Random Thoughts

People say "The short weeks are the longest."  I agree with that totally.  Although it was not a horrible week, it seemed like it would never end.  I did realize quite a few things this week that I am glad that I did, which ultimately put a great deal of my life into perspective.  

I am coaching the baseball team at the middle school for the again, which brings about an entirely new sense of worth in the school.  I coached it my first year with a bunch of people, and although I was paid as the assistant coach, all I really did was keep the scorebook.  The two people in charge did not care that out of the four of us, I was the only one who actually played baseball outside of high school.  After spending two years as head coach on the JV team and not being able to have a team this year due to lack of players, it is nice to get back to the basics, and teach the team how to play the right way.  I watched the Varsity team play this past week, and I realized why I dreaded the high school season.  Not so much for the sport, but rather for dealing with the parents and the head coach of the varsity squad.  To be honest, I know he is trying really hard and puts a lot of time into the game, but he needs to let the other coaches do their job too.  He is a micromanager, who does little to let us do our job.  In retrospect, it is a very good thing that I am not doing high school ball this year, and maybe won't do it again.  Only time will tell.

Chronic Behavior Student Reflection

Several years ago, there was a student in my class that was constantly challenging my authority, being disrespectful and was a constant disruption to the learning process, not only in my class, but several others as well.  I was a young teacher, still trying to establish my own values and beliefs, and had not put much thought into building a strong program for dealing with chronic behavior problems, I am sure I would not have had quite as many problems with this student. 

 

Since my class is only a half-year class, I did not know the student until midway through the year.  I had heard stories from other teachers about his behavior in class, and they had tried to talk to his parents and hold meetings with him that focused on his behavior prior to the beginning of my class.  From what the other teachers had said, he had controlled his behavior for the first few days after their meeting, but returned quite quickly to his defiant self.  When he entered my class, he tried desperately to demonstrate his power in class, by belittling me, saying rude comments about me, and constantly leaving his seat.  Within the first few days of class, he was sent out of class several times, earned a lunch detention, and was about to take the next step, which was a long detention.  As the semester progressed, his behavior in class deteriorated, and no matter what I did, or any other teacher, nothing really changed his attitude or performance. 

 

Looking back, there are several things that I would have done differently to handle this student.  Dr. Wolfgang outlines a plan on how to deal with chronic defiant behavior, and I should have followed a plan similar to his.  The first thing I should have done was to call his parents the first day he was removed from class.  Dr. Wolfgang discusses that this is a crucial step because it gains their support early, and also establishes a history of your efforts to control the student’s behavior (Laureate Education Inc, 2008).  When I did call his parents later in the quarter because he had earned an after school detention, I was told that they support my decisions and actions, but still, the student’s behavior did not change.  From there, I should have set up a parent/principal conference, but instead, his other teachers and I tried a staffing meeting to try to get him back on track.

 

During the meeting, the student was brought into the room, and we had a round table discussion about why he had been brought in, how he felt about his behaviors in class and what he could do to work on them.  It seemed to be more of a “shape up” type of meeting, but really did not establish any plan for him to follow in order to change his behavior in class.  What we could have done during that time was establish a behavior contract or steps for him to follow when he is being defiant.  Behavior plans are essential for students with rebellious behavior because it helps them shape their attitudes and performance into a more positive form.  Failure to help a student change is not beneficial for anyone involved.  After all, Jones and Jones point out that teachers often build Individualized Education Plans (IEP) for students who are struggling academically, but very seldom do we build IEP’s for students who are struggling behaviorally.  They go on to say that,  “Everyone loses when we fail to develop individual behavior change plans for students who’s behavior is disrupting the learning environment,”  (Jones and Jones, p 389, 2007). 

 

For his behavior plan, it would have been essential to teach him to think before he acts, and to teach him that his actions would have serious implications in the near future.  “Kids live in so much in the here and now, they’re not reflective about their behavior.  They don’t think about this action I’m doing now, what’s going to be the long-term affect.  It’s just they do it because it feels good or their angry at the moment,” Laureate Education Inc, 2008). Dr. Wolfgang.  In order to set up his behavior plan, a straightforward approach to building one can be found at http://k6educators.about.com/cs/classroommanageme3/a/createcontract.htm.  At this site, they discuss some key points focusing not only on how to build the contract, but also how important it is to hold follow up meetings to see how effective it is and if it needs to be changed at that point. 

 

As the year progressed, it became more evident that he made it his personal mission to irritate and harass as many people as possible, both his fellow students and his teachers.  In that process he also learned when to stop just before the serious consequences were given for his actions. 

 

He is currently a freshman in high school, and he still struggles with this issue.  After seeing how he treated his teachers and peers, it was no surprise to me when I saw after two months of this school year, he had been suspended twice for fighting with upperclassmen.  Unfortunately his behavior has not changed, but had all of his teachers put forth more of an effort to build an IEP for his behavior, maybe he would be a different person now. 

