How do you maintain classroom discipline?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Last night on TNT they showed a tv-move, The Ron Clark Story, another inspirational tale about a teacher who volunteers to teach the baddest of the bad kids, and turns around their loser attitudes and remolds them into brilliant young citizens of the world. This was similar in spirit to earlier movies such as Stand and Deliver and To Sir, With Love.
From TV Guide, here is the premise:

After seeing that movie (which was an OK made-for-tv flick, pushing all the right emotional buttons), I wanted to start a thread to get your thoughts on classroom discipline.

In these nicely scripted dramas, the teacher does something creative to “get through” to the kids, which then causes the class to fall in line and be receptive to everything from that point. But the actors in the movies always follow their script, they don’t behave like real kids do.

So what are your thoughts regarding getting and maintaining classroom discipline? Is it something that’s teachable to others, or is there a huge unknown factor, maybe called “likeablity,” that overrides anything that a teacher actually does? How much training do colleges give to Education students regarding all of this? If you’re a teacher, what do you do on the first day of class?

2

It’s a whole combination of things. There is no magical formula that works for everybody. I have found, tho, that there certainly is an “X Factor” with teaching. This cannot be taught, and only maybe can be learned through experience. (More likely, it can be honed.)

From what I have heard of Education courses, they are mostly a waste of time. There may be some out there that actually have some science behind them, but, every story I have ever heard of one of my colleagues going through an ‘Education’ course has left me with a less than stellar notion of what is exactly being taught in said courses. I may leave teaching when they start making me attend said courses.

As far as day-to-day classroom management, the number one rule (for me) is: Keep 'em busy. If they’re doing work, it’s a lot harder for them to get in trouble.

However, as you have noted, it can be tough to get the kids into the idea behind being busy. The material has to have some sort of value for them. Teaching soil characteristics to a group of kids who just aren’t interested in science? You’ve gotta get them thinking about how this will directly effect them. Make 'em understand how this might effect their future hypothetical house. Same goes for any subject. Some kids can take an interest in knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but not many. For the large, large, LARGE majority of students, there must be some sort of direct application for them to take an interest.

Lastly, you have to be more than “The Teacher,” and they have to be more than “The Students.” You have to actually care about the kids and take an interest in them. If all they see in the person in front of the classroom is the person who stands at the front of the classroom, all they will be are the people who sit in the seats.

What do I do on the first day? I make sure they know what they’re in for. I scare 'em a little bit. I lay down the laws. And I make them see why being in my course is worth all of the frustration. Carrot and the stick, so to speak.

3

My mom says the secret is you never smile until Christmas - you can always lighten up, but you can’t get more strict.

4

Just Another Geek and Zsofia have provided good answers. I think education classes can be of value… but there is nothing like being in the trenches putting theory into practice. I taught in an inner-city elementary school in Houston for several years and went from being a possible hiring mistake to one of the best classroom managers in the school so I can certainly relate to the OP.

Deep down, kids hate chaos. They want order and predictability (to an extent). New teachers are in a chaotic state, which is at odds with what students need (but rarely say they actually want). Teachers have to be able to quickly deal with distractions by thinking out every possible interruption (bathroom breaks, kids without pencils, smart-assed comments) and having an immediate, yet not distracting response. And I mean for everything. If kids notice a tendency for a teacher not to respond to certain behavior… guess what, they’re going to do that thing, whether it’s whispering, getting up without permission, speaking without being recognized…

I was a horrible classroom manager when I first walked into my fourth-grade classroom… the kids fought, talked back, you name it - they did it. I kind of had to bottom out (having two boys brawl in my classroom when I left for less than a minute to deliver my roll card as an assistant principal walked down the hall pretty much did it for me!). I learned to be consistent and to always have a response - even if it was just a look saying “I saw what you did, and I don’t approve!”

Responsibility is key. In my classroom, virtually every kid had a job, from passing out papers, to monitoring the line, to holding my keys when we were at lunch. They loved it and they also knew that bad behavior was the one way of losing their job… so they tried very hard to do the right thing. I saw some of the most beligerent kids walk off insults and make great choices because they didn’t want to go through the humiliation of being “fired.” I also had a great system of rewards and consequences - the home visit. Since I taught at a school where every kid lived within a mile and a half of the school, I made it clear that I would be in the neighborhood EVERY DAY after school. Initially I thought about home visits as a punitive measure but the kids absolutely loved for me to come by and tell their mom or grandma that they had a good day, or were doing well in class. The parents appreciated it too. Too often the only contact they had with the school was for negative stuff (kid gets in trouble, parents get called in). What a surprise to get a call or a visit because you’ve done a good job teaching your kids manners and respect!

You can’t be someone else, or adopt a persona that you’ve seen someone else use. It has to come natural. If you deal with problems with humor, you should do the same as a teacher. If you’re able to come up with witty comebacks to the kids you should do that. If you’re kind of square and nerdy, be square and nerdy - the kids will respect you for being real. If you’re phony, no matter how cool you appear, the kids will have no respect for you.

