THIS.IS.HOW.WE.DO

...we make a move and act a fool when we up in the class....

FIRST YEARS WITH LITTLE TIME ON YOUR HANDS, JUST READ THIS: THE BEST AND MOST SUMMARY ADVICE THAT I CAN GIVE YOU IS TO BE BOTH FAIR AND CONSISTENT IN YOUR CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT. THAT'S IT.

Now get back to lesson planning...nubes...

My classroom management this year was...different. Oftentimes it was horrible by a number of teachers' standards. Those are often the teachers who yell, degrade, and abuse (literally...in more ways than one) students. I'm not for any of those practices in the least. At the beginning of the year I started off with the philosophy that I would just "keep it real" with my students through-and-through. If they broke a rule, they received a consequence. If they did something especially good, they got a reward. If they said something funny (APPROPRIATELY funny, that is) I'd laugh. I did a fairly good job at going up the ladder of consequences but a pretty terrible job at doing the same for rewards. That's not cool. Also, none of my students ever got that custom t-shirt at the top of my rewards list if the students turned in 30 tickets. The reality of the classrooms that Teacher Corps puts us in is that you *have* to be an a-hole in order to have great classroom management. The sad reality is that students respond to teachers who are really, REALLY hard on them because that's often what they're used to. Anything less is an open invitation for anarchy at worst or at least controlled chaos more consistently. Philosophically and practically, I could not bring myself to be a dictatorial teacher  in many instances and thus, my classroom management suffered.

Surveying my prey.

Regarding my other recent post I have to acknowledge that, in part, my classroom management woes contributed to so many students failing my class. If your class isn't attentive and under control then very little learning will happen in the classroom. It's actually amazing how much we were able to accomplish on certain occasions when only one, crucial student was absent and/or suspended. Lovely. At times I would dole out no consequences when a bunch of students were talking or not staying on task or joking around. Other times I would kick out a bunch at a time...seven or more on numerous occasions. Not good (return to the top of the post...CONSISTENCY IS KEY). Note that students who have major academic deficiencies and students who are academically far beyond the other students will most likely give you your major and consistent disciplinary issues, first-years. The students who have academic deficiencies often act out to draw attention away from said academic deficiencies and, sometimes, to get put out of class (especially academically rigorous ones with teachers who don't give excessive breaks...mine!) and eventually sent home where academic burdens are non-existent. The students who are far beyond others academically act out because it's cool, to draw attention away from their academic astuteness (which often detracts from their social capital), or because they're simply bored with school.

Test time for first period.

A big issue that came up with my classroom management at the junior high level this past year was the fact that I do not paddle or, in any other more creative way, strike students. I don't feel like I have the social justification to hit a child. Perhaps legal in some instances, yes, but I do not feel right doing it. I think that last year I blogged about "the state" statutorily monopolizing legitimate violence against "the people" or something like that and, as an agent of the state, I cannot bring myself to beat poor, Black children and expect them not to fight back, rebel, and/or abhor me and that which I stand for. Strange, since I want them to develop these feelings towards the state though....

One of my whiz kids.

Next year, I plan to reform a few things. Firstly, I plan to have detention as my third consequence as oppose to the student calling home and explaining to their parent or guardian what they did wrong. I did not have a student call home one single time and this was in part due to my inability to turn my back on my room without them doing something crazy. Secondly, I plan to contact parents more often about disciplinary issues with their children and keep a better tally of infractions. My oft-plugged favorite teacher website (TeacherEase.Com!!!) does a great job of this as behavior logs--accessible by parents and printed out on progress reports--are one of the features there. Thirdly, I need to follow my own advice and be more consistent with my punishments and rewards. I can't emphasize how tough this is in the modern day Mississippi secondary classroom but I also can't emphasize how necessary this is to be a successful teacher. Also, I still believe in the mantra that "you catch more bees with honey than with salt" or something to that effect so I may try to over-reward them more than over-consequence (?) them. This could be disastrous. Or, this could be logic supported by science.