Behaviour in the classroom is a tricky thing. You have met the class at the door, they always line up in silence, you do the same thing every lesson yet still it somehow isn’t working. Why are they not listening to me?
“Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ I try to fight that.” – Grace Hopper
Firstly – thanks for joining me for the ride. I have never written a blog before – or even read many. I have started this as a point to note down thoughts to help me process them and hopefully build up a bank of helpful tips.
So – behaviour in the classroom – I know, kill me right? At my school we recently had a CPD session on managing tough situations with student behaviour in school. A member of SLT ran this and it was mostly helpful, but I can’t help but question some of the advice. Firstly, we had a really good “I do, we do, you do” lead approach where we were basically reinforcing start routines to the classroom. To give you some insight into how this looked, we were firstly shown how to do this properly, then we role played being students/teacher and students had come into the room, with a starter task on the board and finally we gave feedback to the teacher who was role playing. We (the teacher) were walking around students work and making comments like “Great, I can see you have written the LO’s and have started answering the question”, “Come on! You have been here for 5 minutes now, you should be further along” and “I like how you have laid this out, could you add to this by doing x”. However, there was a real focus on volume of voice, talking quietly to students with negative feedback and louder for positive. We also role-played students being late, but I will come back to my thoughts on this soon.
Firstly, I teach Computer Science, I tried this approach of a good starter routine and fundamentally, it works to an extent but is not full applicable. Why? Logging in, that’s why. If you are also experiencing the pain of being a CS teacher, you will understand that the routine of students coming in and logging on is anything but a constant one. It could all be fine one lesson followed by “I can’t remember my login”, “My password isn’t working”, “I keep getting this error message” the next lesson, the list of potential computer problems and user errors goes on. So, there I am, pacing the room with instant feedback and a (hopefully) calming influence while thinking about the volume of my voice. I am giving quiet, calculated feedback where necessary while also raising my voice and praising another student so the whole class can hear how proud I am when suddenly out of nowhere comes “Sir, I can’t log on” and – BAM! – I am now in 1 place, helping 1 student solve their single issues. What now? Behind me, Freddie has decided to walk across the room and disrupt Bella. All my effort in vain and the class is no longer a calm learning atmosphere and the effort I now need to muster in order to get it under control seems almost not worth it. It is my job, I have to do it but by the time the class is settled, I sit down to my computer, and I have 2 further issues. Firstly, the attendance officer has sent me an angry email, I have not done the register yet and secondly, the students who got to my lesson on time and avoided the earlier disruption are finished, smiling at me waiting while Freddie is STILL LOGGING ON!?!?! Time to do the register… why did I become a teacher?
If you are still reading and have ever felt this way, know that you are not alone! But how can we solve this? Well, there is no “one size fits all” approach (isn’t that teaching in a nutshell?). But I found some work arounds that can work depending on the class. Firstly, you can try the “wait” approach. This one is a bit harsh – a student comes to you with a login issue, or any other issue and you tell them “Ok Sam, let me get the lesson started and I will be over, take your seat and wait there silently for a minute”. I must be honest; this is my most used substitute. It means that 1 or 2 students may be left out of the task temporarily for the greater good of the routine. It means that Freddie does not get that chance to get out of his seat by taking advantage of my diverted attention and overall, my lesson is so much calmer, and the learning environment improves for a small sacrifice. Harsh? A little, but you can extend this to say, “Once you have sat down Sam, look at the question on the board and form an answer in your head silently, I will be sure to ask you of your opinion first”. Hooray, Sam is no longer left out and he/she/they know what to expect when I am ready to move on. Also, by giving them this “burden” (it is not really burden, is it? But Sam probably feels that way), they are less likely to forget their password or recreate whatever infringement stopped them from doing what their peers are already doing again. Emphasis here on words like “silently” when giving instructions, if you leave any ambiguity in your instruction, that is an invitation – isn’t it?
Other solutions to this problem? To keep it short and snappy, have paper ready, create a task that doesn’t require students to log in or buddy the students who can’t start with students who have (you choose the buddy, choose wisely here!). We are teachers, be resourceful and have a backup plan for the student who is going to torpedo your starter routine. Letting students do a task on paper as a temporary measure is easy and works well but we are in a computer room, where is their work normally kept? So by introducing paper, you can guarantee it will never see the light of day again one the lesson is done which is why it is not my preference.