You have to have enthusiasm and a fun attitude about your subject(s). Doesn’t mean you have to blow up stuff in class every day, or walk around grinning if that’s not your style, but you have to see the value in what you’re teaching and encourage that for the kids. When we had math class I worked really hard to make the abstract concepts concrete and real, even if the best reason I could come up with was “Well, you need to know how to add fractions because you’ll be doing it in fifth grade.”

Last, as has been said, you have to give a damn about the kids you teach and the community in which you teach. If you don’t care they won’t either.

5

I was a teaching assistant in grad school and where I was it was teaching, not just grading papers. Now college kids aren’t fourth graders, but I was more prepared and serious at 13 than many of my students were. It was very clear within the first few weeks of the quarter which TA’s "had it’ and which didn’t. Those of us that cared and worked at teaching, had students that didn’t cheat (which was a huge problem), cleaned the labs after they were finished and were actually making progress. I always approached a new class with the face of if you do what you are told, I will do anything in my power to help you. If you email me three hours before the final with questions, I will meet with you and try to sort out the problem. If you cause problems, I will not tolerate it. This worked, more or less.

As for training, we were shoved in front of a classroom with about 15 hours of training that for all intensive purposes, was don’t sleep with your students and make them wear their saftey glasses.

6

I was a TA for the last two years, and I will start teaching my own course for the first time in eight days. Being at a top-ranked university, I see less of the ‘unable or unwilling to follow rules’ problems, but a lot more of the ‘spoiled and arrogant’ problems. The tips that I’ve learned.

  1. Do not ever let them manipulate you. If they’re complaining that there’s too much homework, that they need the test delayed for one week, etc… you cannot back down. If you do, they’ll only whine twice as hard the next time. You should listen, of course, but you should never fold in front of them. It makes you look weak. Likewise, after you return a graded assignment, don’t let a student shove you into changing the grade (unless there’s an indisputable mistake.)

  2. Deal with problem students early on. This is essential; if one person gets away with disrupting the class, others will start to follow their example.

  3. Intimidate them a little bit. I’m dealing with kids who are used to having things go their way easily. They’re a little bit surprised when the professor is fairly harsh about rules. One professor says that kids shouldn’t even show up to class if they’re going to do other work. At the start of the semester, he was quite curt with complaints and direct in pointing out problems. It took the students off guard, they didn’t know how to react, and eventually they came to respect him.

7

Education classes are for the most part useless. The theory ones, at least. If you get a good set of instructors, the more practical ones might just teach you something. But beware any class taught by someone with a PhD-Ed. That just might be the most useless degree on the planet.

I’ve found after 20 years of teaching that the students may not know what they want, but they are very sure of what they don’t want. The previous posters have elaborated on some of this. You have to be organised to the point of anal-retentive, yet be able to improvise a complete lesson on the spot if you have to. This generally gets 95% of your students into line. The remaining 5% have “special needs.” These can range from a little more attention up to the use of tactical nuclear weaponry. I have a reputation in the district of being a very hard, very mean, and very deadly teacher, so I can reasonably say that I don’t have discipline problems. I nuke a student every few years and the lesson is learned by a new generation. :smiley:

8

A while back, a someone mentioned that a standard interview question given to a potential teacher is something like “It’s the first day of class, and when you turn to write something on the board, a kid shoots a spitwad at your head. What do you do?”

What are good answers to this question?

(Let’s assume that you didn’t see who the student was, and also that solutions involving amputation, high-voltage electrodes, and burning flesh are off-limits).

9

I think it depends on the teacher.

My mom (sixth grade), would stop, slowly turn and give The Look long enough to wilt eyebrows to the back row.

I had one fantastic teacher who lined us all up with spitballs and made us shoot spitballs for an hour into the wastebasket, one by one. By the end of the hour, we never wanted to *see *another spitball. And for the rest of the year, he never got another spitball.

Some teachers do best just to ignore it. For other, ignoring means a multitude of spitballs are going to be headed your way in Tminus3seconds.

I think the point of it as an interview question is to simply see if the interviewee has an answer and if he or she is flustered by the question. If the question alone throws him off, he’s best not in the classroom.

10

Unless the entire class is “best-of-buds” with this kid, you will immediately know who the kid is. Trust me; everyone else will be looking at the kid in question. This is now a very fine time to lay the smack down, without getting upset. This kid has now given you the chance to keep cool and order at the same time. Stare right at 'em and just say, “office, now.” If they don’t go, that’s another issue. If the admins at the office in question aren’t able or willing to back you up, that’s yet again another issue.

What would be even more challenging: handling a kid with a laser pointer. These can be easily concealed, even from friends. If I didn’t know who it was (much more likely in this scenario), I would say something like, “I’m sorry; I thought this was a class full of ___ year-olds, not middle schoolers*. Do we need to take a ‘look at the pretty light break’?”

