Classroom management....and the whole school having my phone number

Hey Justin's back on the blog! Anyway, Justin’s last couple of posts reminded me of a few things. First of all, classroom management. I have gotten sick of yelling at kids. So instead, I have fallen in love with positive reinforcement. In fact, I think I may have gone a little over the top. The thing is, I didn’t think I was doing a very good job of positive reinforcement so one day I decided to really focus on it in my 7^th grade class. (The principal was also observing me that day.) Anyway, then all of us teachers had a meeting a few days later and the principal was going over the evaluation form he is going to use on us…and when he came to “uses positive praise/reinforcement,” he started mocking me and being like, “Yeah I was in Miss Erickson’s class the other day and she was like ‘Good job!’ ‘Wow!’ ‘Great!’ super enthusiastically every time one student did one little thing right. I would get sick of doing that…” Haha. Whoops. It was actually really funny…I didn’t realize I was so over the top.

Anyway, I have started a new tactic this week for 7^th grade called “star of the day.” (Amazing racers, sort of like “team of the day.”) So at the end of class I call out a student who was doing a good job, explain exactly what they were doing well, and give them a star sticker. I’ve been trying to make sure I’m being super specific about what they are doing well. So I started this on Monday, and Friday it was hilarious—one of the usual troublemakers was silently writing in his journal and so I went over to him and was like, “Good job! Thank you for writing quietly!” And he whispers to me, “I’m trying to get the star today!” Ha. So my dilemma was that I couldn’t decide whether or not to give him the star at the end of class…he had been on task for the most part, but there was another girl in the class who was completely on task, and who also raised her hand several times while they were working without yelling out, “Miss, miss!” It was incredible. Usually I have to tell her to be quiet too. Plus, I'm one of those people who hates giving people praise/rewards when they ask for it. So I ended up giving her the sticker instead…but the other boy wasn’t very happy so I hope I didn’t screw that up. I’m not sure if this will make him angry and cause him to give up or if he will work even harder to be the star student next time. I guess I’ll find out next week!

Ok so this system is working great and my seventh graders have been behaving much better this week. I think it’s a combination of the star student, the fact that I’ve been giving them more partner activities so I don’t have to stand up there and command their attention for the whole class, and the fact that I graded their journals and hardly anyone got a ten out of ten because they didn’t write enough. I think it was somewhat of a wake-up call for them. On the other hand, I have a bad feeling getting a star sticker can only motivate students for so long. And I can’t decide if doing it every day is overkill or not. I mean, after a while, it’s like, “What am I going to do with a star sticker anyway?” So I’m debating doing some kind of “get five stars and get a prize” or something like that. I haven’t exactly decided. Honestly though, I think the lack of positive reinforcement is a huge issue in the school—none of the teachers I know have any such system. Instead, I often come in 7^th grade or another class and there’s a list of students who need to stay in for recess or just a list of “mal portados.” I think that’s the reason yelling at them doesn’t work; they are too used to it so it means nothing to them.

Friday I also stole Justin’s choices speech and gave it to my eighth graders because they were talking. It is actually hilarious to see how they respond. One girl was like, “So what if I draw instead and then do the pages for homework?” I was like, “Fine, but then I won’t help you, and sometimes I will check the pages as classwork before you leave and you won’t have any of it done.” She shrugged and got back to her drawing. Haha. Ok well interesting choice.

I also might give students a speech about using correct English grammar in the things they say all the time. I’m so sick of hearing, “Miss, come!” (Instead of “Miss Erickson, can you come here please?”), “We go with you?” (Instead of, “Do we have your class right now?”), “How many I get?” (Instead of, “What did I get on the test?”),”How it come?” (Instead of, “What is the format of the test?”) and “How many you have?” (Instead of, “How old are you?”) amongst other things. Honestly, I think I might make them take notes on this one day and then give them a test over it.

Oh and get this, the other day a couple of the other teachers were sick so I had to cover for one of them for a class (we have 9 forty-minute classes a day, and usually I have 1 or 2 off periods a day). So I was in 4^th grade for my off period and it was the best class of my life. So well behaved, on task, doing their work. Why the heck am I not teaching elementary school?!

And as for Justin’s comment about expressing your love for someone at first sight…I could probably write a book about that. First of all, good news: the students have stopped asking me for my phone number. The bad news: it’s because they have it. Yeah, literally the whole school has my phone number. I have no idea how this happened. Okay, that’s not true, I know exactly how this happened. So you know how I went to one of my student’s houses the other day to help her with math? Yeah, so I gave her my phone number so she could call me and she wrote it down in her notebook…classic mistake. So now the 11^th graders have taken to calling out my phone number to me when I walk by because they have it memorized…yes, I know this sounds extreme. It’s funny though because I told them it wasn’t right and I can tell they are kind of second-guessing themselves and looking at me to try to figure out if it really is my number or not. Deny, deny, deny. The good news is that my phone is blowing up all the time…the bad news is it’s probably my students. So I just don’t pick up if I don’t know the number. Really though, I think teachers here have a different relationship with students than they do in the States. They honestly don’t see a problem with dating their teacher. Really. I tried to tell them they were too young, and they were like, but the seniors are only three years younger than you! So then I tried to tell them it would be weird because they were my students, and they were like, “What do you mean?” Really they didn’t get it. Even the girls were like, “No, honestly, that wouldn’t be weird.” But relationships with students are just different—I mean, one of the girls’ moms drove me home from basketball the other day, and I went to a student’s house to help with homework. I just don’t think that would be normal in the States. Don't worry though, I'm not thinking about dating any students.

And speaking of going over to that girl’s house to help her with homework. So when I was there I met her 24 year-old cousin, and immediately after I met him and he left, this girl and her other cousins (some of my 7^th graders) were like, “He’s single! Do you like him?! Are you in love with him?” I was like, “Well I just met him.” Then later I met their uncle, and while I was meeting him, my students were like, “Sorry, he’s married.” I’m like, “What the heck do I look like I’m trying to do here?!” Anyway, so this cousin ended up driving me home (which, as Justin mentioned, was ridiculous because it’s like a ten-minute walk). So the next day my students are like, “Oh my gosh, what happened? How was the ride home?!” I was like, “Umm, well, he drove me home, which was like a two minute car ride.” The funniest part is that a few days later I saw this girl’s mom and she too asked me, “So how did it go the other day with the cousin?” I was like, “Fine.” And then my student was like, “Yeah, I was talking to me cousin and he said he wanted to have babies with blue eyes like Miss Erickson’s.” Her mom thought about it for a minute and was like, “Hmmm parece un poco extremo.” (“That sounds a little extreme.”) Hahahahah thaaaaaank you! You think?! A little extreme? At least I’m not the only one who thinks this is crazy. I mean, really.