Teaching Tips & Tricks | Feb 16, 2013
Should the toughest kids be assigned to the best teachers?
By Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
Should the toughest kids be assigned to the best teachers?
By Angela Watson
You know exactly which kids I’m talking about here–their faces appeared in your mind’s eye as soon as you read the blog post title. These are the kids who are violent and relentlessly disruptive in class, the ones who have a reputation throughout the school as being incredibly difficult to handle.
Each spring, the teacher’s lounge is filled with speculation over who will get each of those kids the following year…and in many schools, it’s a highly predictable pattern. The teachers with the best classroom management skills get the toughest kids. And every year, those teachers say, “I don’t know if I can take another class like this one. I need a break. I can’t keep doing this year after year.”
Sometimes the principals listen and spread out the toughest kids among multiple classrooms in a grade level, but many times, they don’t, and the teachers who used to be amazing become mediocre because they have nothing left to give. They stop researching new activities in the evenings because all they have the energy to do at night is sleep. They show up at school early to plan meaningful learning experiences, and then get so disgusted with breaking up student fights all morning long that they put on a movie in the afternoon and call it a day. They don’t have the energy for the hands-on activities they used to do, so they pass out worksheets.
I’m not saying that response is right. What I’m saying is that it’s happening, in thousands of classrooms all across the country. Our best teachers are burning out from bearing too much of the burden. I understand the need to place students with the best possible teacher for them. The problem is that teachers with strong classroom management skills often feel like they are being punished by getting the most challenging students year after year after year. It doesn’t matter that it’s not intended as a punishment. It feels that way when your job is knowingly made 100 times harder than the job of your colleagues simply because “you can handle it.”
What happens when you can’t handle it anymore? And what happens when the grouping of students interferes with the entire class’ education? I can think of two years in particular during my teaching career when I considered it a miracle that the rest of the class learned anything because my attention was so focused on the third of the class who had constant meltdowns. It absolutely broke my heart to see some of my sweet, hard working kids get less attention and assistance because I had to spend every spare second heading off their peers’ violent outbursts. No child should go to school each day in fear of being harmed by other kids in the class, or be unable to get the individualized learning they need because the teacher is constantly attending to severe behavior problems.
I don’t know of any clear cut solutions. I’m wary of principals burdening brand new teachers with students they know will be challenging–the teacher attrition rate is already astronomical. Some of these kids are so challenging that a new teacher would probably leave the profession before the year is out.
I also don’t want to see high needs students suffer under the leadership of a teacher who is unable to handle them. Maybe schools need to provide more professional development to teachers so they are equipped to handle a wide range of student needs and behavioral issues. It’s rare that a district acknowledges how much classroom management issues interfere with student learning: PD in most schools is centered around improving test scores and implementing curriculum. I did work in one district that allowed principals to identify teachers who struggle classroom management skills and provided extra training through CHAMPS, which is an excellent program, but the change in those teachers’ classrooms was negligible. Without ongoing, individualized support, the results are not going to be transformative. And some kids are just so disruptive that all the PD in the world is not going to prevent the average teacher from being exhausted by 9 a.m. on a daily basis.
Is the solution to get rid of teachers who aren’t able to handle their students? How would we identify those teachers in a fair way? Many of them are not “bad” teachers and are perfectly capable of educating the majority of the student population, they just aren’t prepared to manage the type of kids who throw desks when they’re frustrated and threaten to stab any adult who dares to correct them. Let’s be real: some of these students have no business being thrown into a general education classroom with little to no support. I don’t think it’s fair to blame the teacher for not being able to handle such extreme behaviors in addition to, you know, actually teaching the other 29 kids in the class.
So maybe this brings us to the heart of the issue: schools need to figure out how to meet these tough kids’ needs, instead of tossing them in the classroom with teachers who are expected to manage on their own. These students deserve small class sizes, psychological counseling, ongoing social skills/coping strategies support through small group sessions with the school guidance counselor, and so on. Some of these students even need individual one-on-one behavioral aides. But these resources take money, and schools just don’t have it.
Where does that leave us? If all outside factors–teacher training, special services, class sizes, and so on–stay exactly the same, what should principals do? Should all the toughest kids go to the teachers with the best classroom management skills? How does this work in your school?
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
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I am one of the teachers who has a hand picked class of “challenges” each year. This year my class is made up of 7 kindergarten students, who are a dream to teach, 14 first grade students, 4 who are Gifted and talented, 7 who speak little or no English and 1 with MAJOR behavior issues.
The other day I was walking down the hall with the Principal and she pointed out a student who was rolling in the hall. She then told me, “That’s one for you next year.” Wow… There is something for me to look forward to!
This is my 24th year teaching and I think that each year the management gets more difficult. I feel like I am cheating the “normal” kids in my class because so much of my time is spent managing behavior for the select few. I miss the joy of getting a new class each year. Instead I pray that next year I won’t have to teach my class how to quickly exit the classroom in the event that a student becomes a threat to them.
