Quote:
Originally Posted by Pastelito de limon
So, I am a first year high school teacher. Behavior problems in my classroom did not emerge at the beginning of the year...we had a fun "honeymoon" stage, I suppose.
Due to the fact that I did not major in education and had never been in a classroom with teenagers or been expected to control their behavior, I have made a lot of errors, I think. I was frankly terrified and not sure what to expect or what to do right away.
At this point, I am comfortable dealing with the students and get on ok with most of them, BUT I have been way to lenient on them. Waaaay too lenient. I now have some irritating issues that I'm not even sure how to address anymore.
In the beginning I did not have a clear idea about what rules were really important, what I should focus on or how to get my point across.
I am a foreign language teacher, so I don't expect or want the class to be silent and hushed. However, now the noise level is approaching ridiculous levels sometimes. A few of the students don't seem to understand appropriate volume levels or subjects of discussion, going completely off topic, some of them just tune everything out and chat with their classmate, I can get them quiet for a time but they start up again. It's not just a few kids, it's a classwide problem at this point.
I know it is my fault that I let it get to this point. How do I start disciplining effectively without coming across as unfair or capricious? Do I try to start over and talk about rules again? Doesn't this make me look incompetent? I have only sent them to the office for serious offenses so far...if I start writing them up will this appear unfair since they got away with things before...
I have a few that are lazy and I try to get them focused and working. They will fake it for awhile and stop trying as soon as I move away from their desk. Or they just mutter "mmm hmmm" when I explain things to them and basically ignore my input.
I can't actually assign them detentions. Has to go through the office, and sending them to the office is disruptive as well....
I was thinking of making them come sit in my room for break, but that is only 8 minutes. Give me a chance to talk with them one on one? And if they don't come, write them up? Maybe that would be a good deterrent?
GAAhHH. Suggests?
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A few thoughts:
1) The first year in teaching is generally always rough, especially at the secondary level.
2) My suggestion would be to have a talk with the kids. Explain to them that you understand they have gotten away with a lot, and that you may have "let" them get away with much of it. Be willing to assume some of the blame for it. But preface that comment with the thought that you may have trusted them too much to be mature and responsible for their behavior. So, you're assigning some blame to them as well. Then tell them that what's in the past is in the past, but now it's time to go in the right direction and have a better run classroom from now on. Proceed to lay down a few groundrules and guidelines to direct them and then also consider allowing the kids some feedback in what should/shouldn't be allowed in their classroom. I think they'll buy in.
3) It's entirely possible most of this isn't really your fault. If the kids come from home environments that don't really push their kids to comply and participate in academics, chances are they're going to misbehave no matter who is running the classroom.
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