Of course there would always be new exciting lesson plans for me to try, and I could always learn something about literature or grammar, but for the most part I felt confident that I would be able to run a classroom with ease.
"Kids like me," I thought to myself, as I would barely skim my Sprick textbook on classroom management. "There's no way I'll struggle with keeping my students in line. The teachers that struggle just don't know their students well enough."
I don't know if the term "LOL" is appropriate in a professional blog post, but I just have to use it anyway.
LOL
LOLOLOLOLOL.
I am laughing out loud at the Michaela from a year ago.
And now I'm yelling at my past myself. "HOW COULD YOU BE SO NAIVE?!"
I am struggling.
A lot.
And I'm mad at myself for not taking good 'ole Randall Sprick more seriously when I had the chance. What atheistis are to religion, I was to the Sprick text. I was a Sprick-eist.
But now, I'm a full blown believer.
The man has things to say and we should listen.
Classroom management in a middle school classroom is an extremely difficult thing to obtain, yet it is vital. If a teacher does not have control of his/her classroom things instantly fall apart. Teaching becomes impossible, and instad of getting to focus on the concepts and lessons that you are passionate about, the only thing you end up putting your energy toward is figuring out how you can keep from crying until the bell rings (***this may just be a personal thing).
I know that I am not stating anything new or revolutionary, and I'll be honest. This blog post is mainly being composed for selfish reasons.
After reviewing the Sprick text, below are my new classroom management goals for the rest of the semester:
Goal # 1: Design an Efficient System for Monitoring and Recording Daily Classsroom Behavior Points (Sprick, 43).
I tried to implement a recording sheet like Professor Cramer uses in our classes while I was teaching my lesson. However, I found that it was extremely hard to document all of the misbheavior going on while also managing questions and helping students with their assignment. I think this means that I'm flawed, and not the system, so my goal is to practice while I'm still in more of an observing role in order to get the hang of it. Sprick mentions the importance of having a legend down at the bottom of the sheet for common misbehaviors, which I think will come handy. Even if my teacher doesn't utilize these records for anything, I'm curious to see how students will respond if I show them how many tallies they got for that day.
Goal #2: Move throughout the room more as I teach and observe. During my lesson plan I tended to lecture up toward the front and did not circulate the room unless the students were working on individual work. My second goal is to practice teaching while being mobile, and feeling more comfortable with roaming and talking. Sprick mentions that closer you are in proximity to issues, the more likely they are to stop (p.115).
Goal #3: Address student misbehaviors unemotionally. I'm normally pretty good about keeping my cool, but after the third or fourth time I'm having to tell a student something, I start to let my emotions show and students can tell that I'm frustrated. Sprick mentions that students feed off of this, and I need to practice staying composed (p. 120).
Goal #4: While I am not doling out consequences at this stage in my career, I do still want to remember to be consistent. If I tell one student that he cannot go to the bathroom, then I cannot let any students go to the bathroom. If I get mad at one student for constantly talking, I cannot let other students talk quietly, even if they are still working and not being extremely distracting. I must also respond to misbehavior the same way everytime (Sprick, p.119)
Goal #5: Try to have at least one positive interaction with every student a day. This can include compliments for behavior, work, or non-contingent things such as clothing, or asking them about their lives outside of school. A lot of students feel like victims, and I don't want to feed into that misconception. I want to show students that I do care about them and respect them, but that they must also do the same for me.
Hopefully by implementing these goals I will see progress within my 8th grade classroom. I must remember that progress will not happen in one day. But I'm confident that with Sprick and patience in my corner, I can come out of the boxing ring that has become my middle school English classroom a victor.
Works Cited
Michaela,
ReplyDeleteI love this post! I can certainly identify with the totally unwarranted arrogance upon entering the program: I too felt like my natural talents and inclinations would almost entirely suffice. I am amazed at how much I learn DAILY that tweaks and sometimes completely alters my approach to teaching.
I appreciate your goals, and I will make them my own. You have inspired me to dip back into my Sprick text knowing what I know now. You are teaching a great literacy lesson here: read and learn, then reread and learn. I have new ears and new perspectives now, and I will therefore attach myself to new concepts within Sprick's text.
I'm sorry to hear that you are struggling, but please know that we all are. The important thing is that you are confronting your obstacles pragmatically. I have no doubt that you are and will be a terrific teacher.
best,
Mary
I honestly don't know who Sprick is off the top of my head. Classroom management can definitely be taught and at the middle school level you need to become a stone cold mama jama. Yes, you can still have fun, but turning yourself into a big meanie also means that you will probably have fewer days of not holding back tears until the bell rings.
ReplyDeleteI have had days subbing at the middle school level where I was defeated and wanted to cry, and it all stemmed from having out of control classes. Allowing middle school students to get out of control takes no effort at all. It takes one balled up notebook paper to fly across the room towards a trash can and then all hell breaks loose.
Michaela, you must get out your inner drill sergeant. I know she is in there, underneath all the cheeriness and constant smiling lies Sgt. Liebst. You can still cry, Michaela, because that is who your are, and we don't want to change that, but you must construct your chrysalis and reemerge as your new self.
In all seriousness. The fact that you have implemented goals to help your classroom management shows me that you are ready to make improvements to yourself and your students. Goal #4 is the hardest. Denying one student a pass and giving another feels so cruel, but I think we will learn that is must be done. If it is an emergency then, yes obviously sign a pass, but we know which students use passes to get out of work time.
Cheers,
Josh
Love the dialogue happening here ... thinking about doing a shared reading of this post in my CI 423 class this week ... Yes. That is the plan.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Love the honesty and humor too.
ReplyDeleteYou might check out Ch. 7 of Sprick's Discipline in the Secondary Classroom: "Monitor Student Behavior." It's got all kinds of strategies for observing and documenting student behavior, as well as reflecting on what types of behavior you're responding to. This aligns with your Goal #5 somewhat, although Sprick argues that teachers need to not just provide positive feedback but also increase their attention to positive behaviors 3:1 to negative behaviors. In other words, we need to attend to our students' positive behaviors three times as often as we respond to their negative behaviors. Remember that? Just some food for thought. You should see if you can get your hands on a copy of the book again--and keep it this time. :-)
ReplyDelete