Archive for May, 2008
Classroom Discipline: Theory vs. What Works
Posted by: | CommentsIt is easy when you are out of a classroom for an extended time to imagine things are different than they are. Oft times the reality of the classroom clashes with popular media portrayals and images College Professors have of what really goes on.
What works?
This is the operative question in any endeavor, a classroom management plan not excepted.
Are you repeating a policy in the classroom which is ineffective? Time to step back and try something else. For instance, if you have a disruptive student, many educators will suggest pulling the student aside and informing them of why their behavior is inappropriate. I’m going to venture a guess that if you have done that, that the behavior has resurfaced shortly after and you end up pulling the student aside again or finally moving on to stronger measures.
The reason is that pulling a student aside assumes that they do not know what behavior is inappropriate, and that your informing them will give them this knowledge and enable them to correct it.
I operate from a different premise. That is, any secondary student already knows what appropriate behavior is in a classroom, and therefore you do not have to remind them–except the first day of class, when you make clear your classroom discipline and management procedures.
After that, it is a matter of enforcing them. A lot of teachers lose a lot of time in between with the counseling step, which usually only delays the inevitable.
In other words, when it comes to effective classroom discipline, intervention steps are unnecessary. I know, you will hear differently. So, as you work out your classroom discipline plan, keep in mind: What works? If it is working, great. If not, there is no reason to continue to try those particular classroom management techniques. It is time to move on to something different until you find something that works.
I have been refining my methods by that philosophy for twenty years in the classroom, and have outlined the action necessary for eliminating classroom behavior problems in any circumstance with my book Classroom Discipline 101. You can download it immediately and be privy to how I accomplish this at Classroom Discipline 101.
Otherwise, keep in mind that you need to use what works in the classroom and stop repeating what doesn’t.
Here’s to enjoying your teaching–
Craig Seganti
How Not to Argue with Students
Posted by: | CommentsWe’ve all been there–you find yourself in a silly argument with a student:
Teacher: “Vicky, spit out the gum.”
Student: “I’m not chewing gum.”
Teacher: “Yes, you are–I saw you chewing.”
Student: “I’m not.”
Stop right there!
Is this an argument you want to continue?
When putting a frame around your classroom discipline procedures, it is helpful to realize there is never any reason to argue with a student. In fact, included in my classroom rules is the statement ‘I don’t argue with students.’
This is the answer I give to any student who wants to argue or engage me in useless debate over any direction they don’t like. They can get their parent or dean or counselor involved if they think it’s that important, but otherwise we are not going to spend time on it. (To date, I have never had a student want to spend time out of class on an issue.)
So let’s say you tell a student to change their seat. They say ‘Why?’
You say ‘Because you were talking.’
‘I wasn’t talking.’
“Yes you were.’
This is what I call useless argument. Try this:
“Ben, change your seat to that desk.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t argue with students. Change your seat or face the consequence.’
With a good classroom discipline plan the student will already know what that consequence is, and it will count. No reason to waste your time arguing. This will save you many hours over your career. Make one of your classroom management policies that you do not argue with students–then don’t.
Here’s to happy teaching–
Craig Seganti
Accountability and Classroom Management
Posted by: | CommentsAccountability. It is a key part to the success of any business, marriage, classroom management plan, school system, country.
Accountability is at the core of my classroom discipline techniques, techniques that have been successful in some of the toughest schools in the country.
Ernest Hemingway said “Never confuse motion with action”. Great quote, eh? Gotta love ol’ Ernie.
In the realm of classroom discipline, we have to be careful not to think that the motion of our mouths equals some action that matters to the student.
Accountability means that there is a consequence if something is not done. In the case of disruptive students, they must be made accountable for any behavior which does not contribute to the classroom environment you want–which should be quiet, focused, on task, and respectful at all times.
And that consequence must matter. If your consequence for a student being rude to you is to tell them not to be rude, but it is a student that doesn’t care if you tell them that, then you have not made him or her accountable for their action.
Words in the classroom, like a bluff at the poker table, last about two hands if they are not backed up with action. It doesn’t take long for students to figure out you’re only holding a pair of twos (or if you’re a teacher not playing with a full deck, since we’re on the topic). So your classroom management should include an immediate consequence for any behavior that is not acceptable.
I give out ten minute detentions after school for any minor kind of infraction, like chewing gum, being off task, or not being in your seat at the bell. Students are also accountable to come to that detention.
Accountability solves a lot of problems. At my school there are numerous discussions of how to handle students out of class, abusing restroom privileges, etc.
My solution is easy–make students accountable.
How? If a student wants to use the restroom in my class, they certainly may–but they have to make up the time–10 minutes–after school. I would not want them to forego the valuable instruction time lost. This is not a ‘punishment’ for going to the bathroom, just a way of making them accountable for really having to go.
