Keep Calm and Teach On

I have been thoroughly enjoying the teaching experience and teaching on my own more as of late than I have previously been. It has been humbling to see my pitfalls and yet really exciting when I have the whole class hanging on my words. I am grateful for this experience because I know I will come out on the other side a better teacher and for that I am excited. With some of my pitfalls I could use some helpful hints or tips to overcome some challenges; specifically overly chatty students who do not stop no matter what the punishment or threat I throw their way. 

What can I do? We have tried seating arrangements and placing the offenders as far away from each other as possible; they talked across the room. It seems class starts and stops with the group of chatters and it is constantly a stop and go situation where their behavior always has to be kept in check. Class time is disrupted and everyone is affected by a few people’s bad choices. Does anyone feel my pain?

The things I have done are reiterate classroom behavior expectations, solo/group time work expectations and I have had individual conversations with each student about their disruptive behavior. When they start to act up badly I stop and wait and look at the clock and let their peers check them on their behavior. This has seemed to be most effective as of late; as I have refused to get upset and lose my temper and enter into a shouting match in my classroom.  The offenders have quieted faster lately, but yet refuse to acknowledge any personal wrong doing and take accountability for their behavior. How do I overcome the constant chatters!?

What methods of classroom management could I use differently? What ways do you control chatty students in your classroom? (if you have any). 

I have received good advice from my CT’s that I am implementing- I just need more time to work with the new methods to see how they turn out for me.

However, one thing that I have done lately that has had the most immediate impact on classroom management is talking in a softer voice; which I have found out is rather hard for me to do as I like to project my voice so that all students can hear. What this was doing though was allowing my students to not be totally quiet; and so they could carry on their ‘whisper’ conversations. So what I have done is when I begin class I talk in an ‘inside voice’ at a level where students are forced to be quiet in order to hear me. I have found this brings about student attention well and with the ringing of my ‘attention bell’ classes have quieted down quicker.  I am trying hard every day to use this method and keep using it throughout the class as a way of training the students to my expectations. Needless to say though I am more than eager and willing to hear any suggestions as to how I can better my classroom management. 

I wanted to end by passing on a successful lesson that I just taught over communism that the students really responded too. On Tuesday I taught a lesson covering communism and what lead up to it; feudalism, capitalism and socialism. Then on Wednesday I had my students design a CD cover for the ‘communist party’ playlist and come up with communist themed song titles. The students had to draw and color communist themes such as the hammer and sickle or Karl Marx or something that showed everyone being equal (as it is the point of communism). Then students had to come up with song titles with a communist theme such as “Red Commie Cup” by Toby Stalin (Red Solo Cup by Toby Keith) or “I’m equal and I know it” by M.A.R.X. The students had a blast creating their own songs and artwork and my CT and I had a great time too. Just wanted to pass on the idea if anyone could use it. Remember to stay positive, have fun and keep calm and teach on.