Uncategorized | Aug 1, 2009
Embarrassing stories AND free stuff. Yep, this post has it all.
By Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
Embarrassing stories AND free stuff. Yep, this post has it all.
By Angela Watson
Most teachers enter the profession completely unprepared for all the complexities of running a classroom. I think at some point, we’ve all been faced with an unforseen challenge and wondered incredulously, Geez, I never knew I was supposed to plan for or anticipate this issue: how am I expected to have a solution for a problem I didn’t know existed? Personally, I’m astounded by the sheer number of basic classroom management lessons I had to learn the hard way:
-Communicating effectively with parents requires a concerted effort and a much greater time investment than I’d assumed. Once I carefully scheduled eight parent conferences back-to-back and stayed at school until 6 pm (by myself–which was perhaps the dumbest part of the whole scenario) and was furious when every single parent was a no-show. Why the poor turn out? Because I’d scheduled the conferences two weeks prior and didn’t know I needed to provide forty-seven notes, emails, and phone messages as a follow-up reminder. Now that I’ve learned to send notices via every form of communication except sky writing and smoke signals, my no-show rate has become much more reasonable.
-Letting third graders keep scissors in their desks is generally a bad idea. It took the following catastrophes for me to reach that conclusion: one child’s impromptu trimming of her own bangs without the benefit of a mirror; a boy’s decision to snip two braids off a girl’s elaborate and expensive style that took five hours to create; and a third child’s unexplainable propensity toward slicing the file folder centers I spent three weeks making. That was all in one semester. After that, I decided to keep the scissors in one communal area and distribute them only when needed (which was as infrequently as possible with that group, believe me). Even now, I still have to be extra cautious during scissor activities, and have a responsible kid do a scissor count after they’ve been collected. Failure to do so may result in some little sneakster using his scissors to either trim textbook page edges, sharpen pencils using the blade edge (!!), or carve the word ‘fart’ into his desktop.
-Photocopies MUST be made as far in advance as possible. There is nothing more disappointing than getting a brainstorm and working all evening on a fabulous activity for the next day’s lesson, only to be stuck assigning something boring from the textbook because there’s either no paper or all the copiers are down, AGAIN. I once had an amazing math activity with Halloween candy that I couldn’t get copied for FIVE WEEKS. I busted out the worksheet on Valentine’s Day and told the kids to replace the words black and orange with red and pink and change all the pumpkins into hearts. Needless to say, the kids weren’t buying it. Although, since their behavior was top notch the whole day in anticipation of eating the candy afterward, all was not completely lost. And I picked out my Cinco de Mayo activities the following morning.
So tell me: what classroom management lesson did YOU learn the hard way? Your story can be short or long, funny or serious, embarrassing or matter-of-fact…just share the true tale of a mistake or misunderstanding you experienced while trying to manage a classroom.
Leave your story as a comment on this post. I’ll select a winner on Wednesday, August 5th, and send out a free copy of my book The Cornerstone: Classroom Management That Makes Teaching More Effective, Efficient, and Enjoyable. Inside, I explain all the stuff I had to learn from trial and error–managing small groups, organizing materials, getting kids to follow basic procedures, handling test pressure–so that you can learn specific steps for creating the learning environment you’ve always wanted. It’s a practical guide that will show you how to construct a self-running classroom that frees you to TEACH.
The book will ship via Priority Mail so the winner should have it in plenty of time to read before the new school year begins (unless you’re in one of those schools that’s already starting back, in which case, I can only offer you my deepest sympathy).
I’m looking forward to your stories! Thanks for sharing!
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
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Actions speak louder than words. So make sure your actions match your words! This is especially the case when you are trying to keep a straight face with discipline ;). Case in point:
I once had a kindergartner get in trouble for biting someone. He has high-functioning autism and his aide, his general ed. teacher and I all met with him in a small room off the main office. When I hung up the phone after informing his parents, I started to discuss with the kiddo what his dad had said. He didn't want to hear any of it, so he flattened himself out like a board (laying across his teacher's lap), closed his eyes, crossed his arms in the shape of an X across his chest, and stuck out his tongue. He was literally playing dead!! The sheer unexpectedness of this action (in all of its six-year-old wisdom and logic) was enough to make each of us turn away from him and laugh into our sleeves.
Must… keep… a straight face… for discipline….
I learned to be as specific as possible with directions and to think through rash promises before making them. I had a kid who loved to use the word gay as an insult. That drives me crazy, and my kids all know it – most of them adjust very quickly and stop using it (at least around me…), but not this one.
One day, I got so fed up with him that I stopped him. I told him he could insult his friends if he wanted to (this was during lunch, and he was a former student at the time, so I was more lenient with language) but he could not use the word gay. Anything else, but not gay.
I figured he'd go with stupid, or loser, or idiot – something not great, but at least not homophobic. Nope.
Instead, he looked at his friend and called him a cocksucker (hope no one's offended by the language).
Touche, my friend, touche. I'm a lot more careful now to think it through before I challenge a kid that way.
Warning: not for those eating lunch.
One lesson I learned this year (my 4th teaching) was something I didn't expect. I had taught 1st grade and one day Charlie came back from the bathroom with a problem. Apparently he had finished a #2 and while wiping, he had gotten poop on his hands, under his nails, and on his sleeve. Now, I have a very weak stomach and was not prepared for his proclamation of help needed in front of the entire class!
I made the mistake of not starting the year with any behavior management plan. I came from Michigan to Florida and in MI the kids just followed the rule in the classroom I was in my cooperating teaching set up a card system but never really introduced or used it with the kids. When I got my first teaching job in Broward county, FL I was in a very urban school. After about 3 weeks I was ready to quit because the kids were so out of control and at that point decided that I needed to implement a behavior plan but by then it was WAY too late. I suffered through a very long year with desks being throw, death threats, cussing, talking back, just to name a few.
Lesson learned: Start the year with a firm behavior plan in place, though you can make minor adjustments it's something that has to start from day 1!
Almost every day, I was trying to get a particular student to simply do his work. One day early in student teaching, the Cooperating Teacher was absent and I was thrown "in charge." He didn't complete his morning work, and the consequence for that is to do it during recess. He refused to take the paper from me, and tried to go in for recess. When I followed him and offered to help him with the homework, he told me I wasn't allowed to be there (he knew I was new!). I replied that I was definitely allowed to be there, and that he would need to sit down and do his work. Instead, he ran out the door of the gym and into the boys' bathroom. I stood outside, talking to him and discussing that he could waste this recess in the bathroom, or he could come out and work on his homework so that he wouldn't have to do it during tomorrow's recess. He finally came out and worked on it with me, but it was a struggle.
On the last day of student teaching, the students made a fuss about me going. I got about a thousand hugs from various kids throughout the day. I walked the class down for dismissal on the last day, and noticed this boy run to his mom and hug her legs tightly. She looked down, peered at his face, and looked back at me with surprise. "He's crying!" she mouthed. I went over and gave him another hug and told him I'd be back to visit, but it really stuck with me that this student, who was consistently a classroom management "problem," was the only student in all 26 to cry over me leaving on the last day.
My Lesson: The attention you give students always matters. Even for the students who can be a big handful. Maybe especially for those students. I know when I teach this fall (as a 'real' teacher for the first time!), I'll remember this little boy and how important it is to always keep trying and stay positive about EVERY student.