Managing Behavior

I always thought that the hallmark of a great sermon was that you left church feeling like the preacher was speaking to you directly. When a message resonates with your daily life or a struggle you are going through, the message feels personal despite that fact that it was given to a large audience. I'm going to attempt that today, so if something resonates with you, then know that I may have had you in mind, or maybe I never knew that you needed it. Either way, I hope it helps.

I've had classroom management on my mind a lot lately. Somewhat because we put it on our School Improvement Plan and somewhat because I have worked with some teachers in efforts to improve a situation. I've seen some validation in the concerns that were voiced in last year's Teacher Working Conditions Survey and it's popped up in some strange places. Places I didn't expect to be perfectly honest. At the heart of each issue was a teacher with good intentions. They were working to get a student, a group or a class in line and were not being effective. That ineffectiveness comes out in strange ways. You can see frustration, anxiety, anger, sadness and sometimes apathy on the face of a teacher when they know something isn't really working. We raise our voices, change our language, insert sarcasm or just give up. None of that works though.

Teaching is a strange job. We tell teachers to build relationships with students. Sometimes those relationships are as close a family for both parties. In that, we forget that this is a job. It's business. But in our business transactions, we take things personally. When we invest in a person and they let us down, it's hard not to feel that way. At the moment, it's difficult to separate yourself from those feelings. But we have to.

I could use this paragraph to reference professionalism or teacher leadership as the reason why we cannot show that frustration and all of that is true. But greater than that is the fact that these children rely on us as examples of how to act. Through our actions, we either entitle them to continue negative behaviors or stand as a consistent example of what good adults do. Whether you demonstrate professionalism or lose your cool, you model behavior the exact same way you model a problem on the board. The "I'm the adult and you're the student" excuse for differing rules and expectations doesn't work, especially in high school. Not all of our students come equipped with examples in their homes of how to behave or how to act in the presence of frustration in their lives. And while we never took a class on that in college, it's our job to teach it. If we are successful, it's probably much more important than anything in our curriculum.

So if today's message spoke to you in any way, then use it to reflect on your priorities as an educator. It's not an indictment and I'm not calling anyone out. Trust me, we're all in good company. If you need help, then that's what I'm here for, along with Mrs. Willis, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Simms. That's also what your colleagues are for. There is no silver bullet in managing student conduct. But there is help and support for when you feel like you need it.