Ben Guest’s Blog

Katie

2008-05-04T20:30:59Z

Katie is our spring "intern." She graduated from Williams two years ago and has spent the past year teaching at an international school in Brazil. She is currently working on her elementary certification, observing classes at the local elementary school here in Oxford, working at the MTC office twice a week, and completing assignments for me, which have included reading selected articles from my delicious account (and blogging about them), reading "Reluctant Disciplinarian" (and blogging about it) and talking to Ann Monroe (and blogging about it). Read Katie's blog, and leave comments, here.

Here's a quote from Katie's post on classroom management (the topic of which has stirred up quite a controversy on Michelle's blog):

Dr. Monroe explained that classroom management is the same in all schools. However, the more chaotic the school environment, the longer it might take students to adjust to the particular organized routines and procedures of your classroom. I do not have any first-hand experience to back that statement up. Does anyone else have experiences that confirm or refute her idea?

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Reply

2008-04-30T02:38:42Z

Reply to Dave's comment and blog post:

Momo, 1) I don’t think your comments are particularly aggressive, or something to regret later. As long as you’ve known me, you know I love a good debate, so I take no offense at our difference of opinion (and on several of your points we do agree). The only part I think you will regret is that last paragraph. Whether you have taught for two years or twenty or zero, your beliefs are equally valid. Experience, of course, helps to inform beliefs, but it doesn’t alter the validity. 2) The parts of Michelle’s blog that I appreciate are, for the most part, different from the parts you most strongly disagree with. 3) The part of the blog that I was highlighting and that I, of course, agree with, is that you have to be strict to be successful at classroom management as a first-year teacher. I haven’t read Skinner so I have no idea if I subscribe to his philosophy. However, I wholeheartedly believe that people respond to incentives, positive and negative. In a classroom setting this means rewarding behavior that you want and punishing behavior you don’t. It’s going to take one hell of an argument, and a lot of data, to convince me otherwise. Michelle was making the point that some (many?) first-years have trouble with the idea of being strict and implementing rules and consequences. Further, Michelle was making the point that while it may seem harsh (key word is seem) it is not actually harsh. Having a well-ordered, safe, classroom with rules and procedures is a sign of caring about the students. I think she is exactly right about this. The main problem you have, I think, with this notion is that Michelle is asking the first-years to “put aside their conscience.” I don’t think this is accurate and I don’t see this reflected in her post. Again, the key word is “seems.” I don’t think Michelle is saying “put away your conscience.” I think she is saying, “examine the ideas of rules, rewards, and consequences before you dismiss them outright as unnecessarily harsh and/or demeaning.” 4) The stuff about chaotic and tragic lives and seeing more violence before school starts than some of the teachers have ever seen is hyperbole. I believe this is the main part you take issue with. You and Michelle can blog this out. 5) The part that I really like in Michelle’s post, and the point I was highlighting, is this: You'll be tempted to think, "I'll be the one who's different. I'll show them respect and they'll respect me for it. They'll want to please me because I'm the first person who's ever smiled at them and shown I care." You will be fresh meat. It won't happen. Michelle is exactly right about this. This happens every year with a few first-years…

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First Year

2008-04-29T15:37:47Z

Great post by Michelle:

During summer school you'll be told to manage your classroom in a way that seems dehumanizing and demeaning. Do it. It won't seem necessary in your summer school class. Ignore that. Your students in your classrooms come from families that are chaotic and tragic beyond your wildest imagination. They see more violence and fear before they come to school some days than you've probably ever seen in your life. What they don't have is structure. They are in free fall in terms of self-regulation. They do not understand nuanced behavior. I know it seems demeaning, but these students need the structure that gives them an anchor.

You'll be tempted to think, "I'll be the one who's different. I'll show them respect and they'll respect me for it. They'll want to please me because I'm the first person who's ever smiled at them and shown I care." You will be fresh meat. It won't happen. Believe us.

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Time and Attrition

2008-03-05T14:13:48Z

Posts on attrition here and here. Here are the posts on low pay, classroom management, intensity, administration, outside issues, and promotion.

Last week's issue of Time had a cover story on "How to Make Better Teachers." Included in that article is a survey, not available online, of former teachers as to why they left the profession. I have now purchased said issue of Time (for $4.95, which seems incredibly high to me. In fact, I bought an issue of Newsweek as well and the total came to more than ten dollars), and reproduce the results here for you (and while I'm not the smartest person in the world, I'm assuming teachers polled could cite more than one reason as these numbers add up to way more than 100):

Top Reasons Teachers Cited for Leaving the Profession in 2001

Lack of Time to Prepare-60%

Too Heavy a Teaching Load-51%

Class Size Too Large-50%

Poor Salary or Benefits-48%

Student Behavioral Problems-44%

Lack of Influence in School-42%

It is interesting to note that Student Behavioral Problems (or, put another way, classroom management) is second to last.

Of course, the overarching point is that all of the reasons are in relation to the pay. In other words, 50% leave the profession because class size is too large in relation to the pay. If the first-year teaching salary was a million dollars teachers leaving the profession would plummet and quality people entering the profession would skyrocket. It is all about incentives...

The Bell Curve and The Mole...

2008-03-04T16:44:48Z

I often tell the first-years that when it comes to classroom management you will have three or four students in each class that will behave no matter what, three or four that will act up no matter what, and everyone else is in the middle and can go either way. In listening to this great interview with Ed Burns, co-creator of The Wire (David Simon once described Burns, a former soldier in Vietnam, police detective in the Western District of Baltimore, and teacher in inner-city Baltimore, as a veteran of three failed wars: Vietnam, drugs, poverty), I realized that not only is this true for the classroom, it is true for the teaching profession in general. Some teachers will give their all no matter what, some will do as little as possible no matter what, and the majority will do only what is required. And this is not only true for teachers, it is true for every profession. Burns talks about his success as a detective by describing a bell curve:

You know, in any profession you have the old bell curve. Most of the people just want to do the job and they will tend to the job, and then a group of people on one end who will actually hurt the job, use the job, and then there is another group that are enamored of the job and are dedicated. And I sort of think that I am one of the people that really gets involved with something I do. I don't think I am an anamoly. The thing about human beings is, there is another animal we most closely resemble and that is the mole... We love to get down in a rut and stay there and like the mole we become blind because we are not looking around. We turn off the one thing that makes us different than the mole, we turn off our brains. We just do things. And in the doing them it becomes, we have a comfort and as long as we are in that comfort zone we are happy, or maybe just content. But we, we are very reluctant to push out... Change petrifies people...

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Classroom Management

2008-02-20T22:36:40Z

Over the next few days I will be exploring different reasons for why teachers leave the profession. I have already posted on low pay and the first two posts on attrition are here and here.

The current issue of Time has a cover story on teaching. In the magazine, but not online, there is a statistical breakdown of why teachers leave the profession. Something like 45% (I don't have the magazine in front of me) identified dealing with classroom management as a factor. I disagree. I think the number of teachers who leave the teaching profession because of struggles with classroom management is much higher.

If you have classroom management down, routines and procedures in place, and your classroom is a safe, respectful, productive environment to be in, teaching is a great job. One of our alumni, Joe Sweeney, had the ultimate teacher moment when he was called away from his classroom for a meeting. The administration assured him that a sub was on the way. The meeting lasted about an 90 minutes and when Joe returned to his room students had changed classes and the new group of students was working quietly on the "Do Now." One student had Joe's role-book and was calmly taking attendance. There was no sub. That is the ultimate example of classroom management: the class manages itself when the teacher is not present. If, as a teacher, you reach the point where your class can essentially manage itself than teaching will still has ups and downs but you will ultimately feel satisfied and fulfilled by your work.

If your classroom is chaotic and barely under control (or not in control at all) and you have to constantly deal with disrespectful students who threaten you and others, than teaching is a miserable job. You will go home stressed and dreading the next day. If you don't address the problems in your classroom you will leave teaching within a year or two.

In my opinion, classroom management is the main reason teachers leave the profession. Many teachers don't want to admit that the students got the best of them and so they chalk up their reasons to something else: difficult administration, dissatisfaction with the job, etc. In my time as Program Manager of the Teacher Corps it seems that every year we have people who are clearly struggling with classroom management and yet can't bring themselves to admit it. Admitting you need help is the first step in improving your classroom management.

Why do teachers struggle so much with classroom management? Because they don't want to confront their students. Because they are tired and let things slide. Because their administration doesn't back them. So, a teacher leaving the profession might say that teaching was too tiring, or that the administration was not supportive. But, often, these things are related to struggles with classroom management.

