True stories of classroom management gone wrong

Here are some horrifically true tales of lessons learned the hard way, submitted by blog readers, Facebook fans, and newsletter subscribers in response to my post Embarrassing stories AND free stuff. Yep, this post has it all. Although some were edited for brevity, all of these events actually happened in a classroom somewhere (be glad it wasn’t yours!). I hope these cautionary tales provide both education and entertainment as you gear up for the new school year!

Linda Simons said…

My very first year of teaching (A LONNNNNNNNNNNNG time ago) I was teaching in a Catholic school where we take the kids to service each morning. The first week of school I was getting my combination first/second grade class together for mass and realized we had a few minutes before we had to walk over to the church. So… not one to like to waste time I thought I would go ahead and allow some to share their “Show and Tell.” One little boy brought in some handcuffs. I was so grateful when he told the story of how he got the handcuffs from his dad who was a police officer. Long story short he shared his “item” and them hooked them around his hands. We all gave him the glory he was looking for and I then asked him to remove them so we could get in line for church. After awhile of tugging and pulling on them he sheepishly said they were “stuck” I tried pulling on them and realized they were locked and asked him for the key. After a little time and a lot of “Oh No what do I do?” His dad was called, but he went with his very embarrassed first year teacher to mass handcuffed. Lesson learned: check out the “Show and Tell” before it is actually shared.

SmWonder00 said…

I spent the entire summer planning and organizing for my first year of teaching. I had all types of materials and ideas and back up ideas. I was lucky to get a great job in a great school teaching first grade. But a GREAT challenge lay ahead of me! One of my students was in a temporary wheelchair after a random accident. She was completely healed, but her leg muscles were not strong enough for her to walk. So she needed me to push her everywhere, put her in and take her out of the wheelchair and rearrange my room to accommodate a large wheelchair. Problem was: I’m a very small person and she was a very tall first grader. So while I was helping her or pushing her down the hall…what do you think the other kids were doing the first few weeks of school when I had intended to lay down clear expectations? That is something that is not taught in college…what to do with a child in a temporary wheelchair that is about the same size as you and needs extensive help the first week of school (and how to manage the other kids at the same time!). Lesson Learned: Be flexible…things won’t always go as planned, but you can still make it work.

Glenda Dunson said…I was “initiated” into my first year with a particularly unruly group of fourth graders. One day as they began arguing and fussing, I needed a moment of peace. I told them to put their heads on their desks for five minutes. I was very frustrated and let them know that if anyone spoke during the five minutes, I would reset the timer. Well, one little girl tried to get my attention a several times. Needless to say our five minutes ended up being closer to 15. When they finally were allowed to lift their heads, I hand happened to brush the front of my shirt with my hand. I was mortified to discover that I felt skin where my shirt should have been covering my stomach. The material from the bottom of my shirt had somehow gotten tucked under my bra and my stomach was showing! I was horrified! The girl who had been trying to get my attention saw my face and mouthed the words – “That’s what I was trying to tell you.” Lesson learned: Listen to the kids! Even if you have to discreetly take them aside or let them whisper in your ear. Their persistence is usually important. Anonymous said…This lesson learned was probably in my twelfth year of teaching in my third grade classroom. For science we were using the FOSS kits on Structures of Life. One of the main lessons was a crayfish unit. One morning upon entering the hallway to my classroom about 6:15 a.m. I see something up ahead on the floor. As I get closer I say to myself, “No way”. There on the floor in the middle of the hallway was a dead crayfish. It had crawled out of the covered bin, walked out of my classroom down the hallway, and turned down another hallway only to meet its early death. I was a little freaked out wondering how that could have happened. Walked into my classroom to find 5 more of those critters had escaped and didn’t make it. Upon looking at the bins they were still covered but there was an opening through the tagboard. Large enough to escape. ( I left that opening thinking they might need more oxygen.) I was so nervous and disappointed to explain to the students why we had 6 less crayfish to study. It was a very teachable moment for us all: Cover the tub of a crayfish bin completely and don’t leave them on the floor. Zuleika Maldonado said…The first year I taught third grade was horrific! I had 29 students and the all the students with behavior issues. They fought and argued all day,at recess they really showed off and one of them even stole my cell phone! So, during a math lesson in measurement, students had to measure certain objects around the classroom. As I was bending down to help a group of kids, another student used a meter stick to measure the width of my buttocks!!! The kids were all laughing and I didn’t know why. When I turned around I see him holding the ruler with two hands and about to measure again!! I stopped the lesson immediately, I was so embarrassed!!!! I was also very upset because I thought it was very disrespectful. However, I knew if I blew up it wouldn’t be productive and the other kids were enjoying the lesson, so I kind of laughed it off and ask the little boy to keep that measurement to himself and that they had to measure objects not body parts. During the end of the day, I did have a class meeting and had a discussion on what happened during math time. I talked to this student afterschool and made a call home that night. His mom was embarrassed as well but told me that her son has a huge crush on me!! I was like oh boy…I’ll have to keep that in mind in planning future lessons…lol. Anonymous said…My first experience with interesting behavior was my very first day of student teaching. After this experience I really wondered if I was doing the right thing!! I was with a teacher who had been teaching for many years, in fact she was close to retiring. She was awesome, very energetic and spent lots of time with lessons and everything. I learned a lot from her. We were in kindergarten and it was the first day of school. Kindergarten was only a half of day and this was the first session. The kids
were sitting on the floor. The teacher was up front on a chair, she had a dress on. As she is trying to teach kindergarteners the proper way to sit on the floor for morning news. A little boy crawls up to the front of the room, crawls under her dress and says in a very loud voice, “I smell you!” I was horrified, the teacher was horrified and in total shock. She tried to get the little boy out of the middle of the group, which was really hard because he was stubborn. Eventually she got him back by me and I pretty much had to sit with him that day to keep in on track. The best thing that I can say about this experience is that I was NOT by myself. My cooperating teacher was wonderful through and I think because of how she handled the situation and helped me through it is what keep me going!

