A few minutes after the start of fourth period, a student whom I do not know walks into my classroom, smiling.
"How are you?" he says. Behind him, another student appears in the doorway, and then, two more. These, I know. One will come again during eighth period.
"I am fine, how are all of you?"
"We are good," they say, "but we were kicked out of Social Studies."
I'm told that sweatshirt hoods need to be tucked into the backs of sweatshirts, in Social Studies class, and during the tucking-in process, one of the boys was having a bit of difficulty, causing the three kids near him to, well, laugh. I imagine that directing such fabric into a rather tight neckline behind your head could prove difficult, or, God forbid, funny. I wonder what pedagogic reason has motivated its concealment. It seems awfully uncomfortable.
"Can we stay here?" the students ask.
This sort of thing happens at least three times a week. Kids come to my room seeking cover, which I gladly give them, along with a little conversation and an English assignment. I feel as if I'm harboring fugitives.
In the past month, infractions warranting expulsion from class and a zero for the day, according to those charged, have included throwing a pencil up into the air and catching it, yawning and talking to the kid in the next seat. Granted, I have not witnessed the particular breaches of conduct and do not know if, in fact, mayhem or loss of life ensued because of them, but I have seen nothing on the news.
This kind of punishment disturbs me for a variety of reasons. First, the notion of punishment at a place of learning disturbs me. If you chastise people, they won't want to learn. If you yell at them and expel them from the premises and never check to see that they are okay, they won't learn, particularly from you. These students, who, by the way, represent a cross-section of kids, are told, simply to leave the class; the teachers do not tell them where to go or when to come back, if at all. At the public middle school where I teach, an entire grade is taught in about 15 portable classrooms. So, when a kid is thrown out, he is thrown out into the street. He can walk off of school property. He can get frostbite. So, the message becomes, "We don't care what happens to you, physically or intellectually." That is not a good message.
Second, the kids who come to my class seem sincerely upset by the practice. They know what warrants unacceptable behavior. They have seen police officers haul kids off in handcuffs for fighting on the playground during lunch. If they were to disrupt a room of people, they would know it. These are not those kinds of kids. The child who yawned is an A student. He got the best grade, out of 400, on an essay writing test. At a school where the majority writes on a third grade level, he should be prized. He told me that many teachers have no patience.
Administrators like to toss around the words, "control," and "manage." Can the teacher "control" the students? Is she proficient at "classroom management?" Are all the sheep with the herd? I think that if a teacher removes a student for playing with a pencil, she has lost. She has failed to think of a solution that serves the student, the class and herself.
It just seems obvious that if a kid likes to manipulate writing implements, it might make sense to stand him up in front of the board with a marker. Make him The Taker of Notes. If a kid yawns, invite him to lead the class in a three-minute stretch. If a kid likes to chat, pair him up with someone who doesn't. You know, use common sense, based on human nature. Child nature. Parent nature. Would you throw your own child into the wilderness and lock the door behind him?
"It's a beautiful day," I say to the kids with the sweatshirt problem. "You know, you could have played around on the field, by that corner where no one can see you. But you came here to work on commas."
"Yeah," they say.
"I think that's great. Thank you for doing that."
At the end of class, I tell them to be smarter than their teachers. You need the Social Studies. Get the Social Studies, even if you have to stick a wad of fleece between your scapula. I give them a parting gift on the way out, their very own "When To Use Commas" hand-out, hot off the press. They thank me and take off down the portable steps, slipping into the crowd on the way to lunch.
Classroom management must begin from Day 1. If there are no rules, chaos will ensue. If protocol is merely about removing a student from the classroom, the student has no incentive to abide by the rules. Consequences must be delineated clearly and without favoritism.
Often, just raising your voice can make students conform. However, if a teacher loses his/her cool, GAME OVER!
I am saddened to hear you say this because it is often the disengaged students who need the most attention not necessarily for their academic achievement but for their self-esteem and self-worth. The students who are trying to learn and want to be there will be successful by virtue of their own motivation regardless of the teacher. The students who don't want to be there need support from the teacher in order to be successful. The issue is much larger than academic achievement. Teaching kids to have an open mind, responsibility, accountability, respect, the importance of education, self-motivation and building strong character are much more important than getting an A in Social Studies and often times the students "don't want to be there" because they are lacking in these, more essential qualities.
Class room management is an art and schools of ed rarely teach it. However, every school should have a safe haven for kids who are, in effect, declaring their own time out.
Any teacher who kicks a student out of class into the halls or the outdoors is inviting lawsuits. That part astonishes me...not that a kid would like to review commas for a smiling faced educator instead of a hair trigger sourpuss.
The alleged reasons in the original article seemed to be talking about frequent over reactions on the part of frustrated teachers, yawning and untucked hoodies.
