Manage Learning More, Behavior Less

Since my last post two years ago, I moved to a new state and am teaching World History I to English Language Learners.  I'm now a good portion of the way through my third year of teaching. I've definitely learned a few things since the days of stressing about being too nice or too mean.

I've grown a lot in classroom management. I'm still not awesome at it.  There are many days I'd be embarrassed if an administrator walked into my classroom to observe me.  In general, my students get work done and meet my objectives, but they're chatting with outside voices and sneaking peaks at cell phones and swearing and occasionally throwing things the whole while. 

("Wow that's a nice cell phone you have there...shouldn't it be in your backpack?"  "Ah, I see you're confused. Right now we're reading the text, not throwing playing cards across the room." "Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I don't recall asking anyone to play music on their computer right now.")

Here's what I believe about the majority of kids: Student's start socially talking, getting up out of their seat to wander around, yell shit out across the room, throw things, arm wrestle, pierce ears, or light shoes on fire when they don't have anything to do.  And they don't have things to do when a) don't know what to do; b)  they can't do something; c) no one is paying attention to them.

I've always preferred to think of classroom management as managing student learning, not student behavior.  So, here are some planning and instruction principles I've found that really eliminate situations where student's will act out.

I think this could be useful to other early-career teachers, aspiring teachers, or teachers feeling burnt out from student behaviors. There are many great classroom management and discipline tips you can find through Google Searches. But I also propose to focus on the things you'd rather do than manage behavior: plan and instruct.

Keep directions simple 

Students act out when they don't know what to do.  Giving directions in a simple and succinct way is hard and is a skill that needs to be developed. With my students, I can neither rely on written directions, nor expect them to follow long winded verbal explanations. I don't put myself in situations where I need student's attention for a long time (I define long as more than 30 seconds), because doing so puts me in a position of having to manage 25 kids who don't want to listen to me, or are unable of understanding my wah wah wahing.  I find that it's best to plan activities that are quick to explain and simple for students to execute. The planning you do and your ability to succinctly explain directions or concepts can prevent a lot of problems from coming up.

For more complicated activities requiring more explanation, I've learned I need to make them routines. Once students get used to doing them unit after unit, these activities won't even require any explanation.


Focus on the ZPD

Students act up when they can't do something.  For many kids who are continually disrupting classes day after day, they frankly don't know how to do much. I mean, they possibly don't know how to read, or communicate through writing, or do basic addition without a calculator.  If a kid can't read and the whole lesson depends on their ability to do so, what do we honestly expect them to do for an hour?

I've learned to forget what I think a 10th grader should be able to do, and what the state of Virginia thinks they should be able to do.  I have to figure out what the kids in my room can do. Then, I find their zone of proximal development.  I figure out what will be familiar and doable for my students, and then push them little by little.  All students, even ones that are really annoying, seem genuinely happy when they can do something and then see that they learned just a little more.

That feeling keeps them in their seat and makes them feel like a student.


Give Feedback

Students act out when no one is paying attention to them. Many students act out for attention - they don't care if it's positive or negative.  Others act out because no one is paying attention and holding them accountable to their actions.  I try to give them attention, but not discipline attention. Academic attention.  When I'm doing great at giving feedback, I've let them know how they've done on the academic tasks I've asked them to do and am specific about it. This happens verbally, in real time during a lesson,  Remember, feedback is different from praise.

Of course, for a teacher to give feedback a student needs to do work.  Some kids who act out a lot just don't produce work to give feedback on.  But I think if it becomes part of a teacher's practice, and part of the way the teachers interacts with all kids in the classroom, it will catch on.  Feedback makes people feel good and make them feel like they can improve.  I think students who have those feelings stop acting out. They feel visible and held accountable.

Conclusion

Classroom management is exhausting and really not fun when you have a lot of kids acting out. It's not what any of us really got into teaching to do, and yet is a huge part of the job. There are many great classroom management and discipline tips you can find through Google Searches. Yet, I really believe that good classroom management, or managing students' learning, comes down to good planning and instruction - the things that most of want our job to be anyway.