledge based on teacher-assigned explorations.  This style was known as “guide on the side” since it was so different from the strict lecture format known as “sage on the stage”.  Perhaps Mr. Crowsen, our head football coach, was trying to get us to construct our own meanings, but I think he just didn’t want to teach.

Now we hear a lot about the flipped classroom.  This is a model where students  go home and watch a web-based video  that contains the content the teacher wants the student to learn.  The student then completes exercises and discusses them the following day with the teacher.  Depending on the student’s performance, the next video is assigned.  This system reminds me of Mr. Crowsen’s style with the improvement of videos over the dry math book for conveying the content. 

Another advantage of the flipped classroom over Mr. Crowsen’s technique is that motivated students are able to move more quickly through the material.

After Mr. Crowsen’s class, I would go to Mrs. Tyler’s English class.  I remember a lesson where she had us read a chapter of Huck Finn at home.  The following day she had us rank the characters from least moral to most moral.  Our task was to come up with the correct ranking.  After doing this individually, we met with a partner and made any changes to our ranking.  Finally, Mrs. Tyler revealed her ranking: the right answer.  However, it was different from mine. 

What followed was an amazing discussion of right and wrong that explored historical, religious and literary interpretations of morality.  Mrs. Tyler urged us to think about To Kill a Mocking Bird and the morality in that book.  I emerged from that class a different person.  Mrs. Tyler had caused me to question my own believes and marvel at the skill of the writers.  I burned to understand and to read more.

What if Mrs. Tyler had been an assigner/correcter?  Would I have become the person I am today?  I think not.

The flipped classroom certainly has a legitimate place in modern education, but it’s far too weak a model to replace an engaging, encouraging teacher and a transformative classroom discussion.  Sorry Mr. Crowsen, I don’t remember any of your lessons.

Teacher Tech: The Bad Boy:What Say to Parents

Jeremy was bad.  He stole a pencil box from Margaret, broke it, refused to apologize and denied everything despite being caught in the act.  Furthermore, he started cussing at me when I confronted him with the evidence.

After I realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere with him, I called home. His dad answered.  I told Jeremy’s father what happened and asked him to have a talk with his angry son.

The following day, Jeremy came to school with facial bruising.  He told me he fell off his bike then started crying.  I think his dad hit him.  

Now who's bad?  His dad?  Or is it me?  After calling Child Services to report suspected abuse, they said they would put Jeremy on their watch list, but there was not enough information to pursue the matter any farther.

A week later, Jeremy stole and broke something from another student’s desk.  It was my second year of teaching, and I didn’t know what to do.  I didn't want to be the bad guy.

If I called home, Jeremy might get beaten.  If I didn’t, his parents would not be aware of problems Jeremy was having at school. 

I discussed it with Jeremy.  Without admitting his father abused him, he asked if I could call his mom at her work instead.  When I got his mother on the phone I explained to her that Jeremy was punished at a school and didn’t need any further disciplining.  What her son needed, I explained, was a chance to say his piece at home and then receive advice for future situations.  He needs to know that their family doesn’t approve of stealing, but that they love their son – not his actions.

It was a tough year for Jeremy.  His fragile family eventually broke up, and he moved away.  However, I learned that whenever I called a parent to report misbehavior, I would begin the call with an explanation that the child had already been punished, so the parents didn’t need to do any more.  I told them they were free to offer guidance to their wayward child.  It's not a perfect solution, but it's not bad.

Policy: Teach For America

There was a time when underfunded urban school districts needed teachers.  Partly as a response to this need, Teach For America (TFA) was established by Wendy Kopp in 1989 to fill those vacancies.  By selecting high-performing college graduates and giving them 5 weeks of training, many of these openings were filled with America’s best and brightest.

A poorly performing economy and tax cuts have put thousands of fully trained teachers out of work.  Our country is awash in unemployed teachers: mostly recent college graduates.  One might think TFA would wither away when its teachers are competing with fully trained, credentialed teachers.  Not so.

TFA has become the poster-child of the current high-stakes testing strategy towards improving education.  In the past 18 months, TFA has received over $200 million dollars from the US Department of Education, the ultra-conservative Walton Family Foundation and several other sources.  When a district hires a graduate of the 5-week training program, the district pays the TFA teacher a starting salary, and TFA gets $5,000.  TFA is not withering.

TFA claims that its teachers are superior to traditionally trained teachers. However, the nation’s top educational researchers challenge these claims.  All this has created a loud din that has drowned out the real needs of the country’s poorest students: to be elevated from poverty.

If the topic of conversation is to be which system, TFA or college credential programs, produces the best teachers, perhaps we should look abroad.  In countries where students are out-performing US children, the teaching profession is an honored and respected career choice.  Teachers typically have masters degrees and rarely leave the profession.  Here, 50% of teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years.

Maybe we should ask ourselves if TFA improves the teaching profession and brings more honor to teachers, or if it does the opposite?