I have a very challenging student in one of my classes. He has a long history of behavioural issues and has very patchy attendance. His first day in my class, he repeatedly unplugged peripherals from my computer and sabotaged the lesson. In one of our most recent lessons, he locked me out of my classroom and sat on his chair on the other side of the door. He is .... challenging.
My tactics with this kid from the outset have been clear - build relationship first, tackle academic achievement second.
Well, after a pretty patchy start I think Operation Relationship Building is underway. I 'bonded' with this kid today over a particular 1970s musician, and went so far as to pull up Youtube on my Smartboard to educate the uninitiated in our class. This was simply in response to him showing some enthusiasm about this musician, who I was speaking about earlier in the class.
This is a kid who I have to measure my successes with in very small steps. My successes with him today were getting through a whole lesson without him swearing; having him actually smile at me; having him be the last out the door because he was in no hurry to leave the classroom; him actually having his book out, and contributing to a discussion about grammar.
I know I'm not going to help this kid become a brain surgeon. But if I help him see that not all figures of authority are braindead, uncool, restrictive, unfair, mean, etc... then I've done something. And if all he learnt today was that "homo" means "same", then I've unlocked a bunch of new words for him. And if he turns up tomorrow and doesn't feel like locking me out of my classroom, that's a step forward.
I have to see the glass as half full sometimes. Seeing it as half empty, with some kids, is heartbreaking.
Showing posts with label behaviour management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label behaviour management. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Behaviour Management
I feel I have to remind myself right now that I've only been teaching for six weeks, and I'm still learning... But I hate not knowing how to do everything straight away, the moment I need it.
I had my most challenging class (in terms of behaviour management) this morning, with assistance from a lovely executive teacher who works with me in this class for two hours per week. They were angels. Well, in comparison to their normal behaviour. The disheartening thing about this is that I can't get them to be angels by myself. By myself, I am shouting over the din, writing names on the whiteboard, moving students to time-out desks, sending students to other classes for time-out, calling parents, experimenting with positive reinforcement and challenges, and just generally struggling to teach them.
Don't get me wrong, this probably sounds worse than it is. I LIKE this class - at least, I like all the individuals IN this class. But together they're tough work. I'll break them in eventually (because the only alternative is them breaking me, and that ain't happening).
It's just disheartening because my executive teacher makes controlling them look so easy. So easy, in fact, that it's hard to pinpoint what she's doing right and I'm doing wrong. Another teacher told me today that it's because she has "The Vibe", and that I don't have that.
Harking back to my teacher training last year, I'm guessing "The Vibe" is one of Thomas Nielsen's "Powers": Referent Power, Position Power, etc. I'm reading Bill Rogers' "Behaviour Management" at the moment too, and it's abundantly clear from the way Rogers writes that he has "The Vibe" too.
The question is, how do I get it?
I had my most challenging class (in terms of behaviour management) this morning, with assistance from a lovely executive teacher who works with me in this class for two hours per week. They were angels. Well, in comparison to their normal behaviour. The disheartening thing about this is that I can't get them to be angels by myself. By myself, I am shouting over the din, writing names on the whiteboard, moving students to time-out desks, sending students to other classes for time-out, calling parents, experimenting with positive reinforcement and challenges, and just generally struggling to teach them.
Don't get me wrong, this probably sounds worse than it is. I LIKE this class - at least, I like all the individuals IN this class. But together they're tough work. I'll break them in eventually (because the only alternative is them breaking me, and that ain't happening).
It's just disheartening because my executive teacher makes controlling them look so easy. So easy, in fact, that it's hard to pinpoint what she's doing right and I'm doing wrong. Another teacher told me today that it's because she has "The Vibe", and that I don't have that.
Harking back to my teacher training last year, I'm guessing "The Vibe" is one of Thomas Nielsen's "Powers": Referent Power, Position Power, etc. I'm reading Bill Rogers' "Behaviour Management" at the moment too, and it's abundantly clear from the way Rogers writes that he has "The Vibe" too.
The question is, how do I get it?
Monday, October 18, 2010
Mid-Prac Exhaustion
I'm three weeks into my prac, with two weeks to go. I'm feeling flat tonight, having sensed my mentor teacher's possible disappointment with some aspects of my performance. There's no doubting I put the hours in when it comes to preparation - I have my lesson plans chunked down into 10-20 minute intervals, addressing learing outcomes, taking inspiration from my school's favoured unit planning framework, allowing space for reflection, and so on. But my weak point appears to be behaviour management. It's not so much that I don't know what to do, but that in someone else's classroom, with someone else's rules, I don't feel comfortable enforcing my expectations.
In my placement I'm teaching two different teacher's classes; one teacher is laid-back, cruisy, with a level of patience I envy and a seeming ability to tune out from the noise level of the classroom. Her students are boisterous, chatty, cheeky, and often just plain rude - but loveable nonetheless. My other teacher seems to accept less "problem" behaviour, and expects me to as well, which is fine by me - but I don't seem to have the control I need in her classroom. Students disregard my instructions or answer back, and I'm reluctant to escalate my response to the point of a power struggle, when a low-key response should be enough.
*sigh*
I'm also finding that I need to provide far more scaffolding than I anticipate - even for older students who I would have thought were capable of being more autonomous than they are. I seem to keep failing to chunk tasks down into small enough bites for them to manage - but I feel like I'm holding all their hands through tasks that really shouldn't need as much structure and scaffolding as I have to provide. What I'm wondering is, at what point does scaffolding become hand-holding?
In my placement I'm teaching two different teacher's classes; one teacher is laid-back, cruisy, with a level of patience I envy and a seeming ability to tune out from the noise level of the classroom. Her students are boisterous, chatty, cheeky, and often just plain rude - but loveable nonetheless. My other teacher seems to accept less "problem" behaviour, and expects me to as well, which is fine by me - but I don't seem to have the control I need in her classroom. Students disregard my instructions or answer back, and I'm reluctant to escalate my response to the point of a power struggle, when a low-key response should be enough.
*sigh*
I'm also finding that I need to provide far more scaffolding than I anticipate - even for older students who I would have thought were capable of being more autonomous than they are. I seem to keep failing to chunk tasks down into small enough bites for them to manage - but I feel like I'm holding all their hands through tasks that really shouldn't need as much structure and scaffolding as I have to provide. What I'm wondering is, at what point does scaffolding become hand-holding?
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