Dialog #5: Principles for Classroom Management Conversations

Is there a set of strategies that you utilize while coming up with the rationale? If you had to break down the way you manage students’ behavior in the classroom into concrete steps, what would those steps look like? Obviously there are outside factors that contribute to how you approach different students, but how do you incorporate that outside knowledge? And what do you do at the beginning of the school year when you have yet to develop that knowledge?

I think, ultimately, my basics of classroom management come down to the following:

Dialog #5: And ONE more!

• A group of students constantly act out in class. You cannot send them all outside, but they cannot work together. You’ve tried to separate their seats, but they are still disruptive, yelling at each other from across the room.

This is one of those moments when you might need to invoke the power of the masses.  Even if the group is seven or eight kids, they're still going to be out-numbered by the non-goofs in the class.  It takes some building, but establishing a culture in which kids actively monitor each other will take a LOT of the work out of what you do.  I'd give a little bit of preface lecture on "sink or swim" - that all of them affect the success of every ONE of them, and that EVERY student is responsible for every other student in the room.

Dialog #5: And MORE ...

• A student is not doing his/her work and refuses to talk to you about it because he/she hates you.

This one's mostly about time.  Remember: be in it to win the WAR, not the individual battles.  First off, a relationship should never have the opportunity to get THIS far off-track.  If a kid is starting to "hate" you (the word does not mean, for a student, what it does to you and I - take all extreme statements with a bit of salt, and remember the goldfish rule: kids have a 15 second memory!), you should spot the resentment and the tone issues as soon as they crop up.  

Dialog #5: EVEN More Scripts!

• After calling a student out for not completing their homework to the best of their ability, he/she complains that you are always picking on him/her because you hate him/her.

The response here depends on the volume.  If the kid makes a performance out of it, you have to send him out - politely: "Let's chat outside."  If he's quiet, you can be, too: "Hey - let's chat; do you want to step out so we can keep it private?  We need to work this out."

Once you get outside, you need to steer things quickly back from emo-world to the world of practicality.  This doesn't all need to come out all at once - these are mostly a mix of different messages that all connect:

Dialog #5: More Scripts for Classroom Management

• You are giving a lecture, and every once in a while a student would repeat what you just said in a mocking tone.

This one's easy - stop the FIRST TIME, and respond with shock and awe tactics.  If you know who it is, ask them calmly to leave the room.  If they respond by being upset ("WHAAT?!  I didn't DO anything!"), respond calmly: "Wait for me outside." 

Dialogue #5: Scripts for Building Relationships

We’ve been talking a lot about classroom management – specifically, how to rationalize with students so that things don’t escalate out of control. I know that you’ve already gone over how you would assess certain situations, but I think it would be beneficial for me if you could break down your rationale for the following situations:

• You go over to ask a student for their homework, and he/she retorts with sarcastic remarks. You explain to the student that you are not being unreasonable with your request, and did not deserve to be treated that way. The student gives you an insincere apology, to which you don’t accept. The student tells you that it is your problem for not accepting the apology, and that he/she will not apologize again.

This is an issue of endurance - you lost the battle, but if you're going to win the war, you'll have to stay in the trenches.  Being implacable/unflappable is something that takes time, but the more emotionally stable you can be, the better.

The key when a kid's giving you that kind of attitude is to make the entire discussion about actions: