My students will not stop talking even after I give them the non-verbal and verbal cues.  They arrive to class late nearly every day.   They ask to use the restroom while I am lecturing. They do not pay attention and are always looking around the room to catch the eye of any other student who is not paying attention.  They are consistently off task during lab activities.  They are constantly putting each other down or making fun of each other.

Has this ever happened to you? If so, I would like to reassure you that you are not alone. I would like to tell you that this only happened in my first few years of teaching and then never again for the next 28 years. I would like to tell you that, but I can’t.   Unfortunately, the above paragraph accurately describes one of my high school classes THIS YEAR!

But wait… are you thinking “This woman writes a blog about classroom management.  She should not have problems like the rest of us!”  I am here to inform you that no matter how long you have been teaching and no matter how well-behaved your classes have been – a wild class is inevitable now and then.  The difference is…it does not have to stay that way.

I will be the first to admit that this class took me by surprise. I have proven my methods of classroom management over the years and have tweaked them here and there and I feel pretty confident in them.  However, every once in a while, you need to find new tools outside of the trusty ones in your toolbox.

I cannot believe that I will actually be sad in three weeks when school is over and I will not see this class again.  I would not have said that in October of this year! Although we had a bumpy start – and several more bumps throughout the fall – I can honestly say that I have gotten to know these students and have formed a relationship with them.  It took me longer with them than it takes me with other classes, but we eventually got there. As I have stated before, if your class is in chaos, you cannot get to know your students (especially the quiet ones).

So, in the spirit of total transparency, I will list for you my failures and how I turned them in to successes. (Or in some cases, turned them in to lesser failures)

1.  Beginning of class:

If you have been reading my blog posts, you should know that I am a big proponent of non-verbal cues.  I close the door when class is ready to begin.  I have a few students each year that need some extra encouragement to learn this rule, but after the first week, my class begins smoothly.  Until this year!

Oh, they learned to get quiet when I closed the door and then within 30 seconds, they were talking again.  This was definitely a class of “blurters”.  You know…the students who just blurt out the first thing that pops into their heads. And if you have had a “blurter”, then you know they are dangerous.  They have not thought about what comes out of their mouths and so often it is inappropriate or demeaning. I have had a class with a “blurter” before, however, this was my first time to have a class with 7 “blurters”.  When I would get one under control, 3 more would be spewing nonsense. It was maddening. 

Although I teach high school, I began to write names on the board.  When they received three strikes, they lost their lab privilege for that week.  They would complete a book assignment rather than the hands on activity.  This has always worked for me.  Until this year. Actually, I am being too hard on myself.  This worked for 2 of my “blurters”.  Two down, Five to go.

2.  Lecture time:

I kept the name on the board method, but this time at three strikes, they were immediately sent out of my classroom with an assignment.  They also had to talk to our Student Life team, which would be our version of a vice-principal, or the administrator that is in charge of behavioral issues.

This worked well for two more, which left me with three remaining “blurters”. 

Now let me interject that while I was trying these forms of discipline, I reverted to a form of teaching of which I am not fond: the PowerPoint presentation.  I have been in classes where Powerpoint works well, it just is not my first choice for lecture.  I love the dynamics of a lecture such that if a student asks a really good question, I will travel down that path even if that was not where I had that topic in my lecture notes.  I pace around the room while I am talking and I ask a lot of questions during this time.  I find it engages the students and keeps them interested. But not this year.

I resorted to Powerpoint so that I could be in the back of the room and keep an eye and ear on my class.  I would divide my time standing near the potential blurters. I just needed 3 of me. Whatever student that I was standing next to was on task, but two more were off task and talking.  It was common for one or more students to get 2 strikes within the first 10 minutes of class.

Now let me give you this word of caution: if you use this strike method, you must be consistent. It is easy to ignore a comment or two so that you can have a flow to your lesson, however, often the noise will just continue to increase.  Other students will begin to join in and then you have to put half of the class’s names on the board. If you use this method it means sometimes you will have to focus more on behavior than on the content – which is frustrating – but it will be worth it in the end.

3. Lab activities:

If you engage in group work, you know that this can be an incredibly valuable time or 3o minutes of chaos and confusion.  I have a post about this (click here).  However, group work for kids that blurt out everything is really difficult for the teacher and the students who are grouped with them.  Considering I had 7 “blurters”, every group had at least one.  This was a time where it was easier to get away with bad behavior because everyone was moving about and talking.  It was common for one or more of them to lose their lab privilege during lab and either complete a book assignment or be sent out (depending on their level of inappropriate behavior).

I thought I had things fairly under control, until we returned from Christmas Break.  It was as if the first four months had never happened and I reached a low point in my career: a quiet student went to our guidance counselor and asked to move to an online class for my subject.  Her reason? The poor behavior of so many members of the class.  I knew something had to be done, so after a good long cry of humiliation and defeat, I picked myself up, wiped my tears and formed a plan.

If you want to know what happened next…get ready for Part II in two weeks! (Spoiler alert: This is the part where relationships are formed!)

In the meantime, I would love to hear from you if this has been a tough year.  Do not worry if you were not able to turn it around this year. Hopefully you will find some useful things from this blog and other teacher mentors. Learn from this past year and then hopefully you will feel equipped to begin again next year (after a much-deserved 3 month break, of course!)