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The Elephant in the Room
You’re back from Thanksgiving. You can’t wait for Christmas Break! You never expected so many individual and classroom management problems to develop, but they have. Every day, you have the same confrontations with the same classes and the same kids. What was bad before is getting worse. Students still come into your class too noisy. They are too noisy once they get into the room. You’re raising your voice more. Students worry less about what you expect and, even less about what you will do to them if they misbehave. They don’t quiet down and listen when you want to start the session. They talk when you are talking. During seatwork, they talk more and more about things other than the assignment. They interrupt each other and call or shout out answers. They talk over each other. They don’t raise their hands when they have a question. They shout out answers. Transitions from one activity to another take way to long and the transition is far too noisy. A video is impossible. You find yourself actually wishing some students could not come to school. The best parts of the day are starting to become your planning period, lunch and the dismissal bell. Absolutely no learning is taking place.
Students who are practiced at misbehaving can skillfully consume a fifty-minute session. Let’s do the math: It takes 10 minutes to start. You spend 10 minutes telling the same students the same things. It takes you 5 minutes to make sure everyone has what he or she need for the lesson. 10 minutes is spent in wasted transition time. You use 10 minutes explaining and re-explaining. What should have taken 10 minutes takes 45. You and the class are headed in the wrong direction. There is hope. Not everyone starts out a skillful classroom manager. How do you fix this after Christmas?
New Beginnings
You don’t wait until January. Invite a colleague who is a very good classroom manager observe you. Have them video you, if they can and will. Review the video with your school’s best classroom manager and ask them for their suggestions. Try to select a colleague who is effective with the same students. Ask the building principal to suggest someone. Watch the film yourself. Make observations about your behavior and then watch the film with your colleague. Focus on the “critical contexts” of the session: 1) pre-instruction; 2) opening; 3) direct instruction; 4) student-initiated questions; 5) student-initiated disruptions; 6) transitions; 7) closings; and 8) post-instruction. See if you are behaving using the recommendations for behavior that I have listed in a previous column. Use your planning period to observe a colleague with excellent management skills.
New Rules and Accountability
Before the semester ends and students leave for Christmas, you need to talk with the difficult students or class about the semester. I did this with a particular period of social studies. “We have been together almost a full semester and I am not happy with your cooperation and behavior. You know that. When you come back from Christmas, we will have a new seating arrangement. I will introduce and explain a simple set of five rules that will be strictly enforced. I am going to communicate with your parents about these expectations and our instructional goals for the spring. We are going to simplify the rules and you are going to be more accountable. What has been happening is unacceptable and not fair to anyone. You know how to behave in a classroom. I am going to clarify what I expect in every session and will be more consistent with the consequences.” Every teacher I have ever observed with management problems made the same two obvious mistakes. They ignored reoccurring threats to cooperation, so they got worse and multiplied. And, they did not follow through on consequences for misbehavior so they were not taken seriously. Expectations must be clear and consequences should be swift, just and escalating in consequence.
New Openings
Class sessions that open badly go badly. This happens because students start the session confused about goals, methods and expectations. An effective opening includes: 1) a routine call to order; 2) review of yesterday’s goals; 3) today’s goals; 4) activity and behavioral expectations; 5) check for materials and 6) a check for questions. Everybody should be quiet and listening.
New Seating
Students should be seated to maximize engagement and minimize distractions. The students that are the most talkative should be placed on opposite sides and ends of seating aisles such as front left and rear right. A new seating arrangement destabilizes old interactive patterns. It creates time for you to show that you intend to enforce new expectations.
New Instruction
If your best students have become management problems, then it is time to take a hard look at your instructional routines. The less engaging the activities of a lesson, the more disengaged students will be. How are you introducing your new content? How much material is being introduced? What activities are in place to help students learn material? How interesting is what you are doing? How much are you connecting your content to their experiences and lives? When and how are you testing for achievement? Teach and test on fewer objectives. Introduce a shorter distance between teaching and testing. If something needs to be memorized,
Put students in pairs, have them make up 3x5 flash cards and let them practice together. If you have the technology, access the Internet for information and content. Students will read off the web when they won’t read out of a textbook.
New Evaluation
A test can have 100 points taken off in a range from 100 to 0. Or, they can be taken off at “half the rate” from 100 to 50. Mistakes can cost the student half as much. Instead of 1 point per mistake, it is 1/2 a point. They get a chance for better grades. The amount you assign to a mistake can be influenced by the behavior of the students. The more cooperative they are, the less consequential any one mistake can be.
New Interests
If you are having a difficult time with students, one place to start is taking more of an interest in what they care about. Go to their sporting events. Talk with them about the TV they watch, the CDs they play, the hobbies they have. Why should they care about what you teach if you don’t care about what interests them? Good luck in January.
Dr. Douglas Brooks is a Professor in the Department of Teacher Education within the School of Education, Health and Society at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in classroom management. His research on the first days of school is referenced in Harry Wong’s popular book “The First Days of School.”
POSTED ON HOTCHALK.COM
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Editorial 
Roxanne Sikes
Taylor Middle School
Albuquerque, New Mexico
7th graders