I remember you sending me this before when I asked about your management plan. Awesome read, and I'll most certainly be using this frequently.
Great post! A great strategy I have is that I get the kids' cell phone numbers. If they are absent from my class, I call them (or try to if I have time or if I am not differentiating) and ask why they aren't in class. The students kind of like that I deal with them before their parents. They almost always show up the next day. Moreover, every year, like sheep, the give me their cell phone numbers.
I have a question. I got stuck with a CTT class with a new, frightened teacher (actually a Teaching Fellow). She is very needy, but sweet. We don't have a common prep (what a shock!). Wouldn't it be nice if the UFT were to work into our next contract that if you are a CTT teacher, you get a .2 so that you and the other teacher have a dedicated prep where you can devote the whole period each day to planning and other activities???
Who dreamed up the notion of CTT classes. The one I taught last year was not great and now there are more...nobody gets training save for the same hour long video we are shown and there is no support.
Oh, wait, this is the UFT. There is nothing in that proposial for Randi.
I absolutely agree that it is more effective to deal with students yourself. Very rarely do I send a student out of my class to the principal or VP (unless it is a safety issue - I teach Biology so I don't fool around when it comes to an unsafe student and lab equipment). Frequent phone calls home and time spent with me after class or school has worked for me better than when I did send kids out to the higher ups.
I so rarely do a referral on a kid that I've been told by admin that when they see one from me, they know it's serious. I'd rather deal with it myself. And I'm a frequent parent caller and emailer.
One of my best tools is my cell phone (trying to get an outside line on our school phones is a nightmare). I've been known to program parent cell phone numbers into my phone. Kid acts up, I whip out my phone, punch in Mom or Dad's number and show it to them, with the comment, "Do you want me to hit send, or would you rather shape up and do what you're supposed to do?" To this day I've never had to actually call the parent because the kid will instantly shape up. And, by the next class period, every kid on the team has heard that Bluebird really will call your parents in class...and I never, ever have to do it again that year. The potential humiliation of having me call parents in the middle of class - in front of their peers - is enough to keep them in line most of the time.
I find the information in this post so helpful that I'm copying and pasting it into a permanent file. Thanks, NYC Educator!
Great advice -- I remember it from last year. I tend to start the year like a house afire with the phone calls, but by spring break I've just about had it with the fleeting improvements that result (I teach 6th grade). I know: patience, patience.
This is my 4th year teaching. My first year I was thrown to the wolves, but by my second year I had established sound routines that helped with classroom management. Last year I reached my goal of not referring students to the dean or even calling her for behavior issues...not even once. I handled it all within the classroom and, while there was still lots of time wasted by the miscreants, it was much more efficient.
This year's goal? Perfect line behavior: no talking, yelling, or stretching out the line to the length if a football field. Also: Serious work on holding the door for thos behind you. Perfect is probably too much to ask, but you gotta have a goal.
Call home in front of the whole class! Excellent advice. It works incredible magic.
I used to call parents on my cell all the time - but now I'd probably get written up for having my phone on.
I have called parents from the classroom also. Nowadays that might be considered corporal punishment and you might end up in a rubber room. Be careful!
Wow, do I agree with all the things you say about lesson plans and aims and doing the calling yourself.
Someone gave me a whole list of management pointers 20 years ago when I started teaching. I've lost them, darn it, but here's the few that stuck in my mind, and they really work. Can I throw them into the pot?
Try to stand in the doorway when the kids come into the room. Most times you can "fix" the things that are not acceptable (e.g., hat, gum, being half dressed) before they're brought into your space. There's no advantage dealing with these issues inside your room, because that's the place they must come to know is designed by you, not them.
Try not to let students ever stand behind you.
When you are writing on the board, try not to turn your back on the class. Keep looking over your shoulder at them so they know you know what they're doing.
Roughly speaking, the most powerful seats in the room are the four corner ones, particularly the two in the back row. Anyone in those seats can see you and look at what all their classmates are doing as well. In any other seat, they can't take everyone in at the same time. Kids with behavior problems should not be given a chance to dominate from those seats.
