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A Positive Approach To Managing Classrooms

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Education, in America, is a privilege. In order for teachers to teach and studens to learn, we must have control in the classrooms. I've been in enough classrooms, as a teacher, to know one student can prevent a teacher from being able to effectively teach. Often times,like a bad flu virus, the tendency to act up starts spreading to other like minded and vulnerable students. This week, I watched a horrifying video of a male student taking down his teacher, in front of other students, because he wanted his cell phone back. The teacher didn't fight back. Instead, he simply tried to maintain his footing. Ultimately, the strong student got him to the floor. I don't know if he got his phone back or not. What is amazing, to me, is that other students in the room were either smiling, moving out of the way, or just watching like it was no big deal to see a student roughing up a teacher.
There are many concerns we must face with high priority in education. Test scores should not be at the top of the list. Making classrooms conducive for teaching should at the top of the national to-do list. For a classroom to be an effective learning environment, the disruptive students have to go. Am I saying they should not receive an education? No. They need "educating" more than most students. However, their education should include self-control, anger management, and a good dose of learning consequences exist for bad behavior and breaking the law. They need to be transported and educated in an alternative school where armed guards, police officers and counselors are readily visible and available. Every school district should be required to have a fully staffed alternative school.
When I founded the ABBIT program, I was teaching fifth grade. I was "pretty good" at controlling my students and maintaining a classroom where students could actually learn and I could actually teach. Since I taught math, my first choice of punishment was having students write the multiplication tables for me. One bad action, disrespectful look or disruption and I immediately assigned ten sets of multiplication facts to be given to me the next day. If I didn't get them on time, the number doubled. If I didn't get the twenty sets, they stayed in at lunch to write them. It was important for me to follow through and get "my tables". Students soon figured out they really didn't want to have to write them again. It was simple, but it was effective. And, they usually needed to learn the facts anyway. The punishment was effective and there was learning involved.
The other way I managed my classroom was to create a comfortable environment where students could, and often would, learn to love math. I wanted students to want to come into my classroom! If they came in happy, liking my class, they were easier to teach and manage.
Every teacher will eventually have a student that will not conform, even the very best teachers and even in grades as low as kindergarten. These students cause problems for everyone. They are the dreaded student. What do you do with them? I let them know who was boss, first of all, with firm requirements. I told them what I would and wouldn't allow and stood by my words. If I didn't, then they would have control of my classroom. Secondly, I tried to get to know more about them, their past, their home life, their medical history if it was available. A keen eye and an open heart can tell you a lot about a student. I once had a disruptive student that I discovered was in pain every day! His teeth were decayed and hurting him. It was no wonder he was acting up. After talking with his mother, I learned there was no money for him to get dental work done. The family barely had food to eat. Thanks to a local dentist and a few phone calls I was willing to make, the student got his teeth fixed. That was back in the 1980's. I can only hope the student learned something, he is using in his adult life, from the kindness and help he was given.
I remember having many one on one conversations, in the hallway, with a student named Matthew. Matthew had the beautiful baby blue eyes. I had a way of making those blue eyes fill with tears, just because I listened to him. Our hallway conversations were not centered around my threats of punishment. Instead, they were my chance to to learn what was, or might be, going on in his life. After a few hallway "talks", Matthew learned I cared about him. Now granted, if I was in the hallway with Matthew, I wasn't teaching. I knew I couldn't do this too much or too often. But I was willing to keep trying, for a while anyway. I wanted to give him a chance to remain in my class and learn. Matthew eventually became a student who loved my class and learned to sit quietly. In fact, a new problem arose when he would act up for other teachers in an attempt to get to come back to my classroom. At first teachers gladly let him leave and come back to my class. However, they soon figured out that it wasn't a punishment for him and started sending him, instead, to the office. I found him, many days, sitting at a desk in the supply closet. One day, when I checked on him, he proudly showed me that he'd neatly rearranged all the supplies. I felt sorry for him. He didn't need to be in a closet. Matthew grew up to be a man with problems. The last I heard, he was serving time in the county jail.
It was important for me to get students to love math. I could tell who did and didn't like math the first week of school. Some students feared math so much they would often cry or tremble when they came into my class. I had to, first, recognize the problem and then turn it around! One effective way I did this was to NOT GIVE HOMEWORK! Why? Because I had these students for an hour, or more, every day and I worked them from the minute they walked through the door to the minute they walked out! That was my time to teach them math and their time to learn it! I made the most of every minute! Their homework was done in the classroom where I could help them and answer their questions. As a result, grades were good! Students who were used to failing grades started learning how great success feels when you work hard and earn it! What a wonderful lesson for a child to learn! Success feels good!!! My no homework method of teaching was also less stressful for me! Putting zeros in my gradebook didn't make me very happy! Zeros don't make anyone happy! So, I did my best to avoid them, to keep zeros from being a part of my classroom and gradebook. Here's why I made the decision to NOT give homework...
Home environments are not equal. They're not always conducive for a student to be able to focus more schoolwork. Students are tired. They were at school early and for most of the day. After school should be their time! Students need family time! And parents need free time with their children without me interfering in their time together. It is wrong, wrong, wrong, to make a student have to sit at a dining table to do hours of homework after they leave school. Many won't do it anyway and failure is likely to occur.
So how did my students fair with the end of the year state mandated tests, considering I didn't make them do homework? My scores were at the top when compared to other math teachers in the school. I had students engaged and learning during the time other teachers were "checking homework" and filling their gradebooks with zeros. I see this as negative and highly ineffective. Zeros destroy grades and self-esteems. They make students feel like failures. They anger teachers. By removing homework from the classroom, teachers and students are happier. As a no-homework teacher, students were willing to work for me in the classroom. Students only got homework if they needed to do makeup work. My conclusion, about homework, is that it isn't effective for learning and it takes up a lot of instruction time when a teacher chooses to go over it in the classroom. Too often students, especially those with discipline problems, won't have their homework.
I may not have all the answers for education concerns, in this country, but I will say this. A lot of problems can be avoided if a student is required to behave and is given an opportunity to enjoy school. We need to remove the focus of testing and replace it with teaching. We must remove the negative, stressful, approach to teaching students.
ABBIT has motivated and recognized more than 2,000,000, based upon my estimation from the membership cards elementary school principals have purchased from me over the past 29 years. It is a highly effective program for getting students to care about their grades. Simply put, a student must care about their grades before they will make any effort to earn good grades. With ABBIT, students learn success in the classroom is rewarding. Teachers love ABBIT because it improves student effort. Students are eager to learn.

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