Classroom Management

In my past professional life I worked with mentally ill children

As a previous social worker and psychology major, I worked at a full time mental health facility for children ages 10-18 during and right out of college. Here I worked on the unit where 10-12 kids lived full time. They had a variety of mental health needs requiring intense therapy, medication management, and even an on-campus school. I worked with kids to identify their ABCD's (Antecedents, Behaviors, Climax, Decompression), helped kids through their tough moments while trying to keep everyone safe.

I learned a lot via trainings on managing mental health needs, verbal deescalation techniques, and behavior triggers. These couple of years really helped me mature as an adult and definitely impact my teaching today. 

Goal: Share my biggest learning moments, my "tricks" in my classroom, and some resources I use to keep me going.

Warning: Many of these ideas require you to "give up" parts of your day. It's an investment; put the time in now, make you're life easier through out the year. If you are thinking about all the barriers in your way, you're right. You need to overcome the barriers, that's why you're stressed. Find one thing to work on and do that.

My current teaching reality

I used to be a #deptof1 in a small rural school with small-ish classes. This comes with the "price" of knowing my students deeply, which complicates teaching and makes it wonderful at the same time. Now I am back to my urban school with a total roster of 400+ students (my personal responsibility divided among 12 class periods- 6 classes a day, meeting every other day).

I teach native speakers, SpEd students, TAG students, and everyone else all mixed together in a beautiful melting pot of what America is supposed to look like. I also have very large classes. Some are easier than others to work with.

1) It all starts and ends with love

No matter what certifications, methodologies, intervention program implementation, it all starts and ends with love. You MUST LOVE YOUR KIDS, GENUINELY. 

Like your own children, you must always love them AND you don't have to always like them.

If you don't look at your school kids with love, then stop teaching. Kids know when you're faking it. So don't. If your hardest kid came up to you with a bad cut, a bloody nose, or that "I'm gonna puke" face and your 1st reaction isn't to help them, then stop teaching (helping can mean hand a garbage can or Band-aid to the kid, or even write them a pass to the nurse).

2) You were never hired to teach content, you were hired to teach students

You don't teach math. You don't teach Spanish. You don't teach music. You teach students. Period.

We all know educators wear approximately 4,971.25 hats every day. You teach students. Hopefully you teach students your content while modeling positive citizenship. 

You are in a school. You want kids to take risks. This means they will fail... and your space is the safe space for that failure. Sometimes failure means an incorrect solution, sometimes failure is making fart noises in the back corner of your room. Academic and social failures require reteaching.

3) Stop relying on Admin to "take care of it"

Watch this YouTube clip of Brian Mendler talking about that kid in class that you send to the principal. You will laugh because it is so incredibly true. 

I'm not talking about the non-negotiables: physical contact, targeted bullying, and unsafe behavior and/or language (going to kill myself/others). 

The kid with the cellphone, the kid who doesn't. stop. talking. ever., the kid leaning back her chair for the billionth time... that kid. There is a common denominator; kid. I know adults who still act like this, how can I have reasonable expectations that my middle schoolers have their lives together!?

Sending a kid to the office does a few things: 1) tells the kid they aren't worth your time, 2) shifts all power away from you, 3) lets the kid take the "out". Mendler is artful when showing the interaction between the student and administration. The kid promises to behave thirty minutes after the incident, goes back to class, and does it again. Welcome to what I call the escape cycle. Students can be escaping a multitude of things, but being out of your room is part of the escape.

It's hard to make progress when you're running in a circle. Forward movement requires being with the student.

My suggestions: Talk about the situation that is frustrating for you with admin or your support staff (find one). This is a situation you don't like, not the student. Double check that this student doesn't have special accommodations that need to be met. If you don't find admin helpful, make your own plan and keep them in the loop anyway.

Always welcome the student back to class at the door. Say hi to the student every chance you see them. Wear them down will all the love in the world.

4) Fly-by teacher

I have practiced this since before teaching: the fly-by. The power struggles Mendler talks about in the first clip can't happen if you're not there. 

Steps for the fly-by:

1) Distant reminder- do the non-verbals: "the look", point and shake your head, a quick verbal redirection and thanks for complying if that kid can handle it ("John, we are all listening now. Thanks."). Move on.

2) Proximity- Walk to get close to the student. Some kids follow along at this point. Once they are on-track for ten seconds-ish, high five them. Move on. 

2b) Prolonged proximity- This is your communal space, but it's still yours. If you are a confident teacher, you need to make them feel uncomfortable using your space incorrectly. I have taught sitting in a chair right next to a talkative student. Not like the row over. Our chairs looked like a bench. I slowly moved away as the student was meeting expectations. DO NOT STOP TEACHING. This is not a spotlight moment for the student. 

3) Redirect and move- Get to a natural pause ASAP or make one happen. "Class, do a quick draw of a tree in your notes, GO!". I walk by the student and give a very quiet and clear direction to the student, "John, you can chose not to participate but you can't make the choice for anyone else." THEN WALK AWAY.

So what if John calls me a b*tch? He's 13. I'm 30+. I'm not trying to be his friend and my feelings aren't hurt.

So what if his friends hear him call me names? Let him save face. He will comply or quit, most likely. The eventual "quit" is not immediate but a result of consistency.  