Have a good year, y'all!
Be careful about making calls to students' homes while in class. I know of a case where, exactly as someone mentioned, a teacher became the target of an investigation for having fair and reasonably complained about a student's highly disruptive conduct, using a school phone in the classroom while the kids could overhear.
It's crazy, but reality.
I've done the calling home from the classroom kind of thing -- both inside the classroom and just outside in the hallway (with my eyes peering in). I'm rather reluctant to continue that practice, though, because of the reasons mentioned above: the "corporal" punishment thing and the cell phone issue.
A bit off topic- but is teacher use of cell phones a big issue in your school? (I'm not talking about answering your phone in front of kids-I mean more like calling home during a prep if your child is home sick).
My mom was in the hospital. Walking between classes I used my cell phone to call and see how she was doing. There is not a lot of free time to do this during the day. The Principal saw me on phone and had a hissy fit.
It seems to be a pretty big deal in my new school. It was hammered home hard during the meetings last week. It wasn't an issue in my old school, but maybe admins were told to make a bigger thing about it this year...?
great advice! i'm gonna forward it to some of the new teachers in my building. although i also wanted to add that if discipline problems do come up, that a negative phone call home should be the last resort
There's another good reason to deal with class disruptions yourself and not involve outsiders. Principals often keep statistics as to which teachers send the most disciplinary referrals so they can frame teachers who send a "disproportionate" number, without regard to the fact that they assigned that targeted teacher the worst bunch of classes in the school. The "referrals" are used, therefore, as evidence against teachers rather than the students they reported. Unfortunately there are often snitches among colleagues, the most frequent one being the school dean. The dean is a teacher, of course, but usually acts in a gray area with administrative responsibilities. Being ambitious and realizing they've got a sweet gig, they sometimes become zealous and exceed the expectations of even the most abusive administrator to score "browny points" that might secure a brighter future for themselves at the expense of their colleagues.
Off topic and scary--here is an excerpt from today's NY Daily News interview with Joel Klein--
Q: The city has a large pool of "excessed" teachers working as highly paid substitutes. What's the solution?
A: "After a certain period, we should be able to terminate those employees, absolutely. Unfortunately, that's not where we are now, and I think it's wrong."
Continued to be outraged at Weingarten's collaboration in this sellout.
She must call a press conference to point out the inequities of grouping all ATRs into one category, and if she doesn't, isn't it obvious she agrees with him?
You seem to have a good handle on how to hanle the first days of school. The problems that are faced in education today is due to the fact that societal norms have changed and there always seems to be an excuse for deviant behavior. We need to return to an old school philosphy and try understand that respect for authority is expectated and irresponsible behavior will be dealt with. Years ago the only hting we ever wanted from a kid was obedience, now its the last thing we get.
for more about Jim
Burns http://behavioral-management.com/
Today's NY Times is worse. The "editorial caption" under Klein's picture reads:
As schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein has brought both stability and drastic change. But critics wonder if his ideas will succeed.
Stability???????? No one ever knows who to report to under all the reorganizations. Some of the best schools in NYC will receive a B rating. Experienced teachers are in limbo (ATRs) when so many schools need them because the DoE are calling them incompetent and the UFT is not defending those statements. Where is the reporting on the discrimination issues caused by the new budgets? Teachers are nothing but test trainers, and as these tests are dumbed-down even more, the pols and admins come across looking like they are the ones responsible for the "drastic change".
And least we forget the last minute bus changes in the middle of winter that left kids stranded out in the cold for hours!!!
I have always expected better reporting from the NY Times.
Always a great read, bud! You're doing a great service by making sure the newbies get somer great advice!
Peace!
Wow- excellent post. So true. I'm still learning the hang of it though. The only phone at my school is in the office and the office is the principals office, photocopying room, secretary's office, assistand principal's office, mailbox room all in one. So whenever I have to make a call from the office there are at least 5 people there listening to the call. So annoying. I've resorted to blocking my cell number and making the call from there...Except so many parents block unknown calls...What can one do...
Enjoy the first day back!
Another NY Times Puff Piece on Klein.
