Mr. K, Dialog #1 Cont'd: "Teaching in Action"

Over these next few months, I want to discover more of your strengths and skills as a teacher and take some of these skills with me when I have a classroom someday.  One I can think of right off the bat is your ability to “teach in action.” This is a term heavily used in my program about learning how to observe objectively, seeing student learning, and being perceptive enough to know that your lesson is effective or not. You are a pro at this. I realize that textbooks can only take you so far when training to be a teacher and that this skill gets better with experience. I guess I want to figure out how to become more perceptive. What should I be asking myself or to the students to figure out what’s working? How do I ensure all the students are learning during class?

Those are excellent questions to ask, and I think the first step to answering your questions is to KEEP asking those questions – both of yourself, and directly of the students.  Try to cultivate what I like to think of as “classroom vision.”  

Mr. K, Dialog #1: Teaching Academic Independence

Where do I begin? My experience so far in my teacher preparation program has been at the middle school level, so high school is quite new for me. For my first post, I think it would be a good idea to talk about my observations about you, my master teacher.  Then, I think it would be beneficial discuss some goals for our time together. 
I’ve been a little shocked by your teaching style, but in a very positive way. You have a very unique approach that I can tell is highly effective. I would have loved to be one of your students when I was in high school. I’m really curious to see how the students will evolve into scholars from now to December.

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:

Dialogue #4: Classroom Management and Establishing Classroom Culture

Last week, after observing Ms. R’s class, you asked me to consider pragmatic strategies on how I would handle the classroom. Honestly, seeing her class terrified me; I couldn’t parse all the variables that I would have to tackle, let alone come up with strategies that might help. However, after some thinking, there are a few things I would like to try.

Dialogue #1: Relationship-Building and Discipline

The relationship you’ve built with your students has really resonated with me. I think above school/classroom culture, differentiation, discipline, etc., relationships are key. I want to learn more about how you’ve formed those relationships. How do I get students to respect me as their teacher, but come to me as their confidant? I believe that your grading system is so effective because you’ve already built that relationship. Your students don’t seem to be afraid of the grade, but afraid to disappoint you. At the beginning of each class, you approach them the same way I’ve seen motivational speakers approach their audience. I’ve never considered doing that before, but I think it really plays into fueling your students’ enthusiasm for the day. To be honest, I don’t know if I would come off as genuine and empowering as you do; especially if I were to try it exactly the way you do it, but it is definitely something I want to explore further.

Again, I think honesty is key.  I don't lie to my students - even when a lie would be convenient or politic.  I speak to them the way I speak to adults, and I hold them to the same expectations.  Because they know they can trust me not to treat them as intellectually inferior, just experientially disadvantaged, they tend to be willing to come to me for advice on personal matters (which can sometimes backfire - especially in regards to the work/life divide, which you mention below!).