Back to the IN CASE YOU MISSED IT index
QUESTION: Hello, I really need help. I am student teaching
at a middle school in Conway, Arkansas and I can not get control of my students.
They do not listen to me. I have been wondering if I have made the wrong
career decision. Would someone with more teaching experience please write
me and tell me how I can get some control. Right now they are not learning
anything and I feel that I do not have what it takes to be a teacher right
now. Anyone who can help please do.
A. Maintaining good classroom control is a tricky proposition.
There are lots of ways to do this. Some teachers think that if they keep
a firm enough hand on things, keep the kids busy, and keep them afraid of
consequences that this will take care of discipline. This system does work
in most cases.
Other teachers believe that building a community of learners with mutual
trust and respect, providing interesting and engaging real world tasks,
providing opportunities for conversation, or having consequences designed
by the students themselves will keep discipline problems to a minimum. This
system also does work.
There are several things to consider when trying to establish a relationship
with students. Here are some suggestions that I pass along to student teachers
who work with me:
1) You can be "friendly" but not "friends."
2) Say what you mean and mean what you say. Set clear limits. If you tell
the class that if the room is not cleaned before the bell rings that they
won't get to have a coke break and they don't clean the room then don't
go to coke break.
3) Decide what you can tolerate and what you can't and make sure that the
kids know it. For example: I won't tolerate sarcasm or "eye rolling"
but the teacher next door might. On the other hand, she might insist that
kids have all their supplies when then come to class and I might keep pencils
for kids who need them.
4) No matter how angry you get, don't yell or scream at the class. When
this happens, kids lose respect for you.
5) Ask other teachers to make suggestions.
6) Find out what the school discipline system is and adapt it for your use.
Even if it is a system that you don't particularly care for, find a way
to make it work.
7) Even if your principal isn't supportive, there are still ways to make
your classroom safe and learner friendly. Find out who the teachers are
in the building who are successful and ask them what they are doing. 8)
Most important of all... don't make up your mind about whether or not to
be a teacher now. You are in someone else's classroom and not your own.
Things change when it becomes your room and your kids.
It took me a while to figure out things. I student taught in a "gifted"
music magnet high school. Many of my students were already working in recording
studios in Nashville. I went from this environment to an elementary school
that was right between a migrant camp and the projects. Talk about having
to make some major adjustments.
I watched my kids and I listened to other teachers and I eked by my first
year. Each year it got better. Today, I teach math to 115 talented 8th graders.
Some of them are glad to be in school and some of them are not. Some of
them smoke and experiment with drugs. Others get little sleep and have absent
parents. Then again, some have two parents who are concerned with their
education. Somehow, we have worked together to come up with ways to ensure
that we all learn: teacher and students. They know what I expect, and I
know what to expect. We have built a community that hinges on mutual trust
and respect.
This takes lots of work but it worth it. Good luck with your student teaching.
A. I can empathize. My student teaching experience was
mediocre at best, but my first year of teaching was a disaster. The unfortunate
thing is that most of the suggestions more experienced teachers made at
the time didn't make sense to me.
As it turns out, I did end up leaving the classroom. I fell into a serendipitous
school library position, went back to get my masters in library science,
and, yes I do look back and think of a lot of things I could have done differently,
but I don't miss it and I don't feel like a failure.
So, yes, consider your doubts about teaching, but they are pretty normal.
Nobody's "born" a teacher, it takes practice, and it takes a heck
of a lot more mentoring than goes on in any school I've ever been in. My
guess is you're rushing it because you're nervous. If they're not listening
there's no law that says you have to keep teaching. Stop. Take a deep breath
and assess the situation. Don't begin until you have their attention. Don't
raise your voice (it just makes you feel worse), lower your voice (that
will get their attention). Just like subs, student teachers get a lot of
crap just because it's what kids always do. Middle school kids are great
fun to work with when they're "on" but they tend to be like a
pack of hyenas when forced into the wrong situation.
Be sure that as soon as they enter the classroom they know exactly what's
expected. The oldest trick in the book is "bell work," some kind
of regular assignment as soon as they enter the classroom (not when the
bell rings, not when you tell them to begin, as soon as they sit down).
Make sure its enough to give you time to gauge the scene and prepare to
teach.
Never talk at the kids for more than 10 minutes straight and never spend
more than 20-30 minutes on any one activity. Learn to use rubrics. There's
a great article in the December "Educational Leadership."
Two final "words of wisdom": learn to socialize with other teachers
(it'll make you feel more "with it") and be sure to get to know
your school librarian or media specialist!
Good Luck!
A. The help that has been posted here already are excellent
and I **strongly** encourage you to follow the suggestions given.....follow
the discipline procedure at your school with conviction and get your supervising
teacher to help you out, that for God's sake is their job!! If that teacher,
the administration, and the other teachers at that school give a rat's +++
about the future of education, in other words "quality teachers"
they will help. [And don't let that teacher education college off the hook,
either!] But, you must ask. Asking for help is not a sign of a weak teacher,
but one who needs assistance. You will find that most of the time that being
a teacher leaves you in "adult isolation" for most of the day
and without support you can easily get sucked up in the adolescent vacuum.
As others testified, good discipline is part of the job, and the job isn't
always easy. After 23 years I still have my bad days when the students can
get out of control, but then the difference is, as one other wrote, when
you have your own class and display an air of confidence because you are
organized and excited about teaching, control is easy to re-establish.
Have you tried rewarding good behavior. Set up something very cool as a
reward for good behavior, and then pick one person to receive the reward
(early to lunch, P.E., FOOD! or whatever is allowed)..others generally follow.
The reward can be given for the smallest "good behavior" i.e..
a student comes in quietly and sits down; homework is handed in 3 times
in a row, etc. And DON'T worry about being fair. Others will complain and
demand the same, and they may well receive it when their times comes.
And on the other hand, if kids are out of control, choose one student to
discipline suddenly and as hard as you are allowed to set an example for
the rest. Both of these suggestions work on the theory that you can't control
the masses but by setting examples, others soon follow.
Best of luck !!
A. If it is any consolation, my student teaching experience
was the most miserable year of my life. With one month to go, I decided
to go back into the securities business and interviewed with Smith Barney.
Fortunately for me, although I didn't realize it at the time, I didn't get
the job and finished my student teaching.
I was fortunate enough to be hired right away, and when I started teaching
in my own classroom in a much more supportive school, things improved immensely.
I have been happily teaching now for 6 years. I still have days when everything
goes wrong, I feel I get no respect from the students, etc. but that is
the world of teaching.
Friends of mine that are substitutes say that when they are in classrooms
with a student teacher, no one gets less respect than student teachers,
not even subs! Sad, but true. I think the students like students teachers,
but see an opportunity to take advantage of someone who is "green."
Hang in there, because the results are so rewarding.
##