Re-examining my philosophy of classroom management

Filed Under Behaviour Management, maintaining a safe, motivating students, questions teachers need to ask, The way I see it | 1 Comment

goodclassroom management I think it prudent from time to time to re-examine my philosophy of classroom management. My philosophy of classroom management has changed over the years. When I was a newbie teacher, I thought if I used the right techniques for classroom management everything would be OK. Well, I’ve learned and used many classroom management techniques over the years, but I have come to the conclusion that while excellent management techniques are necessary for classroom success, they are not sufficient for classroom success. I found that developing an authentic relationship with my students helped my classroom management more than any of the latest classroom management techniques. When kids saw that I cared about them, they better managed their behaviour in class. I start to develop positive relationships with my students on the first day of school by asking these nine questions. How do you develop positive relationships with your student?

Jul

16

My students’ expectations help inform my teaching practice so my students and I can do our best.

Filed Under Behaviour Management, motivating students, positive climate, questions teachers need to ask, Special Education, The way I see it, underachieving students | Leave a Comment

Usually during the summer break after I’ve been away from the craziness of the June classroom for a while, a good long while, I begin to reflect on my teaching practice for the previous year. Usually this reflection includes reflecting on expectations, mine and my students. I want to be sure my expectations are reasonable given the nature of the changing 21st century classroom and students. I’ve taught for 30 years so some things have really changed and some haven’t. Today, I’m reflecting on things my students have told me they expect from teachers that really have nothing to do with cell phones, ipads, tablets etc or the 21st century. Students have told me they would like teachers to

not abuse their power and order students around as if they control their lives;
respect students personal lives and not bug them about personal things that are none of their business;
not yell at students because that just makes them mad and not want to listen;
not talk about themselves all the time and show that they’re smarter than students are because students find it discouraging;
not treat students like they don’t know anything;
have respect for students no matter what they’ve have done before;
listen to both sides of the story;
be equally fair to all students;
try to help all students have the best results in class;
give less homework because it is hard to do homework by themselves if they cannot ask the teacher;
give more free time in class to do homework;
give less homework because it is boring and takes away from time with family and friends;
let students eat in class because sometimes they are hungry in class and can’t stay awake in class;
not give homework before the holidays;
let students listen to music while working in class;
let students watch videos in class and not have to write about them;
to want students to pass their classes;
to be helpful, respectful, and fun to be around.

Basically students want teachers to respect them, but then of course teachers want students to respect them, too. Respect is a two way street that is constantly under construction. My students’ expectations help inform my teaching practice and enables me to create an inviting classroom where my students and I can do our best.

You might want to ask your students to tell you what they expect from teachers. I found students are not shy about revealing their expectations. The expectations also make good starting points for discussions.

Jul

3

Passing kids along who fail is being disrespectful of them

Filed Under Behaviour Management, Evaluation, positive climate, questions teachers need to ask, The way I see it, underachieving students | 6 Comments

What are we to do about high school kids who fail courses in grades nine and ten and don’t seem to care? We are being told if a student doesn’t earn 16 credits by the time he is 16 years old, there is an excellent chance the student will drop out of school and not graduate. In the province of Ontario where I teach, high school students are expected to earn eight credits in grade nine and another eight credits in grade 10 for a total of 16 credits.

There’s so much pressure on teachers to do what it takes to get these kids to pass courses. At the end of the semester when teachers are writing report cards, sometimes teachers are called down to the office and ~~told~~ strongly encouraged by the administration to change a failing mark to a passing mark. The word rigor seems to have no place in these conversations. Small wonder teachers are disillusioned and discouraged.

High school teachers are always complaining about the social promotion that goes on in the elementary schools where students who fail subjects in a grade still get to go (are socially promoted) to the next grade even though they’ve failed . These students come to grade 9 with huge gaps in their knowledge and skill sets. These gaps set students up for failure. I think socially promoting students is morally wrong. We’re not doing students any favors by passing them now when they haven’t mastered course content just to fail them later because the gaps in their knowledge prevent them from mastering the next grade’s content. That’s not being respectful of our students.

I know, I know there’s a huge debate about social promotion, about a kid’s self-esteem etc. I actually haven’t seen any studies on the topic of social promotion. I can only tell you what I know from my own personal professional experience. Maybe this summer I’ll search the literature to see what research says and share my findings here.

