I don’t usually dream about school. Several weeks
ago, however, I had such a terrible nightmare that it’s continued to haunt me
ever since. Here’s what happened:
I was in another teacher's classroom trying to teach a
Romantic poetry lesson to all of the students—past and present—who have made it
clear at one time or another that they were not Mr. McKinney fans. Personal
attacks were made. Words were manipulated and thrown back at me. I couldn't
find the page numbers in the book. I said things that were clearly hilarious,
and no one laughed. I couldn't remember Keats' name and wouldn't let myself go
on until I remembered it (I was so certain it was a two-syllable last name
beginning with a C but was not Coleridge). The PA was broken and kept coming on
randomly throughout the period, which did not start or end on schedule. Long
pauses as I tried to figure out what to do next gave the students a chance to
mutiny. A student had found something incriminating someone had pinned on a
Pinterest page I made but have never used, and he announced it to the class and
wouldn't let it go. My attempt to silence this student and turn this
interruption into a “teachable moment” failed epically. I didn't have anything
graded because my home laptop had a virus that gave me only a black screen of
death when I turned it on (true story). Lesson plans were missing. No one could
or would tell me what we learned previously, and what one kid told me was
definitely not what we had learned. One student was digging through the
teacher's desk drawers to retrieve her Spanish teacher's special rubber stamp
to dishonestly add stamps to her homework card, and she refused to surrender
the stamp or the card to me when I asked. This led to a confrontation in the
supply closet which—though nothing inappropriate happened—would no doubt result
in a he-said-she-said accusation of inappropriate behavior with no witness to
defend me. And, worst of all, two students were flagrantly in violation
of dress code, the dress code referral forms were nowhere to be found, and a
confused stranger was manning the phones in the Student Center when I tried to
call for help. My later-in-the-day co-teacher, Linda, showed up at some point
near the end, and I looked at her with tears about to fall and told her she
might be on her own because I was considering taking a personal day, effective
immediately.
I’m sure Freud would have a field day analyzing the
goings-on in my dream, and a shrink could help me identify the roots and causes
of what was troubling me. Instead, I’m going to use this as fodder for this
week’s blog.
I don’t normally write about classroom management, partly
because I don’t consider myself especially skilled in that area and partly
because it doesn't fall under the heading of AVID’s WICOR acronym which often guides my topic selection. This dream, however, brings up six valid points
about effective classroom management, all of which my “dream self” disregarded.
1. Walk into the classroom prepared. Dream Mr.
McKinney had no idea what he was teaching that day, didn’t have materials and
page numbers handy, and looked to the students like he didn’t know what he was
doing (which was accurate). Without a plan in place to engage students
actively, teachers like Dream Mr. McKinney are setting themselves up for a
disaster, or at least for a period where little learning occurs. The days when
I don’t have a clear idea of what I’m teaching and try to “wing it” are
typically the most stressful.
2. Don’t leave dead space between activities.
One of the most important things I’ve learned about teaching is to give special
attention to the transitions in my lessons. How will I get students
efficiently from one part of the lesson to the next? How will I handle
distribution and collection of materials? How will I minimize dead space and
not allow students to drift away? Sadly, Dream Mr. McKinney did not learn this
lesson, and the students used a moment of dead air to unleash chaos in the
classroom.
3. Sometimes you have to ignore things.
In the middle of the class, a student said something that attempted to
get Dream Mr. McKinney off track. He knew what buttons to push and what to say
to get his teacher’s attention away from the task at hand. Instead of letting
the comment slide and continuing with the lesson, Dream Mr. McKinney stopped
class to address the comment, tried to engage the student (apparently, Dream
Mr. McKinney forgot that the teacher seldom walks away unscathed in an
in-front-of-the-class confrontation), and attempted to seize the opportunity to
turn the off-task, inappropriate comment into a teachable moment by sharing an
ill-timed mini-lecture with the students. While such a lesson is
something most students need to hear, no one is “teachable” in the midst of
conflict. Every attempt to put the student in his place caused the
student to counter-attack with more intensity. The lesson Dream Mr. McKinney
learned: strategically ignore some comments and don’t discipline a surly
student in front of his peers.
4. If you ignore too many things, you’ll lose
control. I love how Dream Mr. McKinney gets worried about a dress code
violation at the end of the dream after everything else has gone awry. Too
late, dude. While an effective teacher lets some things slide, he also knows
that firm and consistent enforcement of rules and policies throughout the year
stops problems before they spiral out of control.
5. Don’t let your emotions get involved in
disciplinary issues. At every opportunity, Dream Mr. McKinney allowed
his emotions to control his actions. I can distinctly recall feeling the rising
levels of anxiety, frustration, and anger while I was dreaming, and at the
point when a calm head was required to diffuse the situation, Dream Mr.
McKinney was hardly thinking rationally. Students love to see teachers blow
their top because it’s kind of funny. Don’t give the students that joy.
Discipline with a cool, detached, demeanor and deal with the observable facts
and logical consequences. Not being prepared (see #1 above) raises teacher
stress levels and makes you especially susceptible to losing your cool.
6. Take care of what you can yourself, but know when to
call for backup. I’m a firm believer in handling disciplinary issues
myself. The office has enough to deal with, and I've found that solving the
problem with the student myself helps minimize future issues more effectively
than outsourcing my discipline problems to the principal. Sometimes, though, a
student needs to be removed from the classroom in order for the other students
in the room to be able to learn. Dream Mr. McKinney was unprepared to deal with
the discipline himself and didn't have a plan in place when his call for backup
failed. I have found that if I make a practice of handling most discipline
issues in my classroom (rather than being The Teacher Who Cried Help on a
frequent basis), the principals are quick to respond when I finally do have to
call them to intervene because they know the situation requires their aid.
I’m sure I could dredge up more lessons from the mistakes
made in my horrendous dream, but the time I’m spending reliving this nightmare
is causing me some stress. Rather than worrying about things in the dream
world, I should spend some time planning my next lesson so this nightmare
doesn’t happen in real life.
Thanks for all you do to help your students realize their
dreams (and to avoid nightmares for you).
-Craig
