“The bottom line is 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 control that you have. We are acting out so that you will provide us with safety and structure—be soft yet firm—so that we can learn the behavior we need to learn to be happy and successful… Please be compassionate allowing us our wants as you honor our needs.” (Smith & Lambert, 17)

In the Smith & Lambert article “Assuming the Best,” the authors give practical tips on how to hold students in the best possible regard and interpret the “noise” of the stories they tell as simple requests for love. It is so easy to misinterpret charged remarks as a lack of respect, but this is only true when we, the educators, cannot hold onto our own respect for ourselves. We have to be so firm in our fullness and love for ourselves that we cannot be seduced by any angry or unkind words from students. Continue reading Reprogramming “I hate you” = “I love you” →

“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. Continue reading How do I get them to stop walking all over me? →

“Thinking this way about classroom disruptions can involve a shift in a teacher’s whole approach towards students — away from thinking of them as problems to be controlled, and toward thinking of them as partners in achieving some common goals.” (Cushman, pg. 44)

Student teaching this semester has been heavy on classroom management and this article by Cushman really hit home. Each day my classroom is evidence that there is a power struggle going on between students and teachers. Students are insecure and irked because they feel that teachers are in control of power and that teachers are not to be trusted. More often than not students sabotage their own learning as well as that of the rest of the class by engaging in some kind of behavior that “restores” their power. Prior to this semester, I was rather unaware that this struggle was as real as it is at my school. Continue reading 22 Partners in the Class →

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 control that you have. We are acting out so that you will provide us with safety and structure – be soft yet firm – so that we can learn the behaviour we need to learn to be happy and successful.” (Smith & Lambert, 2008, 2).

This article dealing with classroom management and creating a safe classroom could not have come at a better time for me. As the halfway point of the school year approaches, I find my students acting out a little more than usual. Continue reading Soft yet firm →

“Assuming the best is essential for long-term learning and positive connections to take place in our classrooms…The most effective classroom management comes in the form of strategies that prevent acting out before it occurs. And those strategies arise primarily from assuming that our students want to be here, want to participate, and, specifically, want to learn good behavior. When we internalize and act from this assumption, our students behave better and learn more” (Smith and Lambert, 16, 2008).

Continue reading In this case, it’s OK to assume →