The student who crawled on the floor!

 

Hi new teachers,

I have known teachers to call other teachers, Heads of departments, Coordinators or Vice-Principals depending on the school structure to 'talk to the students' who don't listen to them.

In one of my earlier schools outside India, the art teacher  requested that I be present in the class to manage students when they misbehaved as they wouldn't listen to her. I would be present for every art class, telling students to focus on the work, not misbehave etc. 

I spoke to two senior teachers discussing the possibility of having behaviour as part of the report card. They agreed with me that the idea was good and I said I would bring this up in the teacher meeting. However, when I brought this up, another teacher disagreed and said that teachers should have strategies to manage students and it shouldn't be part of any report. Other teachers present agreed, and the teachers who had a problem with managing students did not speak up. I thought including behaviour in the report card was a good idea and would get backing from everyone, but no one supported me. I was extremely upset that even colleagues who had class control issues, did not support me.

On hindsight, I now know that the teacher who opposed this was right. Class control is always upto the teacher. The minute you call someone else, the students will know that you cannot manage them. The teacher will have to come up with strategies for making sure learning is happening.

When I came back to India, this happened in one of my Grade 9 classes. A couple of girls had a giggling fit and refused to stop despite my telling them several times. I was upset and went and complained to the Secondary Head who spoke to the girls. But I regret the decision now. I could have dealt with it in so many different ways without approaching someone else.

Some strategies:

1. It is not 'us' and 'them' or 'you' and 'them'. These are your students. If they are giggling and cannot stop, smile and ask them to leave the class, have a drink of water and come back when they are more composed.

2. Smile instead of getting angry. Smile and say, 'today does not seem to be your day'. Call the students outside class for a couple of minutes and tell them that while you understand that for some reason they are not able to pay attention, they cannot distract others from learning. Ask them what would help. It could be a change of seating or it could be seating with a different group. Maybe a glass of water and a visit to the washroom might help. Let them choose what they want to do to not distract others.

3. If the behaviour persists, call the student outside class and gently tell them that you it pains you to do this, but you will have to speak to the parents. That almost never fails.

4. When you have a not-so-nice thing to say, always speak to the student separately, outside class, never in front of their peers.

5. Never send the student outside class for the rest of the class time. Parents pay for students to be inside the class, not outside

6. If the entire class is unruly or distracted and not listening or learning, come up with some strategy. I remember once, in India, I had an MYP1 class that was very unruly, distracted, chatty and not paying attention, with one student who would crawl on the floor. So I used to have information written on the board before class started. Students were given instruction to copy in their notebooks. I would tell them that the information was important and they needed to have it. It became a routine for them to come to class, open their books and start writing. This routine made them focus and then they were ready to pay attention to class activities.

7. I remember that a colleague in the school outside India, who was a great teacher,  had a question or a prompt on the board before every class. When the students came in,  they had to quietly sit down and write their response in their books. Then they would discuss this as a class, before moving on to the class activities. This prompt or question could be related to that day's learning or could be a current event or a local or global issue. But it was interesting and most students looked forward to it. I got the idea about the beginning-of-class routine from her.

8. Also, we have to accept that some days might be good and others not so good. I once remember telling a colleague I looked up to, in a school in India, that I have class control. She replied 'Radha, I never say that I have class control. I can say that today was a good day with my class' or that I have managed to reduce disruptions with this grade but it can change from class to class and day-to-day. Her wise response is something I remember to this day. 


Cheers!

#myp,#newteachers,#teaching,#relationships,#students,#behaviour,#school,#ib,#learning,#leaders,#teacher-student relationships, #testing, #assessments




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