In your scenario, it's important that the student be removed (as opposed to ordered out) yet you are saying that 'no one will come.' That's horrible. If I were in that situation (as I have been many times) I would call the office and say I need help with so and so now. I would also email and cc administrators with the response time or lack thereof. If I kicked a student out to protect my other students...which certainly could happen...the lack of response would be made very public very quickly. I would then start worrying about a furious student in the hallways, possible dangers to other students in the hall, lockers, general property damage, including windows, and so on. People do not realize how complicated classroom management is. I'm very sorry you aren't supported when chaos breaks out. It's inexcusable.
It became a real mess, but in the end, the kids stayed in my room. I considered it a favor to the teachers who couldn't handle a sneeze and to the administration who would rather turn a blind eye than deal with a problematic student.
http://zerosumruler.wordpress.com/
Teachership and friendship are two different things.
What scares me about your article . . . is that you imply the teachers who have rules and enforce them do not like or teach students. I would venture that they are probably the ones having more of an affect on students. The majority of students feel unsafe in environment when a teacher is friendly past the normal relationship with a few or too lenient. It's hard to ask teachers to wait their turn if a few manipulators can demand attention or do things they shouldn't at school.
It isn't an easy career. At times it's downright difficult. By the same token it has some of the largest rewards offered anywhere. The sheer joy of watching a child's lightbulb go off for the first time, seeing the look in the eyes, and knowing that the child has learned something for him/herself is amazing.
But as to your exact question, good teachers use inflection, physical presence (they don't sit in one place all the time), humor, changing seating charts if necessary, and most important INTERESTING LESSONS to keep kids engaged.
...Students should not be kicked out of class with no where to go. Kudos to you, Pamela, for taking these kids into your classroom. I hope you do not pay for your intelligent, objective ways of settling a possible disciplinary issue.
If the day was that beautiful, sweatshirt dude could have taken the shirt off, instead of disrupting the class. You can't imagine a scenario in which A student's yawning might be disruptive and disrespectful to the teacher? I can. Just because he got an A doesn't mean he's an angel. Four of them? That's a tag team. They take turns pushing until they've gone too far. The one that comes back a second time? That's two different teachers. And you still blame the teacher?
As a journalist I would have expected you to do your due diligence. But that isn't the story you wanted to tell.
I'm guessing that social studies teacher had 55 min. to cover a certain amount of material for 36 students. Exactly how much time do you think they should have taken away from the 32 to deal with the four clowns?
I suppose you think teachers' merit pay should be based on value added test scores?
I've seen it a thousand times - a kid refuses to comply with a simple rule like taking his hat off, for instance, and so teacher and student become involved in a match of will until an administrator, or God forbid the police, has to intervene.
The point being then, as teachers and administrators, shouldn't we choose our battles? I know I'm more concerned with what's going into the kid's head than what is sitting on top of it, and that's the point the author is attempting to make, I think.
There are times that kids need help making good decisions and that is part of being a teacher. If the reason you became a teacher is that you like the power of punishing kids, get a new job.
I believe her point was to "Pick your battles". We are working with adolescents who come to school lacking many of the necessary social skills to function in an environment that ask you to say, "Yes Ma'am" or hold doors open for women, or worse, reminding them that you can't or shouldn't say, "What Tha Hell" to a teacher even when you're joking.
I also understand that teachers get frustrated from the everyday antics of some of these kids and they, along with the other students, sometimes need a break. The problem is, some teachers don't see the value in trying to mend that broken relationship. We are the adults and should model what we expect to see from the kids. If you have a teacher that is kicking kids out every hour on the hour, then that is a relationship and classroom management issue. Teaching is an exercise of daily vulnerability, but kicking kids out and hoping they withdraw or get sick is not the answer.
I loved this article and will be forwarding to all who see the value in Love and Logic!
What good comes from students being kicked out of class with nowhere to go? In my experience this happens all too frequently at the 6-12 level.
What pedagogical basis is there EVER for pushing kids out of the classroom with no support services?
I completely agree with your "one size fits all assembly line education" point. When you run an assembly line, and someone coughs, or scratches, or complains they need to go to the bathroom, you throw them out. I don't think that's how a classroom should be run.
Further, I am willing to bet that if most adults were forced to listen to 45 min chunks of lectures on different topics, and threatened with zero tolerance "discipline", they wouldn't last a day, let alone a week, or semester, or year.
The fault lies not with the kids, or the adults. It lies in that assembly line education.
Engendering an environment in which students can exercise and build discipline is not the same as punishing them.
Now, it's left up to the individual teacher to enforce the rules, often with spotty results. Administrators, wishing to lesson the incidents at their school ( afraid of being placed on "impact" lists, ignore the problems, and push all issues with students at the feet of the teachers, guidance counselors, deans, and social workers).
Isn't it time for the administrators to LEAD again, and take a proactive approach towards working with the teachers, students, and other staff to minimize disruptive behavior, and encourage proper classroom behavior? Seems far too many administrators shirk their responsibilities in this matter, preferring to stay in their offices instead.