If you want to go by the honor system, you know– we need to show students we trust them and all that–my experience shows you will have approximately 7 times more students with emergency needs than if they are made accountable for those needs. Students do not take well to naivety on the part of adults who are in charge of them. So, don’t be naive if you care about your students.
Another problem at my school is tardiness to classrooms. My students, however, are in their seats everyday when the bell rings. This is either because I’m Mr. Wunderbar teacher that they can’t wait to sit down in front of and be mesmerized by due to my superior pedagogy skills and non-stop fascinating lessons, or…because they would rather be in their seats at the bell than come ten minutes after school for detention. In other words, they are accountable.
Make your students accountable and your classroom atmosphere will be pleasant. For my complete system on how to get any classroom in order go to classroomdiscipline101.com and download my ebook.
Here’s to enjoying teaching–
Craig Seganti
How much disruption should a teacher tolerate?
Posted by: | CommentsWhen a teacher enters his or her profession, and embarks on their first assignment in a school, how much disruption and disrespect is tolerable?
A. None B. Zilch C. Zero D. Everything to the left
When I got serious about my classroom management philosophy, I thought deeply about education. Is it a valuable commodity, or something that needs to be forced upon an unsuspecting youth to torture them or force them to hold still while we foist our questionable pearls of suspect wisdom upon them?
It started as a valuable commodity. It still is in many parts of the world.
But in our Sibling Society (see the excellent book by Robert Bly), it has often become viewed as some sort of chore or unseemly vegetable or medicine you have to take because it is ‘good for you’.
Ask a group of students why they should go to college.
‘To get an education.’
‘Why?’
‘So you could be somebody.’
My usual response to this is ‘Well, you are somebody now, so you’re already there–might as well skip college.’
What a horrible religion it is to preach that you are a nobody unless you have an education. How about going to college to get educated?
But there, I digress. The topic is how much disruption a teacher should tolerate in a classroom, and the answer is none, by my reasoning. My classroom discipline philosophy follows from my educational philosophy. There is something valuable going on, the teacher has a great thing to offer, the student is in a classroom to learn, and that only.
I’ve thought of the photos I’ve seen of blacks in the South not a half century ago being attacked by dogs as they marched for, amongst other things, the right to an education. Contrast that with administrators these days outside on school grounds with bullhorns begging kids to get to class on time.
It is no secret that teacher burnout comes from this day in day out dealing with discipline troubles, because of the imbalance of power–students are given more power to disrespect and disrupt than teachers are given tools to battle it.
The only long term way both students and teachers can have a positive experience in the classroom is if there is no disruption or disrespect, and the time can be spent in focused learning.
But how do you arrange that kind of environment? Can it be done if your students do not already have a basic sense of respect? Yes, it can. You must start with the idea that classroom management is not an ongoing battle to manage your class, but an effort to create an environment where the management is so good you don’t know it’s there.
When people read all of my rules and consequences and accountability methods they may think all day is spent on classroom discipline or that the classroom resembles some sort of police state–no, the rules are just there, in the background, ready to be enforced once in awhile, while the actual class atmosphere is one of quiet, respectful attention and preparedness to learn. This cannot be requested of the students, but demanded as the only appropriate way to have education take place.
Here’s to enjoying your teaching experience–
Craig Seganti
What is Positive Classroom Discipline?
Posted by: | CommentsOften these days, when it comes to classroom management, ‘positive’ methods get confused with positive results.
To me, a positive environment is one wherein students are attentive, quiet, respectful, and on task or otherwise engaged in learning subject matter.
This kind of classroom discipline is achieved through leverage and accountability, not always through kind words. I have written a manual (Classroom Discipline 101) which outlines classroom discipline techniques and classroom management strategies I have developed over the last twenty years to get any classroom in order. These are culled from real world experience.
There are a lot of movies, administrators and policy makers who do not live in the real world that teachers face in the classroom, where students are often rude, disrespectful, unprepared, shout expletives at teachers and are even sometimes outright nasty.
Hollywood, the L.A. Times, and most policy makers from the Board of Education would have you think differently. They would like to paint a picture of student as victim, with lots of meany teachers telling them how stupid they are as they wait there passively for just one teacher who believes in them to come along and change their life forever by believing in them.
According to Hollywood we are a bunch of vindictive incompetents who just don’t believe in these kids or we would get the same results as Hilary Swank. Please. We need less teachers who want to save the world and more who want to teach.
With poor premises you get poor conclusions.
When it comes to classroom management techniques, if you address it from a perspective that students will behave as long as you are positive and believe in them, your premise is off and things may fall apart quickly.
If you address classroom discipline from the premise that you need accountability from the students for their behavior in every case, and leverage to insure that accountability, you get a respectful, attentive classroom.
That is a very positive thing–that is my idea of positive classroom discipline.
Here’s to enjoying your classroom experience–
Craig Seganti
