1. I was so busy trying to figure out what was going on, it’s taken me a long time to reply.

2. I pretty much ignored the seven rules last week. When the kids aren’t in class, when no one knows the schedule, or when I’m left in a room with the half of the sophomore class that I don’t know so that we can work on decorations for a homecoming float, I figure that any sense of structure provided by rules is pretty much shot.

I’m still not sure about how far I’m willing to expect students to behave compared to how much I feel like I need to enforce rules.

On the one hand, my housemate and I have informally observed that the students who spent time in the JDC program (where rules are super-strict) are our best students. They’re better prepared for the material (because they were actually taught in the past two years). They meet the behavior expectations.

On the other hand, we’re both frustrated that so many of our students are missing class because they’re suspended. What do they learn from that? Miss class. Fall behind. Get more frustrated. Act out more. Rinse and repeat.

Does having some sort of prior preference with rule enforcement help create the behavior expectation?

Ken, holy cow, shaking hands one-by-one is for martyrs. Don’t be a hero, Ken.

Smart College Graduates = Avoid Education Outright

College Graduates = Immediately Attend Graduate School

Those That Hold Doors Open for Strangers @ Convenient Stores = Good People, Teachers

Isn’t it amazing that after all that snazzy education you’ve been able to pin-point exactly what it means to be an effective teacher?

I wonder though, what message do you send when you immediately apply hand sanitizer after the last student enters?

Thanks,
Philip

Your examples don’t approach the severity of the situation he was facing when he took the reigns of that school, but if — even in a situation that dire — the first thing the new principal does to improve behavior is to reduce the number of rules, I think we can all learn a lesson from that.

The female was a Yearbook Adviser. I’m not sure if she was teaching her regular English class or not, but based on the open yearbook on one of the desks, I’m guessing that it was her yearbook class in which all of this was taking place. As a former yearbook adviser myself, I know that Yearbook doesn’t have a daily “structure” so much as it functions and flows like a mini-business with different groups of students working on their individual projects from the last point they got to, until the goal they set for the day. This requires a large amount of maturity and dedication (not to mention group-work skills) from the students and I’ve had a few students who have been in class only to play around. I’ve kicked my fair share out of the classroom too, but my principal knew what was going on and often saved me the trouble by stopping by and borrowing those students to come do filing for him or whatnot because they’d rather (no joke) throw pens across the classroom than create the index/identify students in candid photos/check the copy on certain spreads/etc.

For the male teacher, it appeared to be military school. I can’t tell you what clues I had … but my gut recognized it since I had a good friend growing up who was sent to a military school and I visited her one day. In military school, they certainly can and do yell at you and make you stand for the national anthem (and worse).

This didn’t get a lot of airplay at my otherwise-fine teaching college. I wish that instead of pondering the question, “Do I smile on the first day, at Christmas, or somewhere in between?” I had been stressing myself out over fun activities and a good style from the front.

1.) The teacher is sick and tired of dealing with a bunch of punk-ass kids all day.
2.) He REALLY needs to get laid!!!

I’m outta here. Smell all you saps later.

first: an aside back to that earlier thread…

my immediate reaction to your post is: wow dood what a great administrator you would make. i’m sure that if one of those scared teachers was on your faculty you’d find a way to gently move them from the fear to confidence. (step one would be not having The Seven Rules…)

you know that in most british schools it’s common practice for admin to teach a few classes as well…not sure if that’s common at all in the states, i don’t recall ever going to a school like that. but that could be a model for you to pursue.

on the topic of RULES:

i think it’s important to recognize the nuances of how rules work at different age levels.

i teach middle school now, in my second year at this level after two @ high school. so i’m still learning a ton every week about how to design the lessons better…and i believe the best approach to discipline is to have the best lessons you possibly can.

but i do think that there is room in the middle school classroom for clearly delineated and enforced rules…IF those rules relate to respect. i am a broken record when it comes to saying “don’t talk when someone else is sharing”. part of what middle schoolers need to learn is how to be a part of a community. and they actually LIKE IT when the rules are explained. a key is to always try to explain why the rule applies in a certain case, and what its effects are.

dan – keep up the blogage. love it.

-jp