- To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful. ~Edward R. Murrow
- The best way I know how to defeat an enemy is to make him a friend. ~Abraham Lincoln
-A watched pot never boils. ~Anonymous
-Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. ~Bruce Lee
-Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. ~Bruce Lee
The first quote reminds me of a comment by Gary Rubinstein (author of The Reluctant Disciplinarian), who gave a guest talk at one of our student teaching seminars. Mr. Rubenstein's policy on consequences depended upon consistency and honesty -- in other words, if you tell your class the next person to talk will get a month of detention, you need to follow through, or the students will quickly lose all respect for your word. As this quote implies, that disrespect will quickly spread to anything else you may be trying to tell them (e.g. about mathematics or its importance to their lives), undermining your efforts as an instructor as well.
ReplyDeleteTo be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to persuade kids of why they should care about math, youmust think hard about why YOU care able math, and why they should care about it too (think of reasons and examples that are relevant to them) – these reasons should be of a wider range than simply being able to pay for your groceries and tip at a restaurant. You also have to be truthful about how much hard work it’ll take to be proficient in math, but also let them know that you will be there top help them along the way. And then you have to actually be there to help them.
A watched pot never boils.
Be patient to see the results of your teaching. Class management needs to happen before you can teach kids any mathematical material. But once you achieve class management, you WILL see learning (because the pot will eventually boil if there’s a source of heat under it)
The best way I know how to defeat an enemy is to make him a friend.
If you have a disruptive kid, instead of detesting your interactions with him/her and letting him/her get the best of you, befriend him/her and find out what it is that is making him/her disruptive. Put yourself in his/her shoes and think about what kind of help you would want/need from a teacher if you were him/her.
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.
It is one thing to stick to your rules and beliefs, but sometimes you need to know when to be flexible either to the school’s or students’ culture so that you can keep your sanity. Don’t compromise yourself, but in certain circumstances maybe consider compromising your expectations or your approach to teaching.
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. ~Bruce Lee
ReplyDeleteAh...the wisdom of Bruce Lee. Although it is important to follow through with the routines and any behavioral consequences you set at the beginning of the year, flexibility is equally crucial. Each school's environment is different and even each class's students vary greatly; it does not make sense to stiffly dictate a culture within the classroom that disregards the school as well as that class's students. The bamboo and willow are able to go with the flow and be flexible to the wind. Classroom management is imperative to the success of a classroom but should be tailored for the class/school. One teacher that I met during observations told me that it's important to hold strong to the big picture but don't sweat the little stuff. It is impossible to perfectly exact classroom management how you want it; you may come close but students will still make mistakes and cross the line. It's up to the teacher to decide which behaviors must brought to the class's attention immediately for disciplinary action and which behaviors may be disregarded at the immediate moment.
Altogether it seems that each quote is trying to give someone advice, not on just classroom management, but generally how to deal with others. I feel that there can be many different "methods" and "techniques" that some might refer to when having to deal with classroom management. However, I would have to say that personally I find that balance amongst all of these is where I would seek council.
ReplyDeleteI have personally always felt that the best way to "deal" with classroom management is to realize that students are people too. While it may seem simple enough I have found that treating them as adults in terms of accountability and conduct always motivates them to rise to the challenge. Of course there will always be the student who is thriving on making you scream and enjoys making your day harder, but I guess that it would seem to me that there will always be that person who wants to make your day a little harder, he's just part of the job. Maybe that's where we are supposed to find some guidance in these quotes. If so, I would have to say that somewhat along with Mr. Lee, positive thinking that "survival" comes sometimes with positive thinking and always giving someone the confidence that they can and will rise to the occasion. Trust until they prove otherwise.
"A watched pot never boils"
ReplyDeleteIn relating this quote to teaching and classroom management I would have to disagree with the meaning behind it. As the teacher I believe it is very important to be aware of students and their needs. To watch and learn from them and to see what accommodations are necessary for students in and out of the classroom to reach achievement. These accommodations are the "salt" added to a pot to help the water boil faster (haha) and they help to control the classroom environment. Teachers need to look to IEPs to see if students need written directions for all tasks, they need to always be observing student performance to discover if students are visual or oral learners. Watching student behavior in the classroom allows teachers the opportunity to know their students, to learn their needs, and learn how to differentiate lessons to meet these needs,and manage the class as a whole. Through watching students, teachers learn who the talkers are, who struggles with the material, who is a strong student, and teachers can use this information to create seating plans that separate the talkers and allow strong students to sit next to struggling students so they can work together for group work and pair off in think-pair-shares.
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. ~Bruce Lee
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Emily that classroom management should be tailored to each individual school and situation, and that a teacher needs to make decisions on when to focus on "the small stuff" and when to let things slip. I also think that from what I've seen during observations, it would be literally impossible to pick up and react to every single indiscretion, as that would leave no time for the actual lesson. This reminds me of one of the things that Gary Rubenstein discussed in his presentation: that he didn't find the use of consequences to be useful in his classroom because they consumed his time and energy and the number of "warnings" that he gave out was so large that it just became a game.
