“As a middle level teacher you will need:
– A sense of humor that you share with students regularly
– Flexibility that you demonstrate in your instructional curricular planning and delivery. “
Brown & Knowles (2007) You want to be a What?

These characteristics of middle level teachers really speak to me because I completely agree with these statement. I have spent a lot of time teaching middle school students English and American history. The key issue I found with adolescents is that they are very easily to be distracted, the average length for them to focus on a subject is not as stable as adults. For teachers, having a good sense of humor could easily amuse students and be popular among them. Therefore, it’s more likely to manipulate them to obey your order.

Secondly, adolescents cannot complete follow your expected routine. Adolescence is a period of time with exploring spirit, courage, and disobedience, so flexibility of pedagogical approaches is crucial to reach out students. Rigidly asking them to follow direction would only stimulate them to act more violently against us. Also, using various ways to reach students can help teaches, as well as students themselves, to better know their potential.

Teacher’s attitude toward to students in an intercultural classroom

“Treat students consistently, but also as individuals. Don’t play favorites, alienating some kids to be friendly with others.”

• Cushman (2003) Classroom Behavior

This passage reminds me that in an intercultural classroom, influence of ethnic, gender and physical appearance are considered as important aspects to measure students’ academic work. As educators we should enforce the mentality of unbiasedness. It might be a myth that treating every student consistently because every teacher creates his or her own action zone in the class. It is fact that teachers always like to interact those students who seem to be brighter and more active in class and those students’ names are easier to be called on; or maybe those has the same cultural background as teachers’. Nevertheless, teachers are trying their best to engage all the students in the class because you can also hear that “I want to see different hands. Or I want to hear different voices.” I mean giving opportunities to every student is a good start to be immune to stereotype in the intercultural classroom.

“Assuming the best is essential for long-term learning and positive connections to take place in our classrooms.” (Smith & Lambert, 2008)

In order for students to succeed in the classroom and for teachers to succeed as well it is important to assume the best of our students. As a teacher, this can be particularly difficult when dealing with challenging students because sometimes it is just easier to say “it’s because they don’t care and they don’t want to learn” and contribute the student’s challenging behavior to them not wanting to learn and just brush it off. When in reality teachers should be doing the exact opposite.
Continue reading Success: Assuming the best →

“In particular, he researched a strategy called “Two-by-Ten.” Here, teachers focus on their most difficult student. For two minutes each day, 10 days in a row, teachers have a personal conversation with the student about anything the student is interested in, as long as the conversation is G-rated. Wlodkowski found an 85-percent improvement in that one student’s behavior.”

I was really interested in this strategy of behavior management because it would have never occurred to me. Not only would it have never occurred to me, I think I would actively try to avoid it. At this stage in my teaching career, when I’m still a little unsure of myself, I try to avoid my most difficult students, even in class. Now that I read about this strategy, it occurs to me that avoiding them might even make things worse, because it gives the bad students the impression that you don’t like them and/or don’t notice them, so they can continue to act up without any consequences. The two by ten strategy does the opposite – shows them that, even if you may not like them, you’re at least trying to like them, you’re believing there could be something about them to like, and you’re also showing them that you notice them, and everyone wants to be noticed. In a weird way you’re also admonishing them, letting them know, if they pick up on it, that you’re choosing to talk to them because there’s a problem, and you’re doing something about it, but they’re not totally sure what. It might keep them on their toes a little. I was astonished by the success rate of this method – 85%! The text also mentioned how it improved the whole dynamic of the class, because it enlisted the most difficult kids as allies – keep your friends close but your enemies closer, as the saying goes. This has to be approached in the right way – some kids might feel creeped out or patronized if this isn’t done correctly. They might be suspicious, and ask why you want to talk to them. You should have a good answer prepared, one that will brush that away and make them want to keep talking.