Teaching Tech: Mrs. Greenseth

Mrs. Greenseth began her science lesson.  At one point, a wiggly blond boy began making obnoxious noises using the materials.  Mrs. Greenseth gave him  “the look” and he sheepishly stopped.  Later a slender, curly-haired girl began making nearly the same noises.  This time Mrs. Greenseth did not use her look, she continued her teaching, but moved in a comforting way next to Curly Hair.  The noise stopped.  At one other point in the lesson, Mrs. Greenseth whispered to a noisy boy: “Charles, knock it off.”

Three different students making the same error, and yet three different responses.

Watching Mrs. Greenseth, a top educator, work with her third graders never ceased to amaze me.  How did she get them to the point where they craved to obey and learn from her?   What were her secrets?

The feeling tone in her class was warm and loving, yet business-like.  There was lots of fun going on, yet no fooling around.  It was so perfect, I wished I could be a student in her room.

I reflected on what she was doing and realized she had four important practices going on to make her class so well managed.

1)   Relationship.  When her students entered the class, she always greeted each student personally—often mentioning something of importance to that child.  “Good morning, Ben.  How’s your hamster doing?”  When a student misbehaved, Mrs. G would first decide why that student was acting out and address the cause.  It might be the child didn’t hear the directions, the child is uncomfortable, or perhaps a student just needed to be reminded of where the limits were.  Since the students felt Mrs. R understood and cared about them, they accepted and embraced her directions.

2)   Safety.  Mrs. Greenseth made sure that students felt they could take academic risks without fear of ridicule or failure.  She also kept as much pressure to perform as possible, without going to the point of causing a meltdown for an anxious student.

3)   Organization.  Students knew what was expected by the routines established during the first week of school and supported by clear, simple directions during projects and instruction.  Nearly no instructional time was wasted because students knew how to handle their materials and transitions. 

4)   Difficulty.  When an assignment is too hard or too easy, students will be more likely to misbehave.  A teacher like Mrs. R knows her students’ abilities and the curriculum.  During her instruction, she will monitor her students’ learning and adjust the lesson to take full advantage of her observations.  A good teacher will sometimes abandon a lesson plan when she deems it inappropriate.

Teachers should be aware of these four teaching practices and deliberately use them when working with students.  We can’t all be Mrs. Greenseths, but we can learn how to effectively deal with our students.