Mendler talks about this in a quick two minute clip here. It sounds so simple, but I have watched mental health professionals, principals, counselors, and numerous teachers feed in the power struggle. I know I do it too. It's hard.

4) Supply drop- Much like dropping relief aid from planes, I often deliver supplies to students. Even if it's day 34 and the kid is intentionally not getting the supplies. Let them have that win. Eventually you will have a relationship to talk to them about the choices.

I keep plain paper and pencils near my desk and out for student use. I drop a pencil (sharpened by the squirrely kid in the last class) and paper off and say nothing, just keep on keepin' on. 

I had a student last year that had poor attendance (I was his first period teacher every other day) and would 100% shut-down. Sleeping, non-verbal, and would kick the desk leg. After a semester of doing the supply drop off, saying hello to him every day, he wrote his name on the paper. By the end of the year, he completed more than 50% of his work in English with correct answers. 

5) PRAISE THE GOOD BEHAVIORS

Stop being so negative. The 3% of "naughty kids" in your classes take-up 90% of your time. The "good kids" know this and are annoyed; more than you are. (Side note- "naughty" and "good" are words we need to stop using. It's really more about disruptive and compliant behaviors, not the overall value of the kid.)

I had an associate in my room from time to time and a educational researcher in my room this year. Both noted how often I label the behaviors and values I see happening in class. This is so crucial. 

We spend all this time telling kids what not to do that they may not know what to do at this point. Teach the social curriculum explicitly. I don't mean with Core-aligned lessons.

"Tanner, thank you so much for being helpful and giving Mia a handout for me."

"Monroe, it's so caring of you to push-in your chair. Oh, and Leo, and Marcus, and George. Thank you."

"It is so awesome that Bl'aire was willing to shout-out her answer. Girl, you seriously owned it! That is AMAZING!"

"I see about three people who were responsible by putting their names on their papers. Those are my favorite kinds of people."

"This group is doing a great job being communicators. They were asking all sorts of questions!"

Also remember to be specific and praise the behavior. The behavior is what I liked, I always love the kid. When the kids own the behaviors, you see the shift (over time) to their natural/innate behaviors. By the end of the year, my kids push their chairs in without being asked, one kid always gathers materials for the group, kids are automatically picking up one piece of trash to exit the room.

Also tell kids very quietly during work time what you like about their behaviors. Individual and "private" praise really lets some of your kids realize you notice them all the time and are always watching... yup, sounded creepy. You get it.

6) Chatty Cathy

If the kid is going to talk, give them purpose. They talk to me; I jump in the conversation during groups and then redirect the whole conversation. I point out what I just did. Sometimes, when I get a good group, I make a friend the police and that person has to keep the Cathy on track (know your kids before doing this).

Cathy is always my errand runner. Take this to the teacher across the hall. Turn the lights down, answer the door, find my green Expo. If Cathy talks, Cathy moves. Keeps Cathy away from friends. Cathy will get tired of being volun-told to do "everything". Tell Cathy you thought s/he was bored because of all the talking so you always pick him/her. Thing may turn around.

I find Cathy on her time. I go sit and "talk with Cathy". I say how nice it is to get all the chatty out now so it doesn't have to happen in class. More times then not, I will walk and talk the kid before school starts. Walk in the hall, away from people, and talk. Not always about class, but it generally gets there.

I asked a building admin to com sit and supervise my class while they were working on something. I started to pull my Cathys out one by one and walked and talked them. They were great for a solid class period after that. It was the foundation of our love:hate relationship (I love them, they hate my expectations and my insisting they meet them).

This last year, one of my biggest Cathys spent a lot of walk and talk with me. I figured out this kid's life is falling apart, has no adult influence at home, is looked to for answers from everyone, and basically doesn't get to be a kid. The chattiness lasted all year but it gave me some compassion when my patience was just about gone.

7) Restart

My kids know my policy is a fresh start every time they come in my classroom. I had one kid tell me to leave and walk back in when I was super crabby. He was right, I needed it. I also apologized for being so crabby with them and then gave the class representative a high-five as our restart.

I spent a total of 4 full teaching classes with my 7th graders this year walking the kids to hall, explaining expectations, and re-welcoming them individually to class. I called home and explained to their parents their choices and recommended early morning make-up to practice being in class to not waste learning time any more.

If a student needs to exit my room for a "buddy room". They don't re-enter until I can talk with them at the door. We quick process, high five or fist bump, and they walk in anew.

8) Get adults in your room

When kids see adults enter classrooms, they receive a few messages: 1) this class is important, 2) is this adult here for me?, and 3) these adults really are on a team.

You also need to go into other teacher's rooms during your plan. Have a presence beyond your classroom walls.

Ask teacher coaches, counselors, other teachers with relationships with your kids, the VP, your formal observer to come into your room at any time; or plan out a time in advance. When kids see more adults, they tend to behave more. 

If your admin is not supportive, you have to make your own support network. 

Hopefully this helps

None of these things are earth-shattering. These are, however, strategies rooted in research to work with difficult classes.You are the adult and you have to teach more than curriculum. The opinions of children will not define you; they can hurt your feelings, but these do not define you.

If I have to pick two pieces of advice to implement: reinforce the positive things and avoid the power struggles with the fly-by.