EDSE 600: Classroom Management Recap

My biggest frustrations are:

1. Students who sleep, eat, pass notes in class… because…
2. they care about my class less than anything else on Earth
3. High failure rate
4. Poor attendance and constant, unforewarned interruptions due to intercom, extra-curriculars, etc.
5. Slow pace of content instruction due to student deficiencies in some skills plus above-noted frustrations

Some things shamefully lacking:

1. Parent contact
2. Consistent bathroom procedure
3. “Tissue” and pencil-sharpening procedures, etc.
4. Preset time limits on quizzes & activities
5. Prize-giving for tickets reward system
6. Secondary consequences (due to lack of parent contact)

Some things abandoned without regret:

1. Red-Yellow-Green “traffic signal”
2. Hard-assness re: pre-bell craziness & a little in-class talking

The main thing I need to be doing but am not:

1. Parent phone calls

Some other adjustments I could stand to make:

1. Get back to more cold-calling (or ask-pause-call) rather than loudest unrestrained screaming out method (“I said that first, Mr. A!”)
2. Use a timer
3. Stamp warm-ups

Some unexpected positive developments:

1. Sense of humor in the classroom
2. Feeding off their energy when the class does respond
3. Hmm… Was there something else? Do witty comebacks count? Students who sometimes greet me back? The fact at least no one has physically assaulted my person?

Some things I am doing quite well:

1. Classroom presence
2. Administering consequences (at least nominally)
3. Starting and ending class procedures
4. Handling student outbursts, disrespect, etc.
5. Always keeping my cool & never taking anything personally

Overall I think my classroom management plan from the summer was a little, well, optimistic. I am certainly not doing everything as I said I would. But also it was a bit more strict and tight-laced than I feel like running my classroom now. I have become a bit less rigid (call it “structured” if you like) since then. There are good and bad sides to that. Right?

But anyway, I feel fairly well in control of my classroom most of the time, despite everything I am doing so poorly or not doing at all. I just wish I could get kids to listen. No amount of writing their names on the board can force them to do that. Some parents can make them pay attention and learn, but those are mostly the kids who are already doing well anyway.

There are good days and bad days.