The Times has been an apologist for BloomKlein all the way.
This is the best line:
"Certainly there have been improvements. The dozens of small high schools that have been created in the last 5 years posted an average graduation rate of 73 percent. Still, roughly half of the high school students in the city do not graduate in four years."
That's about it. Their toughest critique.
No questions about how these figures are arrived at. No talk of the lack of special ed or bi-lingual kids. No talk of the creaming. No talk about the kids from closed schools being forced into overcrowded large schools as a way to ensure failure. No questions about why they don't try to fix the large schools. Well. you know the drill.
The full commentary is at the ed notes blog.
Speaking of decentralizing, today's opening in our special ed (ISS) department was the worst ever. The placement people, who are some nebulous independent agency who take names and numbers and stick them anywhere, took what appeared to be at least one hundred kids and stuck them in our well run huge sp ed department. The problem is, we are in a school that is already at 260% capacity. How do you put the most vulnerable children in harm's way and treat them like dirt? This is the true legacy of the KleinBloomGarten triumvirate; we have over 100 kids we just can't program when we have no classes, rooms, or teachers. I can't see where we can chisel out another 7 classes that need at least 7 periods EACH of instruction per day. The lack of experience shows; the old placement officers actually knew basically what they were doing. Once in a while a kid would slip through cracks; now at least half of the kids we see with IEP's are falling through cracks either by misevaluation, misplacement, or both, due to the great revolutionary "restructuring" KleinBloomGarten are undertaking. They are a sham and a scandal, and are destroying the underpinnings of middle class life in the outer boroughs. Their "mini schools" siphon off monies and resources that should go to reducing class size and paying for valuable experienced teachers. The latter should be highly valued, not vilified. This is what happens when heartless arrogant non educators run the school system. Better to use a scorched earth policy and call it "reform". From where I'm sitting, they just destroyed a school system in need of revitalizing, not "restructuring". It doesn't matter how they configure their bureaucracy; the kids still are getting taught.
I'd say a good lesson plan will eliminate many of the behavior problems that arise after you have initial control of the class.
Excellent thoughts. I've been calling parents already this year -- hopefully it will have an effect soon!
Ms Tsouris -- I didn't want your 9.04.07 remarks to go without notice. You get it, and then some.
So many people manning classrooms these days are too new to understand at gut level what makes you so angry. In the first couple of years, they're still finishing their degree, getting a handle on classroom management, and learning how to teach. What they don't have time for -- and I'm sure that's what Bloom/Klein counts on -- is to get a handle on how devastating the ideologies of elected officials and their educrat hitmen can be to the lower and middle sectors of our society. The people in their circle have the means to live outside the system they've designed for the rest of us.
Part of our job is to recognize when children are being hurt, and an entire segment of them is being just that, abused by governmental officials who want to keep them low-functioning.
Always look at what Bloom/Klein legislate and install, listen to what they say only for the interminable deceit.
I have to say that, even as a newer teacher, I am not buying what Bloomberg et al. are selling. I would be sad to place my child in most NYC public schools, knowing what they would be subject to.
One thing I can already tell about my eighth graders is that most of them do genuinely like to read. Although getting my classroom library sorted has been a slow and arduous task, the students are willing to help me because they desperately want to borrow books; I'm fortunate enough to have a huge, shiny new library that really looks good to them. And I'm just sad to think that once November and December rolls around, we won't have a chance to slowly thumb through books, chitchatting about them, stirring and nurturing that real affinity for books that my kids have. Which is what I used to think that teaching was supposed to be about. But not in NYC.
Great post. No doubt there is nothing that prepares you for your first year of teaching. Experience is so key.
I will use this post in my class that I teach in Texas for Accelerated Teaching Certification. In Tx you only need a college degree in anything and to pass your exams to teach.
Thanks very much David. I put that up every September, and I'm very happy to see it being put to such good use. My ed. classes were taught by college professors who hadn't seen the inside of high schools since they themselves graduated, and they really had no clue. I don't think we should eliminate teacher training, but I do think we should make it more practical. I hope your students, under your guidance, become great teachers.
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