I also think that it's important to be flexible on a case-by-case basis and to understand where each student is coming from and what might be contributing to their classroom behavior.
- To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful. ~Edward R. Murrow
ReplyDelete"Do you know how much time we are wasting when I have to focus on your behavior?!" *
Let me tell you an idea of mine. This might be controversial and downright wrong, but I think its worth putting out there. If a teacher has to yell this at a class, there is likely a 90% chance that this teacher was wasting the students time to begin with. Correct that: there may be a 100% chance that the teacher was wasting the student's time to begin with.
One of the continuing trends I have observed during the last couple of weeks is that students will match the need for participation with their behavior. I think if we want students to engage in our lessons we have to have a reason for them to engage. Specifically I think we need to make sure whole class question has a purpose for every student (why not answer questions in small groups/partners), that group work is well defined and challenging enough to justify a group of 4 (anyone else weary of observing off task groups), and that our lessons give students a chance to engage with what is happening.
I observed a teacher who yelled the quote above at his students, during which I tried to keep track of the time spent managing the class. By the end of the period, about 20 of 47 minutes were spent discussing behavior with the class. During these discussions many students looked even less engaged than during the lessons. Perhaps if the activity the teacher was trying to teach had been better planned (he lacked ready to go numbers for groups, had transition times that were one to two minutes, and had no individual accountability in place) the students would have been more engaged. Specifically, several students were falling asleep (he nudged their shoulders or yelled at them for about 7 of 20 minutes). There might have been a reason they had no need to stay awake.
I think we need to have credibility, believability and honesty all before students might be persuaded to act well in our class. This is something that Gary Rubinstein pointed out and a lesson that I think is really good.
***7th grade math teacher at washington heights middle school.
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. -Bruce Lee
ReplyDeleteAlthough I struggle to believe that there are too many more Bruce Lee quotes that are germane to secondary math education, I do think this is quite fitting.
For as long as high school is mandatory for American students, there will be an ingrained social construct in students that makes them want to rebel against some aspect of school. How exactly this is embodied varies with the student, but inevitably, the classroom environment and student progress will have countless hitches.
As a teacher, it is important that one does not get easily frustrated and perturbed by these quotidian teenage antics. Rather, one should embrace them as part of the learning process.
A distaste for schooling is not such a bad thing, and if, as a teacher, one can foster a spirit for learning despite this continuous classroom give and take, that just might be a true success. To force an environment of systematic complacency (the stiff tree in this metaphor) from young, thoughtful minds is the greater mistake. After all, it was Einstein who never did "let schooling interfere with [his] education."
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. ~Bruce Lee
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is important to develop one's classroom procedures and expectations, a certain amount of flexibility is necessary for a productive learning environment. This can come in the form of deciding when and how to address behavioral issues, but also this can also mean accepting that not every lesson will go exactly how it was planned. Certainly, there will be lessons where individuals or the class as a whole will not grasp concepts at the speed that the lesson calls for. Here, it is important to be able to be flexible, to slow down or speed up or simply to rephrase material to meet the needs of the students. Differentiation in lesson planning is necessary because the student who feels that a class is moving too quickly or too slowly is more likely to be disruptive.
- The best way I know how to defeat an enemy is to make him a friend. ~Abraham Lincoln
ReplyDeleteThis quotation reminds me of one of the policies that a teacher I observed used. At the beginning of the year, he learns very quickly who the disruptive students are. When they begin to be disruptive, he asks them to step outside of the classroom. He finishes doing or teaching whatever he was in the middle of before joining the student outside. The student, of course, is expecting to be yelled at or scolded, but instead the teacher asks the student what's going on or whether he's having a bad day. In this way, he tries to be there for his students, as someone they can talk to instead of a disciplinarian. He believes that if he can get on the good side of the students he sees as possibly being problematic in the classroom, then he will be able to maintain control of the classroom. I don't know whether or not this method actually works, but it seemed like a very good idea to me and something that resonated with me. I hope to be able to do something much like this in my own classroom.
To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful. As a teacher, we shall not teach anything that we ourselves do not believe in. Also, as a teacher, to be credible, and to be truthful to our students, we need to obtain in depth understanding of the topic that we need to teach.
ReplyDeleteThe best way I know how to defeat an enemy is to make him a friend. Well, it's not a teacher's job to not like a student (not to mention to treat a student as an enemy). We become teachers since we like kids. However, sometimes working with the other adults can present quite some challenges, especially if the other adults hold different opinions on what teaching should be. To be open-minded and to respect other people like how you want to be respected is the key.
A watched pot never boils. I can not really relate to this one. Since at home, I always let my pot boil and let the whisle blow. It sometimes drive my husband crazy.
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked. As a Chinese I have heard this too many times. To be flexible and to be adaptive is really important to a teacher, because you can never predict or be 100% sure about what your students might say in a class!