“So Mark breaks a small rule to see what will happen. If Mrs. Allgood is harsh or punitive to Mark for breaking the rule, he says to himself, ‘This class isn’t safe; she isn’t honoring the contract.’ However, if Mrs. Allgood ignores Mark and he gets away with breaking the rule or if she enforces it inconsistently, Mark says to himself, ‘This class isn’t structured; she isn’t honoring the contract’…The bottom line is that when students test us, they want us to pass the test. They are on our side rooting for us to come through with safety and structure. When students act out, they are really saying, ‘We don’t have the impulse and control that you have. We are acting out so that you will provide us with safety and structure-soft yet firm-so that a we can learn the behavior we need to learn to be happy and successful.’” (Smith & Lambert 17)

Reading this article, I instinctively think to G-band Spanish 3: my cooperating teacher’s Spanish 3 class (which I do not teach on a regular basis). G-band is interesting; G-band is loud; G-band is way too energetic; but ultimately, G-band tests me.

My Spanish 3 class, E-band, is respectful. They listen when they are supposed to and need few reminders when they need to pay attention. They recognize me as their teacher as I have been with my band since the beginning of the school year. With G-band, however, the relationship is rocky. They know I am a teacher but do not see me as one. Since I began lesson planning about 2 months ago, on several occasions my cooperating teacher has asked me to teach her class as I am better acquainted with my lesson. I, of course, say yes; but I am always nervous. G-band blatantly has said to me: “How is your class with you? We clearly don’t respect you. Do they?” Are they not embarrassed to speak this way to a teacher? Then again, perhaps they do not see me as one. At least they recognize their behavior…

When attempting to gain control of that class, I resort to using techniques such as “¡Clase, clase, clase!” (Class, class, class!) to which the students respond, “¡Sí, sí, sí!” (Yes, yes, yes!) and are, in theory, supposed to stop talking and listen. When that doesn’t work I begin to plea: “Chicos, por favor…” (Guys, please…). When that doesn’t work, I raise my voice and change to English: “Guys, come on. Stop talking.” There will be the occasional students who begin hushing the class, but there is a constant hum. When the volume is manageable, I begin my explanation of the next activity or the lesson. However, only a few moments in, the volume returns to its original state. My cooperating teacher will sometimes yell, “GUYS STOP TALKING AND LISTEN TO MISS LAILA” but that never proves effective.

The key takeaway from this article is to not allow their behavior to sway my thinking of them, which in recent weeks it has. Because they aren’t “my class”, I do not have to “worry” about dealing with them until I have to. Is the lesson I need to walk away with that I need to be more strict with them? Am I too friendly of a teacher? Do I need to begin “rough” and then slowly release the reigns? The interesting part, however, is that on a one-on-one basis I have been successful in connecting with G-band students. They ask for help, they apologize for their behavior, they ask me about my experience student teaching, and we talk about life…but as a group, they are a challenge.

While reading, I attempted to picture how each strategy proposed can be implemented in the G-band Spanish 3 class. Strategy 1 involves using volume, tone, and posture when trying to teach behavior. It proposes going up to the student who is acting out, lowering the volume, changing the tone and posture, and addressing them to stop their behavior. This, however, would not work in this particular class because I cannot go up to 15 students, one-by-one, and quietly ask each to stop misbehaving. Is there a method to address these students as a group besides what I have attempted? Strategy two, the two-by-ten strategy, involves having one-on-one conversations with the “toughest” students in order to forge a relationship with them and have them act as an ally, in a way. This can work. In my band it has proven to work. I constantly have personal conversations with my students, thus when I ask them to pay attention, it takes little to no time for them to wrap up their conversations. In G-band, those students who I do have a bond with are the ones who try to get the class to settle down or are those who apologize for their misbehavior during class. The third strategy involves breaking appropriate behavior into steps, such as showing students how to clean up when the teacher asks this of his or her students. Does this apply to high school students? I guess teachers always need to model anything they expect from their students. Strategy 4 involves using behavior rubrics. What I can do with my future classes is dedicate the first class of the year to having students establish classroom norms; the behavior rubrics can be incorporated into these norms. The final strategy involves using visuals. What I can do to make following directions easier is to add an icon to each slide of my powerpoint (writing/reading/speaking/listening icon) so that if students cannot understand the directions in Spanish or are distracted when the directions are said, they can quickly and quietly join the class again by referring to the image.