Hello fellow TEPers,
I am sharing a post I made today in my online journal in the hopes that I can hear any and all suggestions for improvement that anyone has. Please read on, and if you have criticisms, comments, etc., please let me know. I am at my wit's end with one of my classes, and I am reaching out for assistance because I don't know what else to do.
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As I sat in the bathroom crying for over an hour after my afternoon class, I thought, "Today is definitely one of those days. I just want to give up and go home. I want someone to hold me. How am I ever supposed to do this once I have a class all my own?"
My first period class (10C) went well. The vast majority of the students were on time, which made me think that, for my other first period class that is usually full of stragglers (10A), the students have no excuse for being late and I'm going to be stricter about marking them tardy. The students did a vocab warm-up, a brainstorm about poetry, and we talked about the differences between poetry and prose. I thought Whew, that was easier than I thought it would be, and when I had questions for my mentor about my students' seeming lack of prior knowledge, my mentor assured me that the students were actually on track.
My afternoon class (10A) was a complete disaster. I timed the warm up and the brainstorm as I had for the previous class. The vocab warm up went fine. During the brainstorm debriefing, I could not get the students to stop talking about irrelevant things (e.g. music, basketball games, etc.). I tried waiting for them to be quiet -- didn't work. I tried telling those students who were participating that I couldn't hear them over their colleagues -- didn't work. I tried telling those who were trying to participate to raise their hands and not talk all at once because I couldn't hear them -- didn't work. After about 20 minutes of getting no where, I basically gave up on the lesson. Someone said, "Aw, miss, don't give up on us," and I said, "How can I teach you anything if you guys won't be quiet?" Students would yell at the others to be quiet -- didn't work. I asked the class, "What do you think the purpose of this class is?" I got about 4-5 answers, ranging from "helping us prepare for the MCAS" to "teaching us stuff," and I said, "Do you think you can do any of that if I can't teach because you guys are talking?" Someone suggested I yell at them, and I said, "I'm not going to yell at you. You guys are old enough that you should be mature enough to regulate your behavior so we can have a good discussion." [My classes are 10th grade.] Someone said something about needing respect, and I said, "How can you expect me to respect you if you won't give me any respect?" Didn't work. Those students who were not participating were still talking about whatever was of interest to them at the time. I sat there. I didn't know what to think or do. Finally, I passed out the study guide for the test tomorrow.
As two students were gathering their things to leave, one of them said, "You need to figure something out, miss." I said that I knew that, but I didn't know what to do. He suggested taking away points, and I replied, "Well, everyone in here is basically failing, so I don't think that would matter," and I turned away. While I was putting away materials, I felt the first tear slip down my cheek, and I escaped to the faculty bathroom before anyone else saw me. I sat in there for about 10 minutes before going out to my mentor teacher, who saw that I was upset and crying, and then I went to another faculty bathroom, gathered myself, walked around the building, drank some water, and commenced to crying again. I debriefed with my mentor after the last bell rang, still crying all the while.
I told a friend on the phone, I think what upset me most is not that I was taking their breaking of the rules personally but that, though students are aware of the purposes of the class and the rules for the class (e.g. when I ask them 5 or 6 times in 10 minutes to raise their hands to contribute and to be silent if not contributing to the discussion at hand), they still choose not to adhere and to create an environment that is challenging to learning. The idiocy behind that, the lack of respect for themselves [and others], is mind-boggling to me. How can they think that what they are doing is beneficial? And, granted, after I asked the question about whether their behavior was going to allow them to fulfill the purposes they had outlined for me verbally, a couple of the offenders settled down, but of the 5 or so that remained, they disrupted everyone.
My mentor, last week, said that she thought this class wasn't taking me seriously and that it would help if she were out of the room more, so she wasn't in there Friday or today. I thought, when she suggested that she leave more, that she was dead wrong, and, after today, I still think that.
Suggestions? Thoughts?
