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 a veteran teacher of 20+ years. At our school, we can literally point out most of the students that will climb a ladder of “certain” teachers 1st – 5th grade…..with me being the 5th grade teacher. Whether teaming with one other teacher or teaching self-contained, I don’t mind getting these students. For one thing, I give them structure that they haven’t gotten in the past – whether from other teachers or at home.
Generally my students go to middle school with more organizational skills than most of their peers. I volunteer for these students and my administration are glad to give them to me – knowing I will deal with issues in my class, directly with parents, and not referring students to the office for discipline.
I care for my students and they know it. They know that expectations are high….and if they don’t do it right the first time – they’ll do it again. It’s not surprising how many of them finally go out of their way to do it right the first time to avoid doing it over and over again.
I send out “Welcome to My Class” notes a couple of weeks before school starts. I had one girl that told me mid-way through the year – that she cried when she got that note and found out she was going to be in my class. But she felt she could tell me now- because I had become her favorite teacher ever. These students are quick to come back and visit and tell me how well they are doing in middle school or high school.
There has only been a couple of my former students that have ended up going back to old habits in middle school with negative consequences…..alternative school!
Most teachers probably wouldn’t “want” these students…. and it needs to be the teachers that embrace the challenge of these students and are willing to find alternate methods to make them want to work. More hands on activities have to be used- to let them experience the need for the learning and less of rote worksheets, that are unfortunately still used in so many traditional classrooms.
As for spreading these students out among different classes – you have to be very selective or there’s that one student that can make it difficult for the rest of the class to really meet their true potential…when so much time is spent dealing with those one or two behavior problems.
You are the positive these young teachers need. I am too a veteran of 20+ years. I taught Early Childhood 3-5 and Kindergarten for many years. I am refreshed to hear that a teacher is willing to embrace a child as a child in middle school. We do need to remember, although our families are not always “ideal” kids are kids and they need to be nurtured. If not at home, but at school!
Thank you for loving your students difficult or not????
When I was a younger teacher and had a great deal more energy than I do now, I gladly offered to take those difficult students because I saw what they were doing to their teachers and fellow students. At the time I guess I had some kind of magic because I was able to turn around all but one of them in my first 10 years of teaching. However, now I’m one of the senior teachers and I no longer have the energy to deal with more than one or two truly difficult students in a class. The sad thing is, there are difficult students every year, as class sizes increase and society crumbles. This year, I have a class of 33 Kindergartners consisting of 5 extremely challenging students (requiring INTENSE vigilance on my part and a daily behavior plan) and 5 more who are moderately challenging (the type that are okay if you keep them under your thumb but would benefit from a behavioral plan if I could manage it time-wise). Lest you think my circumstance rare, I’d have you know that each of the other kinder teachers at my school has a similar class.
My opinion is that those with behavior problems should have been placed in a “Pre-Kinder” program that would allow them to learn socialization skills, anger management skills, some degree of self-control/discipline. This way they would have been prepared to enter the learning environment where it’s not okay to grab, hit, kick or choke people; destroy materials; stand on the toilet and pee all over the room; write on desks, walls, floors, etc.; leave the classroom without permission, throw tantrums, bully others to get their way, etc.
How, you might ask, would we identify these children coming into Kindergarten? Within the first week of school, any teacher who’s taught kinder for more than a year can readily identify those who would benefit from such a program. So one week into the school year, they could be placed in a classroom that would help prepare them and teach them the skills and behaviors they should have learned at home. For whatever reason, their parents failed to prepare them, so now it’s time for the school district to do so. It’s crucial that these children learn how to behave in society, but with the new rigorous standards and teachers’ getting merit pay based on test scores, teachers no longer have the luxury of spending time and energy rehabilitating these kids within the regular classroom setting. Perhaps those who volunteer to teach these special needs children could be rated not on how the children do academically by the end of the year, but by their social & emotional growth.
Just a thought.
Thank you for writing this post. I am a 5th year Pre-K teacher with severe sped experience; and what I see is that every year we get more and more students who need an extensive access to emotional behavior support services. However, what I find is that in our division, they do not care about the Pre-K (we are perceived as the free “daycare” , with no teaching- so far from the truth) and therefore do not want to give our students the support that we they need. Instead, these kids are bounced from class to class, until they end up in one particular teacher’s room. I have asked so many times for emotional support for certain students, but because we are not a testing grade, we are told our kids do not need support. Unfortunately many of our parents choose to ignore the fact that their child may need support or help, because they in turn feel as though they have failed as a parent. Most of our parents will tell us they their child does not act that way at home, and therefore it must be the fault of the teacher. I believe that there needs to be a large swing in how society accepts and labels people who may have an emotional issue, so that there came be more of an acceptance for help and support. Until there is a change in society’s attitude,I fear that those teachers will continue receiving those kids; and I see that I am becoming a part of this “list”.
Comments and articles like this that make me question my desire to be a teacher. I am currently subbing while hoping (?) to get a job teaching in elementary next year. I read stuff like this and it frightens me. I know it is extremely hard and also know I have no clue how hard it really is because I haven’t been in charge of my own classroom yet. I feel bad as a substitute because within minutes I can tell which students I won’t have to worry about (almost ignore) and the ones which will need my constant attention. Many times I’m not able to spend an extra minute explaining to a child who needs a little help because I’m so focused on the difficult classroom behaviors and trying to keep tables from being flipped.
I wish there could be more support for students, families, and teachers. We all need it.
This is the story of my teaching career! I’m really good with classroom management, so I always get the toughest kids. By far, this year has been the worst experience I’ve had. I don’t have any energy at all when I get home. I’ve felt like throwing in the towel on several occasions this year. I’m frustrated and burned out. It’s funny because I still do care if the students are learning and I try to give my best. I know God will work it out.