*I don’t believe I’ve mentioned it here, but I’m a High School teacher.

11

Very true.

This part I might take issue with, to an extent. When I taught (many years ago) the admin did not want to deal with these issues, especially not from a new teacher. Yes, it was an issue.

My way of dealing with stuff like that is take a fairly deep breath as I was walking up to them, put my face about two inches from the guilty party, stare directly into their eyes with no expression on my face and blast them with a continuous stream of yelling with no pauses between the sentences. They usually looked down fairly quickly, and as soon as the lower lip began to quiver and/or the body language said they were scared shitless enough (shoulders hunched, hands close to the body, that sort of thing), shut it off instantly and go back to teaching and never mention it again. Don’t touch him, you can never touch him, but you don’t have to.

Maybe it won’t work for you, but it tended to work for me.

Regards,
Shodan

12

[QUOTE=Shodan
This part I might take issue with, to an extent. When I taught (many years ago) the admin did not want to deal with these issues, especially not from a new teacher. Yes, it was an issue.
[/QUOTE]

Ironic. You version is the one I take issue with. I don’t think that turning the kid into a puddle of emotional goo is the way to go.

Just a guess here. Were you teaching in grades 6-8?

13

I win!

:smiley:

14

Eighth grade, as a matter of fact.

Regards,
Shodan

15

“You. Out in the hall. With me. Now.”

“Aw, man, I ain’t goin’ nowhere wit’chu.”

(Pause. The Look. Pause some more.)

“You know… I was going to speak with you outside, so’s not to humiliate you in front of the entire class… but if you really want to hear it right here and now…”

It’s okay to bluff. Just know what you’re going to do if they call it.

16

I have another question pertaining to classroom discipline, I hope no one objects if I throw it out there.

I have heard from some of my past teachers, picked up on mutterings about it from teachers while I was in school, and seen some examples myself first hand that there normally is a student, or a group of 2-5, that once you gain the respect/control of the rest of the class falls in line. Is this true in your experience and what grade did you teach? I guess this might fall in line with the theory of stopping a student with bad behavior immediately before the other kids pick up on it.

Speaking from personal experience being a somewhat rambunctious youth along with some buds, the natural tendency of kids to look for a leader absolutely is true, and some crazy behavior from ourselves was transfered throughout a classroom to even normally impeccable kids. I saw some classes go to Hell in a handbasket because once there was chaos from a few of us there was chaos from many in the classroom, the converse however was myself, and a few of my friends, would personally see to it that there was respect (if not always perfect classroms) given to those teachers we thought deserved it.

Any thoughts on this behavior or what you did to combat it?

17

As a General Rule, there are usually a few alphas in any given class. Control them, and you control the others. How you control them is, of course, up to the teacher and the situation. As a high school teacher, I have a different strategy than I would if I were a, Og forbid, middle-school teacher. You can generally count on enlightened self-interest to motivate a number of the more intransigent students. A quick pointing out of where your mutual goals overlap, and what will happen to the rest of their lives should they no longer overlap, and that’s it. The only “regular” classes I teach are to seniors, so I have all the cards if they ever hope to graduate.

General Rule #2: An appeal to pride will often work where self-interest fails. See the aforementioned “I’m sorry. I thought you were ______, not middle-school students.”

18

My wife is 5’4", soft-spoken and somewhat shy. Until she gets in a classroom. At that point her voice drops by at least an octave and her face settles into The Look. She definitely projects the image of One Who Is Not to Be Messed With.

She is not opposed to smiling and is quite lavish with praise. But she also makes it clear from her words and her general demeanor that she is THE ADULT and the Alpha Leader of the pack.

She also seems to have a knack for reading personalities and moods. She knows when a kid who’s acting up just needs a soft reminder to use the inside voice – and when to check for weapons.

19

Not much I can add that hasn’t already been said.

You get a feel for what works for you and what doesn’t. It’s more intrinsic in nature. Kind of like the force.

Keeping the students engaged (as has already been said) is as important as anything.

Crank out mindless busy work that has no real-life value to them, expect the kids to act up out of boredom alone.

Old-timers are familiar with the phrase that: “If you don’t have plans for them, they will have plans for you.”

20

I’ve been a substitute teacher for about a year now, so here’s my two cents:

High School (grades 9-12): Never had any problems. In fact, the kids are so well-behaved it’s kind of creepy. I think my school district does a good job of weeding out problem kids before they get to high school.

Middle School (grades 6-8): The worst. I avoid substituting at these schools. But if I have to, the key thing is to get rid of the ringleaders. Write them passes to the library, to the bathroom, to the gym, to the principal’s office (they’ll leave the room but won’t actually go there). If they don’t want to be in my classroom, then I don’t want them there. I’m there to help the kids who want to learn.

Grade School: A combination of reward and punishment. If they are good, they get recess, cartoons, games, etc. If they are bad they go to the principal’s office.