Beginning Teacher Series: Managing Messy Moments

The school year moves along, you think you have a handle on the next math lesson, but the behavior of your students is exhausting. You wonder if you will make it as a teacher after this year.  Sometimes you wonder about tomorrow!  Why is it that other classes seem to know how to behave and your class management feels like a disaster? 

Across the hall, you notice a teacher recommended by the principal as a "master teacher".  You can see her students quietly moving through the hall from her always-open door.  Her class seems to know how to behave automatically.  When you peeked in to ask her a question, students were quietly getting out materials, passing each other with friendly smiles and were ready when the teacher began.  You might wonder how she got such a nice group of kids!

Your students however, are boisterous, chatting with each other and even seem to get larger as they move around the room.  This morning you saw two children wrestling by the coat rack as they tried to put away their things.  Soon, papers fell to the ground and children were upset when they bumped into one and accused him of stomping on their papers.  You found yourself asking for their attention repeatedly.  Each time your students settle down between lessons, another chunk of time has passed.

As a beginning teacher, I was like you.  I worked hard to create a beautiful environment, to prepare differentiated lessons and to get to know my students, but student behavior was exhausting to me and using up alot of our time.  It was as if a disaster occurred in between each segment of our day. After school, when piles of papers loomed and the only air left in the room was exhale, I wondered if I was really meant to be a teacher.  Then, I finally asked myself how I could take charge and mange the transitions.

I have since learned to approach transitions as I do lessons, with planning, practice and praise.  I try to look at each small part of the day and analyze it in order to make a new plan for those messy moments.  I observe other teacher s to get ideas.  Then I spend a lot of time teaching the new behaviors.  In short, at the beginning of the year, I teach a plan for each part of the day, including transitions, until routines are firmly established. Throughout the year, I need to continue to give children occasional positive feedback for as long as I want the new behavior to thrive.  It is well worth the time to observe other teachers, and then to go back and ask them about what you saw and how they made it happen.  Don't be afraid to ask for someone to teach your class so you can observe a variety of other teachers.  During your observations, look for students who are both on- and off-task during transitions.  Ask yourself such questions as:

• What is the teacher's expectation for student behavior during this transition?
• How does the teacher get the students' attention?
• What is the back-up plan when students misbehave?

Teaching is not guesswork but it is not like following a cookbook either.  I wish it were! You own teaching style and the needs of your students provide variables that impact and actually help to formulate your plan.  Endless resources are available for ideas on managing behavior and your peers are available for feedback and as models.  Using these resources, you have the ability to plan and create your own solutions.  You won't be able to perfect all the pieces of the day at once, but be patient. 

• Plan: Take the time to notice patterns that are interfering with learning or wasting time. Identify the problems you want to address and what you want your end product to look like.
• Practice: Set aside time to carefully model the new routine. Have a few children model it through role-play, and then incorporate the whole class into the new routine. Ask them to evaluate their efforts: what does this behavior need to look like to be excellent? What will it sound like? Practice, practice, practice!
• Praise: Respond as you notice children achieving the goals of their new routine. In this way you will be "feeding" the routine and helping it become a natural part of the classroom behaviors.

I decided that the transition time between reading and math was driving me crazy.  To prepare for teaching the students a new plan, I thought about an idea I got from another teacher who used rubrics to help student monitor their own behavior. I knew I wanted to include three key ingredients in the rubric:  How students would move during the transition, the volume of their voices, and how much time it would take.  I asked students to tell me what a really good transition would look like.  We wrote that on chart paper.

Then, we listed what a great transition would sound like. To practice our new behaviors, I picked two students to model how to put away their books according to our new chart, to use "walking feet" instead of running, use quiet voices, and be ready for math.  We compared their behavior to our chart reflected a score of "3".  Students were eager to know how to earn a "4"!  So, we talked about observing each other's body space as we moved respectfully around the room and practiced that.  I was impressed with their interest in the new plan as we completed the rubric.  But, the next day's transitions did not go as smoothly as the practices had.  I had hoped they had all learned the new skill and could just use it so I could go onto teaching the math lesson, but my students quickly showed me that frequent input was necessary during the training period. I needed to re-teach the lesson, model it, and practice it several times over the first weeks.  In fact, in order to keep the new system going, I needed to continue to reinforce the behavior of people who were quickly ready for the next lesson, and what THAT should look like.  Eventually, my students gained the ability to manage their own behaviors during transition times.

This small success over transition time behavior was a big step toward my own job satisfaction.

It is probably not surprising to you that 25% of new teachers will not remain in teaching in five years since you know the frustrations of managing student behavior.  Excellent teachers can prepare and deliver well-crafted lessons in rich environments, but behavior issues can still waste time and distract learners. To manage those messy moments, you can plan, prepare and practice with your students to give them structures for their transition behaviors.  Soon, when you look at your students at the end of the day, it will appear as if YOUR class automatically knows how to behave.