I teach students who have been socially promoted, and I see many of these students continue to fail and be at-risk academically in grades nine and ten. They often do not earn 16 credits by the time they are 16. Academically at-risk students who continually fail courses are kicked out of regular high school when they reach 18 (legally they have to stay in school until 18) and sent to alternative schools to continue their education. Some of my students have come back to visit me and have told me that the alternative schools didn’t work for them either. Some students admit it’s their fault they didn’t succeed in high school, but some students blame the school system and certain teachers for their lack of success. They may have a point, but that’s a whole other can of worms.

I’ve been meaning to read Alexander Russo’s Stray Dogs, Saints, and Saviors for some time now and since school is out for the summer, I can. I’m enjoying it immensely as well as learning a lot about the challenges of school reform. Russo’s book is about school reform- a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot lately given my frustrations with 16 by 16. Specifically, Russo’s book is the story about the challenges Green Dot and its founder Steve Barr encounter while trying to reform Locke High School in South Central Los Angeles. Surprisingly, I hadn’t heard about the Green Dot story. It must have been on the news and in the papers. I don’t know how I missed it, but I did. I’m certainly going online to see what I can find to fill in my gaps about Green Dot and Barr.

While reading Stray Dogs, Saints and Saviors, I came across this passage that really spoke to me.

Letting a kid pass a class in which he’d barely learned anything, in the hopes that he’s catch up later and benefit from having moved along, or flunking a kid and making him dig in at least a bit, with the knowledge that such a might not happen? It was a difficult call- and an age-old question. Teachers-and schools-have been passing kids along for decades.( Russo, p. 93).

I naively thought this problem of passing kids along was a problem just in Ontario, Canada. I hadn’t realized that teachers in other jurisdictions are having to make the same difficult calls about passing or not passing academically at-risk students. What happens in schools in other countries like Japan, France, Germany, China, Scotland? What do they do with kids who really don’t pass? I’d like to know.

photo thanks to dullhunk

Mar

6

What my at-risk high school students told me they expect from teachers

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, questions teachers need to ask, Special Education | 3 Comments

Image by grantlairdjr via Flickr

Last week, I decided to ask my students what they expected from teachers. I told them that teachers are always telling students what they expect from them. Now, I wanted to hear what students expect from their teachers. I ask them to tell me in a paragraph what they expect and why. This is some of what they told me. I expect teachers to

not abuse their power and order me around like they control my life;
respect my personal life and not to bug me on things that are none of their business;
not to yell at me because that just makes me made and I won’t listen;
not to talk about themselves all the time and show off they’re smarter than us because I find it discouraging;
not to treat us like we don’t know anything;
have respect for all students no matter what they have done;
to be able to hear both sides of the story and respect them;
to be equally fair to all students;
try to help every student to make him or her have the best results in class;
give me less homework because it is hard to do it by myself if I cannot ask the teacher;
more free time in class to do homework;
give less homework because it is boring and takes away from time with family and friends;
let us eat in class because sometimes kids are hungry in class and can’t stay awake in class;
not give us homework before the holidays;
let us listen to music while working in class;
let us watch videos in class and not have to write about them;
to want me to pass my classes;
to be helpful, respectful, and fun to be around.

One student was philosophical about student expectations . He wrote “what can you do it’s life”.

After reading their paragraphs it stuck me how students and teachers have similar expectations. Teachers want students to respect them; students want teachers to respect them. I expected more of them to tell me they didn’t want homework. Some did tell me that, but it was because they didn’t have anyone at home that could help them with homework. Some students told me they want less writing. Maybe teachers could have their students demonstrate their learning orally more often. I’ll be honest, I want to do this more often, and I’m not sure why I don’t. I’ll have to think about that one. Any ideas about an easy way to evaluate learning orally?

I was delighted that my students felt safe enough in my classroom to actually tell me these things. I work hard to develop an inviting classroom, but I always think there’s room for improvement. My students are great teachers, and they tell me what my next steps need to be.

I encourage you to ask your students what they expect from teachers. I teach high school kids who are academically at-risk. It would be interesting to hear what students who are not academically at-risk expect from their teachers. Is it the same, or is it different?