Patricia said…

During my internship I decided to make Oobleck with 4th graders in celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Oobleck is a Non-Newtonian fluid made out of cornstarch and water. It is also a HUGE mess when you don’t have a whole day to spend on a science lesson. I gave thorough expectations, a thought guided workseeet, and I even made the activitiy into a contest to see which group of students could keep their floor area the cleanest. Needless to say all the students went crazy with Oobleck and the classroom floor was a mess. The students wanted to take their creations home so my supervising teacher and I spent time labeling zip loc bags with each student’s name while they cleaned up their desk area. This took away from our discussion time but the students had fun. I, on the other hand, did not have much fun with the time I spent after school vacuuming so the custodian would not have to do it. I have learned some valuable lessons: 1) when it comes to messy science projects to split them into two or more days so there is time for instructions, comprehensive discussions, and clean up. 2) I also learned that putting newspaper not only ON TOP of the desk but on the floor would have been ideal too.3) Oobleck is not meant to be taken home, it goes bad the next day and the parents were not happy with it when their child told them not to throw it down the sink because it would clog up the drain. =)

elainaann said…

I have only been teaching three years so I’m sure there is still a lot for me to learn in my teaching career. However, I’ve already learned a lot in these three years. One of my biggest lessons is about preparation. One evening I searched online all evening trying to figure out what we were going to do the following day. Things had changed big time with my lesson plans and I needed a great one day lesson. After much research, I finally found a great lab to do with my students. I even had all the materials that I needed in my classroom. I printed it off, ran copies the next morning, and got everything ready. The students got started and about half way through this not so clean lab, we realized it didn’t work. I needed a specific kind of dirt. Go figure. With that and a few similar situations before, I learned always always do the lab before you have students to do. This allows you to work through all the kinks. Anonymous said…Over the years, I have come to realize a few very important lessons regarding field trips. One year, we had a dump of snow on the day that we were to go to the skating rink for a “fun skate” before Christmas break. The bus was only slightly late due to the snowfall, but parents started picking their students up early because of it. By the time we finally got to the rink (after the bus sliding a few times and getting caught behind other cars/trucks)we all took a grateful breath…only to find out that the rink had thought we weren’t going to show and had sent their staff home. The kids did get to skate for a little while, but then we ended up calling the rest of the parents to come and get them (because the bus was stuck in a ditch). Needless to say, I learned to call ahead in unforseen weather, NOT go on a field trip in a snowstorm, and always pack snowboots just in case. The second lesson was learned when I asked for parent drivers for a field trip that would take about 45 minutes to get to. I had them all fill out a driver’s record (as for the school policy) and gave them directions and specific instructions of where they were to meet me. I don’t know what happened (I guess I should have really made sure that ALL the parents actually were listening), but one of the cars ended up stopping to get ice cream and gas (and being 30 minutes late for the trip) AND then got lost on the way back as well (due again to getting gas and a ‘treat’ for the kids in her car). Amazing to me since we were all travelling together on the way back….the funny thing is this happened another time as well (and then another time for the teacher the following year). Lesson learned: some parents should not be drivers for field trips, and others really need to have things clarified for them (or have you go with them). So, it’s not always the kids that need the management, but the teacher and the parents as well. Seawaters said…Like one of the previous posters, I had a bad habit of NOT checking out the items for sharing during Show and Tell. Needless to say, I learned the hard way–one young girl brought a vibrator for sharing. Luckily, it was eventually noticed just before it was to go on public display. Now when an excited student comes up and wants to share his or her Show and Tell item, I will always oblige!

