Classroom Management:

Adventures in Teaching

withMonsieur Drew

Drew’s Current Teaching Philosophy:

Largely informed by Frank McCourt

“Instead of teaching, I told stories. Anything to keep them quiet and in their seats.They thought I was teaching.I thought I was teaching.I was learning.”

-Teacher Man

Classroom Management Scenarios

Cat Fight

Tecktonik

Choice ? Theory

Eff

ective

Ineff

ective

My Darling

Conclusions

Salsa? No.

Hip-hop? No.

ActionPreventi

on

Resolution

Tecktonik? Oui.

Scenarios

Situation

Situation

During one of Drew’s many class discussions about the differences between French and North American cultures, one of Drew’s students asked,

“Drew, do you know what tecktonik is?”“No. What is it?”

“It’s a dance. Remi can do it—he can do it!!!”

“Let’s see it.”

Tecktonik

Prevention

Show and tell—it’s a classroom strategy widely accepted in elementary school but rarely seen by the time secondary school rolls around. (Unless mandated public speaking with visual aids counts.)

Drew implements show and tell in his classroom on a regular basis. For example, in October, Drew brought in pictures from Halloween, a holiday that is just starting to become popular in European countries. He showed pictures of his friends and explained how they celebrate Halloween. When students asked questions, Drew described his friends’ personalities, demonstrating that he values people just as much as practices. Later on in the semester, his students analyzed dialect in different types of American music. This activity integrated linguistic and musical intelligences. In these classroom practices and others, Drew has demonstrated to his students that he values more types of intelligences than the ones that are privileged in a traditional classroom.

By modeling this type of inclusive view of what is “smart,” Drew has created an invitation for his students to contribute to the learning environment by offering their unique intelligences. This invitation, along with a perceptive interpersonal intelligence, allowed Drew to offer the stage to Remi, giving him a chance to display his kinesthetic intelligence and to fulfill esteem needs.

Scenarios

Tecktonik

Action

As a quieter student, Remi wasn’t jumping for joy when he got volunteered to dance in front of the entire classroom. He knew all to well that any one of his peers could make him into an infamous Youtube star before the end of the school day. Without even knowing it, Drew fixed the situation in a way that mirrors Linderoth’s ideas. He created a safe environment for Remi by manipulating classroom affordances (Linderoth 1). Drew asked all of the students to pile their cell phones on a table in the back of the room. This action allowed Remi to showcase his body smart in front of his peers, hereby gaining esteem, a step towards self-actualization in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow 2).

When Remi did start dancing, the other students began to laugh and ridicule him. Remi’s sense of belonging was threatened, but Drew handled the situation well by affirming Remi and giving him praise in front of his peers. When the other students asked Drew, “Isn’t this dumb?” Drew replied, “I can do a whole bunch of dumb things. I can’t make fun of anyone for doing a dance. I think it’s impressive.”

Not only was Drew learning about French culture, his students were learning about the importance of appreciation for other people’s skills. The idea that “appropriation of knowledge occurs in social transactions with other people” (Lippman 1) was exemplified in this situation. Had Drew’s classroom environment been such that students were only interacting with prescribed content and not with each other, this teachable moment in which students learned that uniqueness matters would not have taken place.

Scenarios

Tecktonik

Resolution

If you find yourself questioning the validity of this situation as effective use of classroom time, you may want to consider:

– It positions the teacher as a peer-learner.– It acknowledges and affirms a student’s individuality and

talents.– It actually fulfills one of ACTFL’s Standards for Foreign

Language Learning:• 4.2 “Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of

culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own” (Standards for Foreign Language Learning 4).

Drew should continue to make physical

affordances and relational allowances that create an environment in which all students feel a desire to contribute to the knowledge of the whole. I’m confident that Drew’s ability to build relationships with students and to step back out of a role of authority will allow for many other nontraditional, but valid, teaching moments such as this.

Scenarios

Tecktonik

My Darling

Prevention

Action

Resolution

Scenarios

Monsieur Drew,

how very dapper you are looking

today!

Maslow?...

HELP!

Situation

Situation

It’s very important to understand students as individuals to be able to nurture their distinct needs as learners. To be an effective teacher, it’s necessary to form relationships with students. But what should a teacher do when students push this relationship into dangerous bounds?

Drew was recently faced with this question when he helped chaperone a school field trip to London. Azalaice, a 16 year old female student, became a little too comfortable with her teacher. As the rest of the students were marveling at London Bridge, she was hanging on Drew and telling him:

“Drew, you are my darling. Tell me you love me. You love me! Say it! Say you love me!”

My Darling

Prevention

What could Drew have done to prevent this situation? It’s so vital that teachers have a healthy relationship with students so they know how to nurture their growth. However, a line should be drawn between being a mentor and being a friend in the same sense that students are friends with their peers. The difficulty in this situation is that Drew practically is a peer to these students, and he has no formal training on how to maintain his role as mentor without compromising his need to be professional.

