Classroom Management: What Not to Do

January 13th, 2010 By: Diane Trim in Articles, Classroom Management

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Sometimes a poor role model can be as instructive as a good one. That was the case for me when I was in my formative years of teaching. I couldn’t believe some of the things I witnessed in other people’s classes and, looking back, I can’t believe some of the mistakes I made myself.

So, in the spirit of the New Year and resolutions, here’s a list of What Not to Do to manage a classroom. If you see yourself in any of these examples, resolve to change. And, let’s face it: looking at other people’s mistakes can be interesting and entertaining.

Who are you? I taught with a gal who really didn’t know her students names. Seriously. Joann sat the kids in rows according to last name and only took out her seating chart to take roll. Knowing your students’ names is just the start, though. Good teachers know their students’ names, their strengths, their struggles, and what they like to do outside of class.

Punitive quizzes. I confess: I did this. My seventh period class was out of control. I made pop quizzes just for these kids and sprang them on the students when I ran out of ways to channel their energy. Punitive quizzes have no basis in good educational planning, but I was desperate to make it to the final bell.

Compare people, classes. Hoo, boy. I did this one, too. I compared my fourth period French class to my eighth period class. Why was eighth period so much stronger than fourth period? I told eighth period what a smart group they were and how much smarter they were than fourth period. Naturally, the fourth period students heard about it and were upset. Then they were turned off from my class and even more difficult to teach. I never made that mistake again.

Unrealistic expectations. High expectations are terrific. Unrealistically high expectations shut students down. Janet assigned research papers to her students and moaned about the quality of the papers in the staff room. She expected 10 pages of quality research and a bibliography in the correct format. It’s unrealistic to expect that the students could produce a paper in three weeks without guidance. Chunk up that material, Janet. Model proper research techniques. Provide examples of what bibliographies should look like.

Ignore or ridicule questions. Teachers who don’t answer student questions discourage their students. They communicate that the student is unimportant or not smart and that the answer to the question is either obvious or a waste of the teacher’s time. I didn’t commit this fault, but my student newspaper editors did. Granted, they were busy with deadlines, editing, and their own writing, but sometimes I’d catch Matt ignoring the freshmen reporters or, worse, ridiculing the freshman reporters’ copy while he edited. If that happened, the freshman wouldn’t come back, no matter how cool Matt and the staff were or how many chocolate chip cookies we had in the newspaper staff room.

Help too much. Sometimes a teacher tries too hard to help a student learn. In one of my journalism classes, Sarah refused to write a sentence unless she was sitting right next to me so I could read every word. Sarah was a good writer, but she lacked confidence because I didn’t have the sense to cut the apron strings.

Focus on mistakes. If a student sees nothing but red ink on a paper, he’ll think that he’s incapable of learning. Kelly loved her red pen and circled every error she could find. It’s a good idea to not just point out mistakes, but to point out strengths, too. Underlining sentences and writing targeted praise like: great connection between the two wars or strong verb help students just as much as finding all the mistakes.

No faith. You know that integrals are tough and that students struggle with balancing chemical equations. Amy knows that a few students will understand the concepts, but she’s hoping the rest of the class will scrape by with a C on the quiz. Belief is a powerful thing and the students sense that Amy doesn’t believe they’re smart enough to succeed. As a teacher, if I believe my students can learn, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Unfortunately, the reverse is true as well.

Favorites. Claudia has her darlings. She praises them in class, calls on them first for participation points, and asks them to run errands. The other students are singled out by name only to point out a mistake. Of course it’s terrible to have teacher’s pets, but it happens. It’s natural to prefer some students to others; the trick is to not offer preferential treatment during class. Just as you wouldn’t give out your Social Security Number to a crowd, don’t let on that you like one student more than another. Choose volunteers at random from a stack of cards. Carry a list of names on a clip board and cross off each student as you offer praise. Reward and punish equally and fairly and encourage student-teacher respect.

No rubrics. New teachers have it rough: they’re planning, correcting papers, staying a day or two ahead of the students, and struggling with classroom management. When I was a new teacher, I thought that I could hold off on creating rubrics until I had a consistent sleep schedule. You know what happened: my students’ products varied so widely in content and quality that I had no idea how to grade them. I stayed up even later trying to figure out how to assess the students’ knowledge fairly. Good teachers know they must spell out the content and grading criteria before students begin a project.

Lose it. My friend George detested gum chewers. Late one afternoon, George blew his top at a repeat gum chewing offender. He tossed the wastebasket toward her so she could spit out her gum. This was not George’s finest hour. Every teacher with a pulse loses her temper in class at least once. The trick is to recognize when you’re near your breaking point and try to calm down. As George once told me, “They can’t get your goat unless you show ‘em where it’s tied.”

Do you have a story to tell? Have you ever made a classroom management mistake and resolved never to repeat it? Share it in the comments so we can all learn.

Tags: assessment, Classroom Management, expectations, quiz

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