Jackie Richter said…

Don’t bite off more than you can chew! This past year was my first year as a lead teacher with a new LA curriculum teaching 4 different grade levels. And then I volunteered to be the first teacher to use a Promethean Board. I LOVE the board, but I pushed myself to learn it and make interactive flipcharts with it for every lesson. All the while, I was making my lesson plans for 4 different grades and learning all the new curriculum. (I never taught middle school LA before.) Definitely a hard lesson to learn about pacing yourself! By the end of the year, I was exhausted. I will definitely NOT do that again.

John Spencer said…

I learned a few my first year: 1. Prep kids on field trips. Practice it ahead of time and never ass
ume they’ll do (or not do) anything. I had kids almost get hit when jaywalking. 2. Never place your phone in a reachable area for students. One 9-1-1 phone calls was enough for me. 3. Shift from grading to assessment and from individual assignments to larger projects. This way you spend more time giving meaningful feedback. 4. As dumb as this might sound, bring water. Drink it all day. I turn into a monster when I’m dehydrated. Jan T. said…I love using manipulatives for math. To minimize the time for kids to get their manipulatives and to be sure all are collected at the end of math, I put a set of manipulatives into a plastic bag for each child. Each ziplock bag is labeled with a student number, since student are given permanent numbers for the year. That system makes it easier to see if any manipulatives are missing, and to immediately identify which student is responsible for the missing materials. The system worked very well for a couple years. Then I had little Johnny. Johnny (obviously not his name) was ADHD like no child I’d ever seen. He was incredibly bright, but dedicated his life to making things “interesting” for those around him. On the first day I introduced the class to the ziplock bag system, everything seemed to go well – engaged, interested students making discoveries, all was good. Then, from behind me I heard a very loud bang and I jumped several feet off the floor. Well, not really, but it sure felt like it! Johnny had blown air into his empty ziplock bag, zipped it, and popped it. Ever since that day, I have always, without fail, punched a hole in every ziplock bag I gave my students. And it’s the one lesson of unexpected complications that I always tell new teachers! Anonymous said…At the end of my first year of teaching 5th grade I noticed some boys arguing in line as we were entering the classroom. I pulled them aside and quickly learned that they had lost a $100 bill! Apparently one of the boys offered the other $100 to rent his brand new IPOD touch (worth ~$220). The boy quickly agreed, but then later changed his mind and quickly tried to shove the money in his pocket, but it fell out in the hallway as we were going to lunch. Knowing the imminent parental frustration that was about to occur I traveled with them to the office where I quickly learned unbeknownst to the boys that a fellow colleague had found it! Thank goodness. I could only imagine the parental reaction. Goes to show you never know what the day will toss at you. C. Rowley said…Using the bathroom as a teacher always seems like a privilege (especially when your planning period is towards the end of the day)! During my planning period my first year, I hustled to the restroom relieved to have the opportunity. Unfortunately, in my haste and attempt to “stay clean in a public restroom” the inevitable happened (granted I had also gained a few pounds)—my pants ripped! I tried to pull my shirt as far down my backside as possible on my way to my room. Thankfully, I used my sweater that I also keep on the back of my chair as a shield and tied it around my waist. Fortunately I only had one more class to teach before the end of the day. Despite being caught off-guard I didn’t lose my cool, on the other hand, I had a new fashion accessory the rest of the day! Lesson learned: Always keep a sweater in the classroom, it does more than keep you warm on a cold day!

