Classroom Confidential: The 12 Secrets of Great Teachers

Chapter 3 - Great Teachers are Ringmasters: Nurturing Free-Range Students in a High-Stakes World

What have I learned about behavior from reading this chapter?

Schmidt explains that all behavior is motivated by one of two basic instincts:

1. To seek pleasure.
2. To avoid pain.

Further, she writes: "To drive for pleasure may not be apparent at first glance, since most classrooms are stark affairs with very few amenities. To most observers, pleasure doesn't live here. But the pleasure that free-range kids are seeking comes from being able to fit in by doing what the teacher expects - what other kids seem to do with ease. They employ odd, even annoying behaviors, in the hope that they, too, can experience satisfaction, recognition, and maybe even garner a little praise. They're making self-accommodations to gain their share of school's simple pleasures" (45-46). 

I have never looked at student behavior in this light before. While I believe that all students try to find their place in a teacher's life, I never took into account that students might act out to do so. Over the past six weeks that I've spent in the classroom, I've really gotten a taste of classroom management (and how lacking my skills are in it). But everyday, I take what I can from the teachers at Northwood by observing their behavior strategies and testing out the ones I feel would work for me. Here are two things I've tried with my students:

• Paperclips - I have a handful of students who talk excessively during each class period. In this situation, I have placed 3 paperclips on an index card and put it on a student's desk. Throughout the period, when this student talks, I walk over to his (or her) desk and remove one paperclip. By doing this silently, two things happen. First, the student knows that he has been talking when he shouldn't have. And second, I do not have to call this student out in front of the entire class. If the student has any paperclips left at the end of the period, I give him Pride dollars. But if the student doesn't have any paperclips left at the end of the period, he will receive a 30 minute detention with me either before or after school. Whenever I give the index cards out, I have no trouble with my students talking in class.
• Silence - Rather than trying to shout time and time again over my students, I simply stop talking when they are talking. The students soon see what is happening and quiet down. If this happens a couple of times, some of the students even grow annoyed with all of the talking and tell each other to quiet down. I tell students that I have all the time in the world to wait. While this is not 100% true, I do have an entire semester to teach the students what they need to know. 

I find that both strategies work, but I am in no way comfortable with managing students on my own. I intend to learn more about student behavior every day that I am in the classroom.