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Classroom management is not an easy thing. If something works one day it won’t necessarily work the next day. Sometimes blowing the beginning of the year sets the stage for a difficult year. Sometimes no matter how bad things get there are still good times. In 21 years of working with kids ages 9 to 14 I have found no absolutes. I’ve tried Lee Canter’s assertive discipline. I’ve tried Fay’s love and logic. I’ve tried Greene’s collaborative problem solving. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve done any of those very well. 🙂
If I had to pinpoint what I do now it would have to be a combination of the three main strategies I’ve been trained in or learned. I’ve read many blogs about this topic lately and I have to say that it all makes my head spin. So much so that I’m writing about it now trying to understand my own thinking around this hot topic. Why hot? Because the classroom climate, how the kids all work together and with the teacher, determines whether kids will be successful and learn. So a lot rides of classroom management.
So here’s where I struggle, keeping my management style away from rewards and punishments. Assertive discipline was all about the rewards and punishment. I hated how it was like training dogs. I took a dog training class and trained a dog once and that’s what assertive discipline reminds me of. With love and logic and collaborative problem solving at least there is conversation with the kids. That’s how I naturally deal with problems in my classroom. When conversation fails I run out of tools and go into life saving mode, which usually entails relocation of a child.
The biggest problems in my classroom are problems that I have heard teachers say are my fault, student engagement. I’ve written a bunch about engaging students and what it boils down to is that I should make what they are learning so fun and relevant that they will want to work on it. I go back and forth on that one. I often talk with colleagues about students meeting us half way. If I bring iPads into my classroom so that students can blog, use social networking, create, connect and communicate I expect them to use those tools and ideas to do work. If students come to me with different ideas I hear them out and let them go with it. I try to give them choice within the topics we are studying. I teach Science so we get to do hands-on labs. Typically, there is a reflection part after a lab that looks less exciting than the lab. I don’t expect students to be on task, working every single minute of an entire class period. I’m flexible. Middle school kids are social so they need to be able to socialize but they should be able to make progress on their work every single day.
When I start to rely on assertive discipline and send kids on a time out is when nothing I’ve put in place works. If a kid isn’t getting any work done after I’ve explained it or gotten them started, I’ll ask that kid how I can help. If the kid needs help, I provide it. If that doesn’t work or the kid didn’t need help I ask what’s going on. If talking to the kid leads nowhere and that kid still refuses to do any kind of work that’s when I decide it’s time for something different. I give the kid the choice, you’re welcome to stay in here as long as you are working and learning. If that still doesn’t work then I send the kid for a time out or to give the kid a different space to work.
I just cannot talk to parents and tell them that I allowed their child to come to my class every day and do nothing. At least I can tell parents what I have done. I don’t like it when it turns into punishments because I know punishments are not the best way to change behavior. I don’t know if it’s hard because I only see kids for 50 or so minutes a day but I also owe it to the other kids in the room. For those who are working or for those who are easily distracted by those not working I have to do something. Maybe it would be best to just keep talking with kids everyday until I find out what will motivate them to learn Science and do some work, but I can’t bring myself to do that. What if it takes days, or weeks, or months? What will the other kids think? Or what will they do if they see that it’s acceptable in my room to just socialize and goof around every day during Science? Am I too old school? Don’t I owe their parents more?
I don’t know. I would love to abolish all rewards and punishments from my classroom. But there’s still that part of me that wants kids to sometimes work even when it’s not that motivating or even when it’s boring just because it’s not boring all the time. If I had the tools my students have when I was a kid I would have loved school and I would have loved working on projects. I value hard work and effort and all I’m asking is for students to make progress on their work every, single day. I can’t let go of that. So maybe it’s my fault. Maybe it’s their fault. Either way, my expectations are not going to change.