WideIEyedWonder said…

When I was in my first year of teaching I walked into a classroom where a lesson was already taking place and it was my job to help continue and co-teach. This particular lesson was on adjectives. The students were given sheets of paper (which I had cut out and copied in advance) with little adjective squares that they needed to cut out and then match to the picture that they best described. When I walked into the room one of my students yelled out, “Hey, Miss H, what does HORNY mean?!” I almost started in on a lecture about appropriate questions for class when I looked down at the sheet to see the word horny and the corresponding picture of a toad. My middle school teacher friends are constantly editing material for “appropriateness” (and students will take the most innocent things out of context these days) and I think we can all agree: I learned to preview everything that I give to the students, even the things that I get from other much more experienced teachers. Gabrielle Healy from Ireland said…I have too many to recall after ten years of teaching in a disadvantaged area of Dublin. However, these are my faves – 1. A little girl aged 5 telling the community police officer that her mammy also had handcuffs, but they were “pink and all fluffy”! 2. A little girl telling me she had a coldslaw on her lip and wouldn’t believe me that that wasn’t the proper word 3.Being in Ireland, our children make their Holy Communion in Second Class, when they are 7/8 years old. Every week, we take the classes over to Mass in the Church beside us. One year I had a child in my class with lots of special ed needs. He spent lots of time sitting beside me asking me questions through Mass and one day I was shushing him a lot because he was very loud….In the middle of the Gospel, he obviously has enough of me telling him to be quiet and ROARED out “Teacher, teacher, Is Jesus alive???”. The rest of the congregation all turned agog while I nodded and smiled, eyes fixed firmly on Father Dave!! Lessons Learned – keep nodding and smiling, whatever happens. 😉

peace in the classroom said…

As a first year teacher, you always tend to try things you’ve seen before without really knowing if they will work for you. In my first year, I came up with a list of classroom jobs with my first graders and assigned each child a job. They all drew pictures of their jobs which I pasted onto cute colorful envelopes and then I put the children’s names on little popsicle sticks and place each stick in the child’s job. It looked so cute and organized and community oriented. It was a disaster. The kids used our 5 minute weekly “job” time to fool around. When we had a need for sweeping or watering the plants, or even taking the attendance to the office, I found myself asking different, more capable, children to help than those on the jobs list. This caused children to get upset and say “it’s not fair, that’s my job” (even though said child had just misbehaved). Our classroom jobs became a negative thing. Also, the kids weren’t really helping me, and we all know that without a TA or para in the room, we NEED help! Anyway, during my second year of teaching, we still made the list and
the pictures of the classroom jobs together, but this time I didn’t assign any names. I realized that I wanted all of the children to be able to do all of the jobs at some point. I wanted the classroom to run so smoothly and be so organized so that anyone could do any job. It works so much better for me. If I need someone to water the plants, I ask to see “who is excellent” which is a great motivator for the children. The kids also know that if they can’t clean up safely, they can’t help, end of story. I rarely have any problems with clean up or classroom organization anymore and the kids are a HUGE help to me. It has gotten to the point where sometimes they just help out without even being asked. It’s great. Everyone always asks me how I manage it without a para or assistant. I always say that 25 little helpers is better than one big one. I sometimes actually feel bad for my student teachers when I have them because the students know what to do better than they do.

Brittany said…

After just completing my first year of teaching, I have learned MANY new things to do with classroom management. One of the most important being that if a student isn’t sitting still in their seat doesn’t mean that they aren’t learning. I had a student in my class who I will never forget. The student was entertaining and always full of knowledge. This knowledge did not come to him while he was sitting still in his seat. He would often stand up, wander, lay down, and even spun circles from time to time. No matter what type of question was thrown at this student, he could answer it without a problem. He also could recall everything that was just said to the class. One of the funniest things this student enjoyed doing was making sounds into the fan in the classroom (no a/c). During a few times (thankfully not during lessons), he went to the fan and talked like Darth Vadar. Let me just say, he is one student I will not forget and a student who taught me to relax and enjoy what I was doing and to accept the individuality of each student!

