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Home : 2001 : Aug : 31
I had an extemely bad year last year as a first year teacher. NOTHING WORKED. Not even Harry Wong's philosophy. Finally, I just got too tough. I told the students in a very firm tone and expression that they had a job to do. My job was to teach them and they were to do their required work. I had to walk among the desks and if anyone got out of hand,I firmly repeated, "I expect you to be working on your assignment...that and NOTHING more." Or "YOu SHOULD NO BE TALKING" I did this until the end of school. They may have not liked it, but they survived, learned, and I accomplished my goals of managing a very difficult group. It was not pleasant and certainly not how I wanted things to be ran in my classroom. But when the majority of kids have no respect for adults, nor feel nothing about consequences or rewards, you do what you have to do. This year I am in a new school and teach 6th grade Language Arts. I gave them all of my rules, procedures, and expectations. I focused on their responsibilty to always be prepared and respectful, since they were now middle school students who could reach all of their goals. After my lecture...not a peep. Then, we discussed as a community what rewards they felt would be fair. They came up with homework passes, free time on Fiday, etc. I agreed and everything is going well. Sorry for this long post, but it was important for me to vent on behalf of everyone who might also be going through this situation.
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