This situation may have been driven by Azalaice’s need for belonging and love or, more simplistically, attention. To prevent a situation such as this, Drew may need to cut back on the amount of personal information he divulges to the class. It’s one thing to let your students see you as a person, but it’s quite another to have conversations in the classroom that would normally take place while having coffee with a friend. Furthermore, Drew should work on creating activities that allow Azalaice to have her sense of belonging fulfilled by her classmates instead of just her teacher.

Although there are things that could have been done to prevent this situation, Drew handled it quite well…

Scenarios

My Darling

Action

One of the best traits a teacher can possess is an ability to use humor (Process #4 in “Discipline with Dignity”). That is precisely what Drew did to alleviate this situation. Instead of merely ignoring the student’s flirting or calling the student out to have an awkward conversation about appropriate teacher-student relations, Drew simply said, “You’re too good for me. It would never work.” For the moment this satisfied Azalaice, and she pranced off to the next handsome English speaker (sadly, an unsuspecting tourist).

In these two simple sentences Drew did some complex managing. He listened to what Azalaice was thinking and feeling (Curwin and Mendler 2) and did not dismiss her by telling her she needed to stop kidding around. Next, he put himself in a position of humility in which without denying her need for belonging, he painlessly removed himself from a professionally compromising situation. Using humor and acknowledgment, Drew maintained integrity in this situation, both for himself and for his student.

Scenarios

My Darling

Resolution

Humor may stop this situation for a short time, but something more must be done to prevent the occurrence in the future.

Although Drew does a great job of getting to know his students as individuals, he may need to back off a bit to maintain a boundary between professional and peer. This boundary is invisible as far as his students can see right now. For example, his students often ask personal questions about other teachers expecting that Drew will answer them. Drew never does, but these questions probably would not surface as often as they do if the students had a high level of respect for Drew as a professional.

Resolving this issue may just be a matter of planning instruction so that it becomes more structured and lends less time to divulging personal information. Also, Drew should explicitly create guidelines with his students about what acceptable boundaries are in his classroom (Curwin and Mendler 2). This need not be a formal list posted in the classroom, but he needs to tell his students that although he wants to know them as individuals, they need to adhere to certain rules for discussion.

Scenarios

My Darling

Cat Fight

Prevention

Action

Resolution

Scenarios

Situation

Situation

One day while conducting a class discussion, two girls in Drew’s class got into a fight. Tensions were high and the situation elevated quickly as one of the girls slapped the other girl across the face. Drew resolved the situation by acting on instinct. He figured that if he used English the students wouldn’t know exactly what he was saying, but it would gain their attention quickly. In a state of shock, Drew yelled:

“What the F&*# are you doing?! You don’t do that in a classroom! Get out of here!”

Did this outburst catch his students’ attention? Yes.

Did it stop the fight? Yes.

Was it effective classroom management? I think there’s some room for

improvement...

Cat Fight

Prevention

Had Drew recognized rising tension between these two girls, he could have made physical affordance changes that may have prevented this situation. For example, he could have separated the girls by having them sit on opposite sides of the room, or he could have asked one of them to step into the hallway to cool off. Acknowledging these students’ safety deficiency needs by putting distance between the girls would have allowed them to feel less threatened by each other.

Again, greater structure in Drew’s lesson planning and clearly defined guidelines could also have helped to prevent this situation. If the students were being held accountable for doing bell work or something of this nature, their attention may have been diverted away from the conflict. Also, by not having any explicitly stated classroom guidelines, Drew is, in effect, telling his students:

“This is the kind of behavior I might have expected of

you” ( Maintaining Classroom Discipline).

If his students do not know that there are defined consequences for certain actions, they have nothing deterring them from acting in whatever way they choose.

Scenarios

Cat Fight

Action

Drew meant well by acting quickly in the only way he could think to do so. He stopped this situation, which was important. Unfortunately he also probably frightened or at least alarmed the rest of his students who were not part of the conflict. Also, the language that he chose (despite the fact that he used English so they might not understand) was not very respectful.

“Respect is a more desirable molder of behavior than fear” (Maintaining Classroom Discipline). With this in mind, there are things Drew could have done to handle the situation more productively while still acting quickly. He could have:

1. Given the student who did the slapping the choice of leaving the room to cool down for a bit. 2. Asked if the girl who was slapped would be willing to meet him in a different part of the classroom or outside the classroom to talk. 3. Assigned the rest of the class a task to work on while he spoke with the girls so that the students would continue to learn and not become part of the situation.

There is a major difference between giving a student the choice to act by phrasing a question and demanding an action by yelling a command. When a student is given choices and is “helped to see…consequences as a result of their choices” (Curwin and Mendler), the burden of responsibility shifts to the student. If a student is given choice, even when misbehaving, there is an opportunity for them to learn what it means to make decisions and take responsibilities for actions.