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To end, I would appreciate any and all feedback you have. You can be critical of something I said or did. You can make suggestions for strategies to try in class or things to say to the class. Anything. I feel like I'm dying here, and I need input, even if it is of a critical/negative nature. My mentor suggested being even more militant with the class, and taking away privileges such as discussions (e.g. having them do work they must do silently) in order to begin teaching them how to be silent in class. I'm not sure that being even more strict and giving out more zeros is the way to go, since students may take that as license to continue to be disruptive (e.g. thinking, "I'm failing anyway so what does it matter"). But, I also don't know what to do if not be more strict. Trying to talk to them about what they want to get out of the class, to maybe figure out how to get the class to be more student-centered vs. teacher-dependent, did not work. I feel like I'm at my wit's end here because strategies I have used that she has used all along --strategies which work perfectly well -- (such as writing down when students misbehave on a clipboard, which then affects their conduct grade; waiting calmly for students to settle down) just aren't working for this class when I am in front of it. :-(
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1. I'm glad you're crying about it. It is sad and frustrating and worth crying over. In my experience crying makes it easier to go back and try again. I've also found that talking with people (especially in TEP) helps too.
ReplyDelete2. I wonder if it was clear to the students that what they were saying was irrelevant. I've found that behavior problems in my class are worst when the instructions aren't clear. As I get to know the students better I'm getting better at predicting the things that seem clear to me that won't seem clear to them.
3. I've definitely had the most problems when my mentor is out of the room. I've found that struggle useful but I've only tried this a couple times. I encourage you to be clear with your mentor about what you think will be most useful for you.
Good job caring! Keep it up!
-Andy
Jean,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear about your experience today. I know I have had days like that before and probably will again. I'm glad you posted it though; I hope the blog generates some responses for you that are of use.
I thought your responses to the behavior were good, trying a number of strategies for a good chunk of time. And it sounds like a number of students did take those opportunities. Maybe the remaining 5 need to be spoken with individually, to elicit what their goals are, what they need/want from you, and what you need from them for learning to happen. You can show them that you believe they can learn, while setting a firm tone as to what is acceptable and unacceptable.
Another tack might be to address the behavior as a whole class; social pressure might bring the behavior in line.
i send a virtual hug,
aaron
Hi Jean!
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear of your problematic class and of your tears. Know that you are not alone. I spent a night crying my very first week. I have very similar situation as you, where my first period always go relatively smoothly and then second period sucks all the energy out of me! They can’t seem to control themselves. I hit my breaking point when I threw 3 students out of class – which put a little scare in the rest of them. The scare, however, only lasted for about 3 days, until the weekend erased their memories of the entire episode.
My mentor teacher and I have come up with a couple of effective strategies that may be helpful to you. They have, by no means, eliminated all of the problems of the class, but these strategies have definitely made my life easier.
1st. I talk to as many students as I can as they walk in the door – especially the ones I think will be a problem. Last week I was as obvious as pulling a student aside and saying, “Woman to woman. Do you know how hard it is for me up there when you are constantly having side conversations? It’s out of control.” With a simple, “OK, I got you miss,” she was well behaved for the entire period. I try to talk to the students who I know have the ability to lead the class and to get them on my side.
2nd. I call students on their cell phones. I check to see if they are doing their homework. If the homework is particularly difficult I call certain students to see if they need help. My mentor suggests calling student who usually disrupt and building their ego. Like, “I know that you get this, so I’m really going to need your help in class tomorrow. Do you think you could participate more than usual?” So far, it has worked pretty well. I also call to say they did well on a paper or exam.
3rd. And most annoying. I wait. My mentor is much more effective at this tactic, but I think I am getting better. I say “I will wait until everyone is quiet to continue.” And then I do. If they start talking, I stop. If a student is participating and others start to talk, I have the student wait. I, at first, lost a lot of class time, but it has gotten better. It’s a terribly annoying strategy, but my mentor stands by it. Your silence and presence will become overbearing. Also, I now have students mimic me, which I am ok with – “She’s just going to wait.” Or “She’ll wait.” If they’re going to be talking anyway, why not parrot my message?
So these strategies, have helped, but definitely not fixed the problem. I haven’t cried since that day, so I think of it as a small victory---maybe?
I hope these ideas help. Let me know if anything works for you, I could definitely still use some help! Cheer up and know that you are definitely not alone!