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 work in the inner city, and I am that teacher that year after year ends up with those kids. I hate it! Its so exhausting, and its really not fair to the children most of all. Most of the kids should not be in the same room with each other. They need to be spread out. If the near sight of each other sets them off, they can not be in the same room. Last year, I had 13 severe behavior problem students. I was exhausted day in and day out. This year it is a bit better I only have four. But my grade partners have none.
I think we are failing these kids by not providing them the help and support that they need. They have problems that are deeper than a reward system, and it is our job to help them become members of society.
I WISH I had an answer. I am one who gets the “buts.” She’s sweet BUT she is very low functioning. He’s smart BUT he can’t stop moving, talking…etc. She can work BUT you have to stay on top of her.
Put them all together, and welcome to my usual class. There have been years when I am just tired of being able to handle it, when other teachers don’t have to. There have been times when I resent other teachers NOT giving certain kids to one teacher in particular because he has such terrible management skills. For the record, even now in February, I can tell which of my kids were in his class last year, because they’re smart BUT they still have to be reminded to stay in their seats, walk properly in line and raise their hand not just call out, because that was never demanded of them last year. The principal complains about it, but has taken no active steps to make it change. Principals need to take an active role with demanding certain behaviors from teachers just like teachers do with kids. They also need to model it and stay on top of the teachers who are weak to raise their skills. Support the strong teachers and the weak ones, and if the weak ones really can’t handle it after a reasonable amount of support and help, they should be let go. The last problem that needs to be addressed is numbers. Budget shortfalls mean larger classes. Larger classes means everyone struggles- teachers and kids. It’s impossible for a teacher to give 1:1 help consistently when there are too many kids to serve. The best get ignored, the behavior problems get worse, and the lowest academic don’t get the maximum amount of intervention and help they need. The best teacher in the world can’t be his or her best in worsening, overcrowded conditions.
Thank you for posting this article. In our school, the children with special issues are typically spread around among the teachers. We’ve all had our share of “rough” years with disruptive kids etc., and the vast majority of our teachers manage them professionally.
However, there are those students with severe emotional disorders who (everyone knows) belong in a special placement – not in a mainstream classroom. These are the kids who are full of rage and prone to random and extremely violent outbursts. These are the students who, like powder kegs, erupt at some perceived slight by hurling books, pencils, scissors, chairs, and desks, punching, kicking, spitting, biting, and cursing. They are dangerous to other students, and to suggest this is from a teacher’s lack of classroom management skills is laughable. I had one last year that was set off by something as innocuous as me praising another student, and 23 students would have to be evacuated into another classroom almost daily.
Whenever there is a violent attack (like CT) I wonder what these individuals were like in elementary school and if their teachers saw these behaviors early on. The problem, as I see it, is that there is not enough $ for all the resources these kids need. Sadly, more and more of these students are coming to us – neglected, angry, and violent.
As a 2nd year teacher, I have to say I was given the class last year with the highest percentage of behavioral problem children on the grade level!!! I was soooo stressed out it was not even funny, I would go home and literally cry every night!! I will be honest classroom management is not one of my strong suits. I had no real support either which made the situation worse, I stuck it out not only for the kids but because I am stubborn enough to do just that. I am teaching in a new district this year with a very similar class. I am beginning to feel as though this is some weird initiation process. I do feel that all of the children should not be grouped in the same room .. I have witnessed this year, a 35 year teaching veteran quit because of a classroom full of challenging students. She is an awesome teacher and it makes me wonder sometimes. To spread those students out among everyone is a good solution, if that can be done. Some schools are small though so that may not be an option. Possibly hiring someone besides administration to help deal with those children might help. I have found that most of this behavior (not ADHD and not medicated) begins with parents who for whatever reason don’t teach their children the correct way to behave. It is truly a very frustrating situation…….
I appreciate this article! What worries me, is that coming up next is paying us based on what our kids do on tests. The inequity of classroom placement is unknown to most of the public and lawmakers who are thinking this is a good idea. And I also agree that so much is dependent on family life, overcrowding of classrooms, underfunding…ah, education.