Kelly Tenkely said…

My first year as a computer teacher a second grader (who I swear is Dennis the Mennace incarnate) came up to me before class and asked “Can I lick the chocolate off of my headphones?” Confused, I asked for clarification “why is there chocolate on your headphones?” He answered with a, “they were in my pocket.” As if that should solve the mystery. “So can I lick the chocolate off?” I needed more clarification, “why do you have chocolate in your pocket?” Now he looked like a deer caught in the headlights: “Because I’m not allowed to eat chocolate, my mom says it makes me hyper. So I sneaked chocolate into my pocket and then when I need a little I stick my fingers in and lick the chocolate off. I forgot which pocket it was in and put my headphones in there so I didn’t have to carry them down the hall. Now they have chocolate all over them and I want to lick it off.” Lesson 1: There is always a perfectly reasonable explanation (in a child’s mind) for any strange act they may commit. Lesson 2: Collect and hand out headphones, left to their own devices the headphones will be chewed on, stuffed into pockets, and licked after getting covered in melted chocolate. Lesson 3: know your audience, I had to be on my toes with this class!

Kelly said…

Okay, forgive me but after reading Brittany’s comment I have to add one more lesson learned. I too had a student who could not sit still for anything. He was the biggest boy in my second grade class and constantly moving around, adjusting in his seat and rolling around on the floor. If you could get him to complete a task, you would find that he was one of the brightest students in the class. He needed to move to learn. I learned to let him move while I taught, it kept him focused on what I was teaching and not on trying to stay still. One day he was wearing those pants that button up both sides. I was teaching math and he was in the back of the classroom climbing on his seat and sliding down the back. The next time I looked up he was standing next to his seat with his pants around his ankles in his underwear! During his adjusting, the pants got caught on the chair and all the buttons unsnapped. He stood frozen until I gave him a wink and kept teaching. He quickly gathered his pants and hid behind my desk. None of the other kids had even noticed. After the lesson I went looking for him and found him trying to button the pants back up…it was not going well. I quickly helped him and wrote a note home to let mom know that although very comfortable, these were not ideal pants for her son. Becky N, said…This is going to sound terribly boring but I would say that the biggest lesson I have learned with classroom management is the management of paperwork and resources. I have to echo what you say, Angela, about running copies as far in advance of the lesson as possible. For me I always felt like I was chasing my tail (and wasting so much time) trying to get organized in the classroom without really knowing HOW to do it. So for example, not being able to find an overhead transparency several minutes into a literacy lesson = anxious teacher, bored kids. Not being able to find a parent’s new cell phone number because I scribbled it on the back of an envelope then placed that envelope …hmm…somewhere. Really it was the Cornerstone book that helped me with so much of this. I used to think that being organized meant putting papers in a neat pile on top of my desk. Whoever wins the book is a lucky person; it was one of my best investments. I’m about to take it off the shelf and dig-in again, to get ready for the new school year.

Sarah said…

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…. “http://imadreamerteacher.blogspot.com/” rel=”nofollow”>teachin’ said…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.

Melissa said…

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!

Michigan Mom said…

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!

lagmom said…

I actually learned this during an observation of a teacher. On the first day in her classroom, I sat there very excited but soon found out that the class was out of control. One of the students got into trouble for not listening and was required to sit behind the teachers desk. He then proceeded to kick the trashcan across the entire length of the classroom and throw himself onto the floor. When the teacher called for the principal, she couldn’t be found and the child was ignored for this behavior and never repremanded for his actions. Lesson learned: I saw the mistake that she made by ignoring him and letting it go. She later told me he caused a lot of trouble and wasn’t worth the effort or the time she would spend on his consequence. I have learned that every child is worth a little extra effort and that keeping a classroom under control is worth all of the time in the world if your students behave and respect you.

Julie said…

During my student teaching I learned that push pins/thumbtacks should be kept hidden and out of sight. My teacher and I had some things thumbtacked to the wall near her desk. One day, a dear child got very angry and in his bullying went and took two pushpins from the wall and then proceeded to chase another student around the classroom. Yeah that was quite a day. From now on I’ll use that tacky sticky stuff instead and keep the pushpins far far away.

janette said…

I was a pretty new teacher working with students with learning disabilities in a Maryland Public School. I had several groups going during reading/language arts time, so I sent the students who were finished their work early out into the hallway with this really cool “speak and spell”. Some unsuspecting teachers walked by in time to hear some cuss words in a computerized voice. I was embarrassed, but my naive factor lessened on that day. I still find myself trusting some kids more than they probably deserve, but I guess it is just in my nature.

luckeyfrog said…

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.