Relationship vs. Discipline

Students are actually requesting new blog posts!

This illustrates my greatest strength, as well as the largest obstacle of my teaching career. I excel at building positive, encouraging relationships with my students. Even students who do not do well in my classes will often come to me for support, even after they have moved on; some even after they have graduated high school.

My students this year have become so comfortable with me that they have set aside the proper classroom decorum of respect for teacher and learning environment in favor of a casual environment that often distracts from the appointed topic. Although I have turned all of the desks to be forward-facing, I have been trying to continue with the boys separate from girls experiment. Changes need to take place however. The learning environment is more important than the experiment.

I’m not saying the experiment is unsuccessful. In fact, the separation has proven valuable, but I am beginning to think that the key to keeping students engaged is to keep them distracted. Regular change is the theme of the day.

Movin Around – My Turn!

As if to test my theory, the boys were particularly talkative today. In response, I decided to teach from the back of the room. It was a review day and there is a board in the back of the room as well. Suddenly, the boys groups were eager to participate in answering and asking questions. On the other hand, the girls in the front of the room commenced talking and chatting off topic within their groups. I am reminded that teaching is an ACTIVE profession and that we have to keep moving in order to keep up with our students.

Movin Around

The question was asked if the position of my groups within my room might make a difference. So, I moved them around. I didn’t change the groups, just moved the locations. Here’s what I have learned in the first week.

Proximity to the teacher, not the front of the room, determines the participation level of the students. When I teach from the front of the room, the students in the front tend to answer more questions, but when I teach from the back or center of the room (a luxury afforded me by the magic of powerpoint and a remote control) the students in the group I am closest to answer more questions and get more involved in the discussion.

Boys are generally, but not exclusively, more difficult to manage. The talking level of the boys has increased significantly since moving them to the back of the room. I still spend much of my time in the front of the class and the talking in the back is greater than when the girls were back there. It quiets down when I stand back there, but I can’t be there all the time. The girls talked quite a bit when they were back there, but it was not as much as the boys.

I told the students today that I needed 36 front row seats and I would just set them in a semi-circle, but I don’t think that will happen. Realistically, I think I should put the boys in the front, where I am most of the time, but teach from the center of the room where I can influence the most students at once. I can continue to use the powerpoint and remote so that I can be close to the students, but still use the board frequently as well.