Scenarios

Cat Fight

Resolution

Now that Drew has lived through this experience once, he has the ability to reflect on what he would do should something like this happen again. As noted in “Discipline with Dignity,” Drew must bear in mind that “students will always learn more than the content of the curriculum” (Curwin and Mendler 1). He needs to think about what he is teaching all of his students about conflict when he responds with an outburst. He’s teaching students that it is fine to act on raw emotion and instinct. If he handles the situation differently by offering choice and referring the students to already established classroom guidelines, then he is teaching students how to be responsible decision makers. If he encounters this situation again, he must also remember the importance of showing respect for his students by using non-threatening language and tone of voice.

Scenarios

Cat Fight

Choice ? Theory

Prevention

Action

Resolution

Scenarios

Situation

Situation

Drew believes in at least two of the ten axioms of Choice Theory.

His classroom functions under the notions that:1. “The only person whose behavior we can control is our own.”2. “All we can give another person is information.”

This means that on a daily basis, the students who get taught to are the

students who choose to learn. Drew shows up and converses with the

eager and willing students, leaving the rest to their own devices.

Drew says: “I’m talking to a couple people that are really interested. There are a few people who are interested but won’t participate. At the very least they can listen to us talking.”

The problem: Students who will not participate and are not interested enough to listen are not learning.

Choice ? Theory

Prevention

Practice Theory posits that there is a “natural intrinsic human tendency to learn” (Lippman). However, “Learning must be made meaningful. Interest in work for which learners see a purpose provides its own discipline” (Maintaining Classroom Discipline). If Drew can create an engaging classroom environment that implements strategies that teach at a variety of ability levels in distinct ways, he will increase student motivation to participate.

Scenarios

Choice ? Theory

ActionDiscipline with Dignity states:

“Realize and accept that you will not reach every kid. Some students, after all is said and done, must be allowed to choose failure because they are consistently telling you that they need more than you can give” (Curwin and Mendler 3).

I don’t think Drew has reached the point of “after all is said and done.” I understand that he wants to help the students who want to learn the most, but he needs to also realize that the teacher must find ways to teach that motivate students to want to learn. His actions in scenarios such as “Tecktonik” show that he is capable of engaging students with varying intelligences. What he lacks is an arsenal of teaching strategies to allow him to vary his presentational style, something that Curwin and Mendler note is very important. Improving on this aspect of his pedagogy may mean nothing more than speaking with his colleagues, doing a bit of research, and taking education classes that teach strategies.

Scenarios

Choice ? Theory

Resolution

Something Drew can begin to do immediately is to structure his classes so students become interdependent and work in collaboration. In this way the students who have reached a higher language proficiency will be able to serve as a scaffold for those who are less proficient. If he gives his students the responsibility and the opportunity of working together to construct knowledge in a more structured way than just a full class conversation he will find that all will benefit. His less proficient students will benefit by being exposed to the abilities of the more proficient students (as he has already noted), and the more proficient students will be helped by their ability to synthesize information by teaching it to others. Something Drew should do is explain what he expects from collaborative learning. He should give students parameters such as each student must contribute to the discussion by offering a question, comment, or summary of what someone else said.

Scenarios

Choice ? Theory

Conclusions

“You can never get back the bits and pieces of your life that stick in their little heads. Your life, man. It’s all you have. Tell ’em nothing.

This advice was wasted. I learned through trial and error and paid a price for it. I had to find my own way of being a man and a teacher.”

-Frank McCourt (20) Drew has to learn the balance between

revealing himself as a person while being able to act as an authority, a mentor. He’s got some very admirable characteristics such as a sense of humor and an interest in his students and their lives outside of the classroom. If he can find a way to keep these relationships, but give more structure to his strategies and apply them to everyone, believing they all can and should learn, he will be well on his way to being a very effective teacher.

Works CitedCurwin, Richard, and Allen Mendler. "Discipline with Dignity." Family Education (2000): 1-

4. 17 Feb. 2008 <http://life.familyeducation.com/discipline/parenting/36342.html?for_printing=1&detoured=1>.

Glasser, William. "Choice Theory." Wikipedia. 6 Feb. 2008. 10 Feb. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice_theory>.

Linderoth, Jonas. "Affordance Theory." (2002). 15 Feb. 2008 <http://www.ioe.ac.uk/cdl/CHAT/jlinder.html>.

Lippman, Peter C. "Practice Theory, Pedagogy, and the Design of Learning Environments." The American Institute of Architects. 15 Feb. 2008 <http://www.aia.org/cae_a_20031101_justathought>.

Maintaining Classroom Discipline. McGraw Hill. 18 Feb. 2008 <http://www.archive.org/stream/Maintain1947/Maintain1947_64kb.mp4>.

Maslow, Abraham. "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs." Wikipedia. 13 Feb. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs>.

McCourt, Frank. Teacher Man. New York: Scribner, 2005.

Standards for Foreign Language Learning. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Alexandria. 26 Feb. 2008 <http://www.actfl.org/files/public/StandardsforFLLexecsumm_rev.pdf>.

Steile, Drew. Telephone interview. 1 Mar. 2008.

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