I've posted quite a bit on classroom management so I won't rehash all that here. Suffice to say, the keys to classroom management come down to three questions:

1) Do you have rules/procedures/consequences?
2) Are you enforcing them?
3) Are you enforcing them consistently

For Teacher Corps, our training includes a lot of role-playing during the summer training. During the first summer each teacher creates a classroom management plan. In the second summer each second-year revisits that plan. In the fall, each first-year has a second-year mentor. Throughout the program we continue to reinforce the importance of consistency. Yet, I still feel we can do more. What else needs to be added?

Attrition

2008-02-12T23:21:32Z

Bart

Over the last six weeks two of the first-years have quit their job teaching and, obviously, the Teacher Corps. This is a pretty rare occurrence, but frustrating nonetheless. I have some thoughts on why a person quits, but let's go to the numbers first...

Since I began as Program Manager in 2003 I have recruited four classes to the Teacher Corps (I haven’t double checked these numbers with the records at the office so I may have missed someone):

Class of 2004 (22 initial participants)
1 quit during summer training
0 quit during the year
2 quit after the first year

Class of 2005 (28)
0 quit during the summer training
0 quit during the year
3 quit after the first year

Class of 2006 (32)
1 quit during the summer training
2 quit during the school year
1 quit after the first year
1 quit during the second year

Class of 2007 (26)
2 quit during summer training
2 quit during the school year

I think it is normal to have people drop-out during the summer training. Actually, I think this is a good thing. Sometimes people don’t realize how intense teaching, and Teacher Corps, actually is. And I don’t have a problem with people dropping out of the program at the end of the first year. Again, teaching is not for everyone. Nor do I have a problem with someone leaving the program during the year but continuing to teach. But what really hurts the program is when people leave in the middle of the school year. School districts are depending on Teacher Corps, and we have a reputation of providing high-quality, outstanding teachers. Even worse, when a participant quits during the year, the students are left without a teacher. In most cases, the district cannot find a replacement and the kids will be taught by a permanent sub who does not know, and cannot teach, the material.

The sample size of the classes is too small to draw any real conclusions, but it is frustrating that every year we have (I feel) a more rigorous selection process, an improved training program, and a better mentoring system and yet, the attrition rate during the school year is increasing.

As I told the first years on Saturday, the only reason (other than unexpected health or personal issues) someone in the program quits during the middle of the year is classroom management. If you have classroom management down (and it takes about a year and a half to really get it down) teaching is a great job. If you don't have any classroom management, and are not making the attempt to manage your classroom, teaching is a miserable job. There are many challenges to being a first-year teacher but, in my experience, classroom management is the only one that is a deal breaker.

MTC spends a good deal of time during the summer training preparing our teachers to manage their classrooms. We cover the basics of rules, consequences, procedures, and rewards. Each teacher creates a classroom management plan. We do a week and a half of role-plays… But sometimes I feel we need to do more. Or, perhaps, we need to make the summer school experience tougher, less organized, so that our first-year teachers have experience dealing with issues that will come up during the school year. Or something else...

What are your thoughts?

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More Management...

2007-10-25T01:26:44Z

Here is a great quote from one of the first-years on Classroom Management:

"The students know how class is going to run, how to behave, and frequently self-regulate. They can expect the same consequences every time I catch them, or suspect them: Warning, writing assignment, referral. I throw in a hall conference or parent phone call as necessary, and I've eased up where I don't care enough to defend ground. With one class, the smallest one I have, they have taken advantage of my thawing over the past few days. They are a good example of why I need control and clear boundaries in the classroom in order for it to work, and why giving an inch to appease the class will end up costing ten-fold; I can't judge grey areas at the speed at which we need to operate to keep the machine running."

Key line is, "giving an inch to appease the class will end up costing ten-fold." Truer words have never been written.

Furthermore, she identifies one of the key components of effective rules. They have to be clear. Otherwise, a teacher will end up spending too much time deciding if a rule has been broken. One of my classroom rules was "Raise your hand (and be acknowledged by the teacher) before speaking." It is simple to tell when this rule has been broken. I do not have to make a judgment call. It is or it isn't.

Conversely, this is why I don't like the popular "Be respectful" rule. How do you judge when this rule is broken? A teacher's day is filled with decisions. Why add more?

This is a dangerous time of the year for classroom management because one of two things can happen:

1) Classroom management has been going well and the natural inclination is to ease up.

2) Classroom management has not been going well and you decide that it is too late to change.

Good classroom management takes courage. Courage to confront behavior that you do not want. Behavior that prevents your students from learning. Have the courage to address behavior. Have the courage to enforce your rules. Have the courage to enforce your rules consistently.

The old adage is "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." It is easy to enforce rules on Monday morning, or during the MTC Summer School, or on the second day of school. It is a challenge to do so on a Thursday afternoon in mid-November, when you are exhausted, and enforcing a rule is the last thing you want to do. It is so easy to let it slide. But remember, "giving an inch to appease the class will end up costing ten-fold."

Have courage.

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Rules, Consequences, and Classroom Management...

2007-10-24T02:35:52Z

The first-years will be up on Saturday so I plan to talk about consequences a little bit at that point, but I think it is a subject worthy of a blog post.

I have visited several of the first-years in their classroom; I have talked with many of the first-years on the phone about classroom management; all of the first-years have been blogging about classroom management as an assignment for Ann Monroe's class. One recurring topic for many of the first-years is having an effective in-class consequence after the "Warning" stage.

Before I get to that, let me address one of the biggest mistakes I have seen several first-year teachers make: using a one-on-one conference in the hallway with a student as a consequence. I believe that one or two of the MTC trainers may have mentioned the hallway conference as effective tactic during the summer training, but they either explained it poorly or the first-years misunderstood it. A hallway consequence is an effective tool to have in your teacher toolbox and to use on occasion. It is a terrible consequence. Let me repeat that, a hallway conference is a terrible conference. A hallway consequence is simply a glorified warning, it is not an actual consequence.

Several teachers I have observed and talked to have some variation of this set of rules and consequences:

1) Warning

2) Hallway Conference

3) Phone Call Home

4) Write-Up

Can you spot the error in this? The error is there is no consequence until 4, the write-up. And the write-up simply means that the administration doles out the consequence. So the teacher is effectively ceding all power to someone else. To be effective with classroom management a teacher must have an in-class consequence that is an actual deterrent to behavior. Warning, hallway conference, and phone call home, are not effective deterrents. Let me go through each one:

Warning:

A warning is, of course, by its very definition, not a consequence. It is a notification that a consequence will be administered if the current behavior continues.

Hallway conference:

This is simply a glorified warning. There is no actual punishment to the student. In fact, for many students, getting to stand up, walk in front of their peers to the hallway, and then stand in the hallway, unsupervised, is a reward.

Phone Call Home:

There are several problems with a phone call home as the next step. One, it doesn't happen until, at the earliest, the end of the school day. Kids don't think in the future. If it is not now, than it is not relevant. Two, the phone call home assumes that you can actually reach someone. In general, the less behaved a kid is, the less likely you will be able to reach that kid's parent or guardian. Three, you are assuming that, once you do reach the parent or guardian, that person will actually implement a consequence to his or her child. Four, if you have a lot of phone calls to make, it can be tiring and time consuming after a long day at school. So, there are way too many variables in the phone call home to be consistently effective. The phone call home is like the hallway conference, it is an effective tool but not an effective consequence.

So, what does work? Writing. Someone breaks a rule, they have to write a one-page essay. They break another rule, another page. If they don't turn the essay in the next day, then it is a second consequence. This can be detention, it can be a zero on the daily grade, or it an be a write-up. But now you have a consequence that is easily applied, is immediate, and is a deterrent. How much of a deterrent? Most kids, if given the choice, will choose a lick before an essay, the paddle before the pen.

Here is what my Rules and Consequences looked like:

1) Visual Warning (name on board).

2) One page essay (the topic is, "Why is important to have class rules?").

3) Additional pages (as long as there is not a serious breach of rules the number of pages can increase indefinitely. This allows me to handle most problems in class).

4) Double essay (if the essay is not turned in the next day then the pages are doubled).

5) Zero (if the double essay is not turned in, then a zero for the day).

6) Continuos zeros (this can go on indefinitely, for as many days as the essay is not turned in. At this point I would probably contact the parent as well).

7) Write-Up (now I've got a ton of documentation to send to the principal or assistant principal. Ask the principal or assistant principal to make sure the kid still has to write the essay in addition to any other punishment that is given).

The beauty of this system is that it allows me to handle virtually all problems in my classroom. I have a consequence that I can administer, that I can back up if the student doesn't do it, and that is an effective deterrent.

I'll explain this more on Saturday, but I did want to lay it out the basics on the "internets." Also, if you are struggling with classroom management or want more ideas, I strongly recommend consulting "First Days of School" or "Delta Autumn."

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The First Days of School...

2007-07-26T20:59:52Z

Two Mississippi Teacher Corps Alumi, Elizabeth Savage and Tiffany Bartlett, recently did a workshop on the days leading up to the first day of school. Here is their presentation:

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