 

References:

Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2007). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom 8th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program thirteen. Interventions for Severe and Chronic Behavior Problems [Motion picture]. Classroom management to promote student learning. Baltimore: Author.

Reflection: Dealing with a Defiant Student

Early in my first year of teaching, I had an incident with one of my students, which was my “initiation” into dealing with defiant students.  The student was the stereotypical football player, over six feet tall (he had a few inches on me), and every teacher had problems with him in class.  My class was split in half by lunch, and the student was being quite rude and disrespectful the entire class.  On the way to lunch, one of the other teachers gave him a reminder for a detention, and he ripped it up and threw it on the ground.  As he started to walk away, I sternly said, “Don’t walk away, get back here and pick it up.”  The student, not caring about what I said, continued to walk away.  Seeing his totally disregard for authority, I lost my composure, and before I realized it, the student and I were in each other’s faces, yelling just outside the cafeteria.  If I would have had more experience in dealing with situations like this, I would have been able to handle the situation much more civilized and peacefully.  Though the student was out of my class for the rest of the day, the next few days were quite tense because neither of us had much respect for each other.  It took time for us to make amends, but by the end of the year, we both had a mutual understanding of each other.

 

Had I followed the steps of the teacher-behavior continuum outlined by Dr. Wolfgang (Laureate Education Inc., 2008), I would have been able to handle the issue more effectively, peacefully and quicker without losing any respect for and from the student.  In retrospect, there are several steps that I could have done in order to avoid such a vocal confrontation.  The first thing I should have done was to keep my composure and take some deep breaths before confronting the student.  The teacher that gave him the detention slip tried the “looking technique” and had no success, but had I taken time to listen to him, and ask why he was having a bad day, maybe things would not have been so volatile at lunch.  By using the “naming technique” discussed by Dr. Wolfgang (Laureate Education Inc., 2008), I could have used a variety of “door openers” to find out what was bothering him before lunch and work towards ways to help him rather than make things worse for him. Ultimately, the goal would have been to help him the best I can, and also strengthen our teacher-student relationship rather than weaken it.   

 

If I would have taken the time to listen to him, I’m sure we would have also strengthened the amount of respect we had for each other, and thus making the class run smoother in the future.  A month or two later, I took the time to talk to him after school one day, and found out what was going on in his life.  I also helped him review a test we took, and he made a comment about how easy the test was because a lot of what we learned was common sense.  If I had spent time working with him sooner, I’m sure he would have excelled in my class throughout the year, not just at the end of the course.

 

During the actual confrontation in the cafeteria, there were several things I could have done differently.  I could have calmly discussed with him why I was angry at him, focusing on how I saw he disrespect the other teacher, and also how this is an inappropriate way to act in school.  Something else I could have done was change the way I commanded him to pick up the paper.  Rather than saying, “Don’t walk away, get back here and pick up the paper,” I should have said, “Come here and pick up the paper.”  Dr. Wolfgang points out in his discussion the idea of motor-meaning, where students “only hear the last thing” (Laureate Education Inc. 2008).  In the case above, he most likely only heard the walk away part because he was already walking away. 

 

This whole situation could have gone completely different had I been better prepared for situations like this and as a result made different choices on how to deal with the student.  Using a “Ladder of Success” as outlined by Jones and Jones (p. 341, 2007), I could have instructed the student on how to make choices that would demonstrate proper behavior in school.  In the same aspect, I could have used the same ladder of success for myself to make the appropriate decision on how to handle the situation.  By teaching students how to use the ladder appropriately, they are given the power to make the correct decisions on how to handle tough situations and their feelings.  “As it relates to communication, it means teaching students and ourselves a model for effectively dealing with our feelings,” (Jones and Jones, p. 340, 2007).  This model gives students the power to make their own choices focusing on positive choices, which lead to success, or negative decisions, which lead to loss of privileges and possibly even disciplinary consequences.  This would have been a great tool to use at the time because there would have been a power shift in a good way for the student and myself.  He ultimately had the power in the situation because he got what he wanted: out of my class and away from the teachers, but had we followed this model, we both would have had the power.   I would have maintained control of the situation, and myself and he would have had the ability to make proper decisions to vent out his frustration from outside issues.

 

As I look back on the whole situation, I know that I would have handled it completely different than I did, and I realize that as a result, neither of us learned how to deal with difficult situations in school.  I do know now proper ways to handle situations and will employ new strategies discussed by Jones, Jones and Wolfgang to handle future deviant students. 

 

References:

Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2007). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (Laureate Education, Inc., custom 8th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program twelve. Limit-Setting Techniques [Motion picture]. Classroom management to promote student learning. Baltimore: Author.