My thoughts on using tight starter routines are that it is like anything worth doing. It is tiring, it requires the teacher to be “on it” because they need to show the class that “I am in control here” and your presence needs to be felt around the room in equal measure. I found that if I favoured one side of the room (yes, the side with the most offenders), the other side notice this and start to take advantage of my short distance absence. However, this approach is totally worth it – the teaching after the first 10 minutes of being strict about your expectations when students walk in your door and starting calmly makes the remaining 40+ minutes of lesson much easier and more enjoyable for both teacher and student. I have also found that if a student is not in the right headspace and is not about to take your lesson seriously, this approach to start routines is going to make them stand out like a pumpkin at the top of a Christmas tree. You can then deal with this based on the school behaviour policy, but the best way is to offer that student some time outside without consequence to relax, breathe and then try again when they are ready – cap this at 5 mins though, hopefully I don’t have to explain why.
Finally, a quick note on my earlier point – the late students. Firstly, in our CPD, we were more or less told to shout at these students after telling them to wait outside the door. If you are pondering as to why, I did too – we should do this so that the students inside know you mean business basically. What do I think? I have mixed opinions on this but here is that phrase again – there is not a “one size fits all approach”. Ok, so it’s Freddie again, he is regularly late and this time he has bought other students with him who is also late. Last time it was just Freddie I shouted at him yet rather than deter him, the issue has multiplied, and he has bought Jack – time to shout even louder – or not. Don’t get me wrong, you need show the class you are in control but there is a time and a place so do not do this at all times. My advice is knowing your class and your students. If a student wants an audience and being late gives them one – what is going to happen when you shout? In fact, let’s build a stage with a side costume/green room at the doorway to enhance and complete the performance about to take place. See my point? I do not like this approach and do not use it at all now. Read on if you want an alternative.
Firstly, send the late student(s) outside of what should now be your closed door (closed door = late. Do this as it sends a message to those who are late), do not let them in until you have done the register (which you should be doing after students are calm and have started working already). Then, let the starter task carry on but go outside, keep the door open but talk calmly and loudly so that the class inside can hear you. Inform the student that they are late but do not ask them why. Instead, inform them that they can explain it to you at the next break/lunch/after school period and are expected to come and do this, you will then make a judgement. Inform them also that failure to do this will result in escalating punishments (a formal DT etc.). Something like “Freddie, you are late. You need to come here at lunch time to discuss this so that we can start the lesson without any further disruption, we will discuss your lateness then, do you understand? Good, do you need me to write you a note, so that you do not forget? Great, if you fail to turn up, I will mark this down as a lateness and follow it up with an escalation of the sanction, do not forget because I will not.”. What did I just do? Well, there is no discussion! The class have also just seen the consequence of being late and there was no fight/argument. What is that I hear you thinking? “If I do that I can already here Freddie now – ‘it was not my fault sir, I got held back by Mr. Smith, you can ask him'”, or something to that effect. Well, that might just happen. Calmly remind the student that they haven’t been punished yet but due to their lateness learning is being impacted. Inform them that the most important thing right now is their learning and that you do not want their lateness to further prohibit learning of others or themselves and that if they come back at the start of the next “pause” in the day, providing their excuse is reasonable and you can verify the truth, they can go straight back out but failure to follow this simple and respectful rule will result in consequences. The final piece in the jigsaw is that you need to follow up any excuse in front of them when they come back. It looks like this once they have given you their excuse: “You were with Mr. Smith? Fantastic, I shall email him right now and if he says you are telling the truth that will be the end of it. But if he tells me that you are not telling the truth, I will escalate this beyond keeping you back now for the time you were late, are you happy for me to send this email?”. Make sure you write the email in front of them. 9 times out of 10, you will not even need to send that email.
In summary, have these in place BEFORE things escalate. I have been in that situation when I am floundering and feel out of control. Always have a plan and where you can, stick to it. If it is not working, try something new. I am in my 3rd year of teaching, and this is something that I am still tweaking and perfecting. My final thought is – be respectful. Kids want to be treated like adults and if you turned up to work late, you would want to be heard. Hear them out, they are still kids, and we forget sometimes but give them the respect of both child and adult and it should improve your relationship and their learning.
RNOS 