I have been teaching for 17 years and I have been hearing about the same escalating problem for the entire time. teaching was my second career so I had a very different perspective thn mny new teachers but I quickly realized that the “system” refuses to address the growing problem of children who are mentally ill because it “infringes” on their rights. I told my principal that I’m a teacher and not equipped/trained to handle and/or restrain students with with behavioral disorders and that I have no interest in learning. I became a teacher because I want to teach… Not because I want to be the next Mother Theresa… Period. I love teaching and I’m very good at it. I love helping children learn and i don’t mind working with difficult children, but I am not a psychologist and I won’t pretend to be because my school system is avoiding this enormous problem. I went on record telling my admin that I was not trained and unless they were willing to pay for my new degree in psychology, they had better give those students to someone who had the necessary training in order to avoid any potential lawsuits. I am unwilling to be the latest scape goat on the news who loses my career because the system doesn’t support teachers or children. Teachers have big hearts and think it is their duty to “try” to reach every student, and the system counts on our empathy to keep things status quo. Nothing will change until teachers ‘just say no!” We are not doing any of our students any favors by suffering through years of bad bevior while the only ones getting a consequence for not “meeting expectations” is the teacher and the students who have to suffer on the sidelines of a second rate education. It’s ironic that as teachers become more “highly qualified” students are receiving a lower standard of education, but that’s right, if we just get rid of the teachers wo have bad management all our problems will go away…. Right? Until teachers start to speak up and educate ALL parents about how every child is being “left behind”, refuse to do the job of a psychologist, and start standing up for the rights of ALL children to learn in a safe environment, they will continue to be run into the ground in a rigged system. As much as I love teaching, I would never recommend it to anyone as a future career until things have radically changed… And that doesn’t include me conducting professional development in classroom management (which i am highly qualified to do) for those teachers who just need to learn how to handle a few “difficult” children.
I can totally relate to this, Angela! Thank you for posting this. You bring up a lot of great points. I agree, the blame shouldn’t be put on the teacher. And maybe more professional development and administrative support would be beneficial. This is my 9th year of teaching and the behavior issues only seem to get worse with each year. Maybe it’s the culture/society we live in. ???
Dana
I think that it is important to alternate which teacher gets the most challenging children. It’s a cop-out to say that certain teachers have better classroom management/training, etc. As professionals, we all need to equip ourselves with a depth of management strategies. We also need to reach out to others and ask them what has worked for them in the past. If Teacher A always gets the tough children, it is a disservice to all. The rest of that grade level team doesn’t get the opportunity to grow as professionals. I think we all rise to the occasion if presented with a challenge. (If we don’t, we won’t last in this profession of ups and downs.) Do we need more resources? Yes. Do we wish we had children who are socially and emotionally prepared for school? Yes. Since we cannot change society or school funding, we all do what we can to make our classrooms the safe learning environments that they are meant to be.
(In case anyone is curious, I teach 25 second graders- 2 with SED [severely emotionally disturbed] IEPs, 3 with academic IEPS, plus 2 gifted, 3 ESL)
I’m sorry for the teachers & other students who have to deal with the disruptive students (we’ve had a student in K who picked up & desk & threw it at teacher) & I strongly believe that if a child can not meet basic requirements for classroom behavior then while we have to school & educate them they need to be in a special support or special education room. I know easier said than done with budget cuts & all & more kids needing support at times than is available. All teachers should have a mix of students rather than giving those who have better class management skills the tough ones because otherwise there is no reason for the other less mgmt skilled teachers to develop. Frustration is the mother of all invention & often we rise to the challenge only when it is presented. And sometimes you can have a really great smart student who it’s just a personality conflict & yet have a tough student who you can relate to & possibly reach not just bc of better skills but where you are that year & that they have dark curly hair & remind you of… your brother, your niece or yourself. Loading just some teachers with the tough students risks losing great teachers & not developing ones that could be great if pushed to become more.
It’s sad to say, but some of these children need to be put away, not in a classroom. The least restrictive environment sometimes needs to a lot more restrictive. There are some children who do not need to be in a school period. It is only going to get worse until we start putting the needs of the many first again instead of the needs of a few. And just so you know, I’m a parent of a child who had these issues and putting him in a special school was the best thing we ever did. They straightened him out along with medication and counseling. These students do not belong in a regular classroom and need more help than they are getting. Parents need to take more responsiblilty as well. Schools should stop being a dumping ground for kids the parents don’t want.
“The lest restrictive environment needs to be a LOT MORE restrictive.” Yes!
Why on earth are we letting desk throwers and violent behavior problems into classrooms of 30+ healthy, stable children. Why are we doing this??! Do we need to fight for legislation that protects our healthy children now–to give our good kids the least restrictive environment?
Because lets talk about how restricted my high-flyers are. My bright-eyed learners don’t get to learn because the violent behavior problems suck up all the time and resources in our school. There is nothing equitable about having these children in our regular classrooms.
Parents of regular ed students need to realize their children are at a disadvantage and not given all THEY need to learn and excel because students with learning and behavioral needs have priority legal rights and mandates in the classroom. Advocacy for the rights, needs and safety of regular ed kiddos needs to become PC and not seen as discriminatory against those who unfairly disrupt the learning environment and inhibit growth potential in others. Regular ed students now need their own legal mandates and protections.